Fine lines will be key for South Fayette
It has been dark outside for about three hours when South Fayette High School’s Joe Rossi finally turns the light out to the coach’s office at 8 p.m. to go home for the night.
Trying to digest every little detail from what turns out to be a 12-hour day of film study, practice, planning and more film, Rossi knows one characteristic about Thomas Jefferson, the Lions’ opponent Saturday in the WPIAL Class 4A championship game.
“You can tell they finish blocks like no other team we’ve faced,” Rossi said about the traditional power. “They take pride in getting people to the ground and playing a smashmouth style of football. That’s their pride.”
Kickoff is 5 p.m. at Heinz Field.
The big, bruising offensive line for top-seeded Thomas Jefferson (11-0) has been running over teams en route to what it hopes will be a fourth consecutive WPIAL championship. The Jaguars would be the third team to win four in a row without a tie, joining Braddock in the 1950s and Clairton from 2008 to 2012.
In two playoff games leading up to the finals, Thomas Jefferson has imposed its will on opponents. Its balanced offense has only needed to hand off the football to be productive, running for 599 yards and nine touchdowns. In only the last four games, running back Max Shaw has racked up video-game numbers with 1,039 yards and 16 TDs.
Shaw has eclipsed 220 yards in each of the last four games.
“You aren’t going to stop them, you just have to try to limit them,” Rossi said. “You can’t give up the home run. We have to force them to drive the football. To have an eight- to 10-play drive in high school football is hard to do, but they can do it.”
It’s the second consecutive week South Fayette (11-1) will play against offensive and defensive lines much bigger than the Lions’ front. South Fayette, however, controlled the line of scrimmage last week against Belle Vernon in a 28-10 semifinal victory, limiting the Leopards’ standout running back Mason Pascoe to less than 100 yards.
South Fayette’s offensive and defensive lines have gelled since its 34-33 loss to Upper St. Clair to open the season, a defeat that ended the Lions’ 57-game regular-season winning streak.
“We had not started a season 0-1 in a very long time,” said three-year starter Tom Elia, a Richmond recruit. “We knew what we had to do to get better. We had a different mindset on the season. That loss, honestly, motivated us to get to where we needed to be.”
This will be the first time the Lions have been to Heinz Field since 2015 when it lost to Aliquippa in the Class AA title game. The last two seasons came to an end when the Lions lost to teams they defeated in the regular season, a first-round upset to New Castle in 2016 and a semifinal loss against Montour in 2017.
“I knew throughout the season, and even starting in January, we had that chip on our shoulder,” said Ben Coyne, a two-way starter at offensive tackle and defensive end. “That loss (to USC) sent a shock throughout our whole team and showed us that we had our problems. We were not perfect and had to get better. I thought throughout the season we have really came together and relied on one another to get the job done.”
The offensive line, which also features senior Eamon Horowitz and juniors Quentin Franklin and Dominick Thomas, who recently picked up an offer from Howard University, has kept quarterback Jamie Diven upright for the last seven weeks, allowing one sack in the Lions’ pass-happy offense.
South Fayette has surrendered 10 points per game, giving up on average of only 139 yards and seven first downs. The Lions have limited oppnents’ rushing attacks to less than four yards per carry.
“We’ve gone against really good lines all year,” Coyne said. “We’re ready for anything they throw at us. It doesn’t matter who the opponent is on the other side. As long as we are focused on ourselves and we what we are taught, we can get the job done. This is a whole different mentality this week. We’re definitely ready.”