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Football MVP: Quinton Martin, Belle Vernon

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There are times when star players make plays in the regular season and put up impressive statistics but come up short in the postseason.

Then there is Belle Vernon’s Quinton Martin.

The Belle Vernon junior scored five touchdowns in the Leopards’ Interstate Conference-clinching win at Elizabeth Forward in the regular-season finale and added 10 more scores over five postseason games to lead the Leopards to their second WPIAL football title and first PIAA championship.

Martin scored four touchdowns in Belle Vernon’s 55-7 WPIAL quarterfinal romp over East Allegheny, added two in a 42-0 semifinal shutout of Freeport and scored all three touchdowns in a 24-7 win over Avonworth in the WPIAL Class 3A championship at Acrisure Stadium.

After Belle Vernon downed Central Martinsburg 21-17 in the PIAA semifinals, Martin scored the lone offensive touchdown of the game in the Leopards’ 9-8 PIAA championship win over Neumann-Goretti.

Martin finished with 1,274 rushing yards on 149 carries (8.6 yards per attempt), scored 21 rushing touchdowns, caught 29 passes for 415 yards and seven scores and returned two punts for touchdowns.

Who knows what kind of numbers the five-star recruit would have put up had he not sat out the second half of many games because the Leopards were so far ahead. Belle Vernon won its five conference games by an average score of 50-5.

In April, Martin, a five-star recruit who is rated the top player from Pennsylvania in the Class of 2024, committed to play at Penn State.

Honorees Mark Banbury, senior, Upper St. Clair Ty Banco, senior, Trinity Aidan Besselman, senior, Upper St. Clair Colin Brady, junior, West Greene Jamaal Brown, senior, Bethel Park Kade Capristo, senior, Mt. Lebanon Chris Cibrone, senior, Peters Township Troy Falosk, senior, McGuffey Bennett Henderson, junior, Upper St. Clair Jake Kasper, senior, Canon-McMillan TyVaughn Kershaw, freshman, Monessen Eddie Lewis, sophomore, Washington Steve Macheska, senior, Belle Vernon Phillip McCuen, senior, McGuffey Brendan McCullough, senior, Peters Township Kent McMahon, senior, Canon-McMillan Jake Mele, senior, Chartiers-Houston Gavin Moul, senior, Bethel Park Ryan Petras, sophomore, Bethel Park Matt Sieg, freshman, Fort Cherry Landan Stevenson, senior. Mapletown {related_content_uuid}97b36585-1c38-41da-9b7a-8e6ad032af07{/related_content_uuid}

Mark Banbury, senior, Upper St. Clair

Ty Banco, senior, Trinity

Aidan Besselman, senior, Upper St. Clair

Colin Brady, junior, West Greene

Jamaal Brown, senior, Bethel Park

Kade Capristo, senior, Mt. Lebanon

Chris Cibrone, senior, Peters Township

Troy Falosk, senior, McGuffey

Bennett Henderson, junior, Upper St. Clair

Jake Kasper, senior, Canon-McMillan

TyVaughn Kershaw, freshman, Monessen

Eddie Lewis, sophomore, Washington

Steve Macheska, senior, Belle Vernon

Phillip McCuen, senior, McGuffey

Brendan McCullough, senior, Peters Township

Kent McMahon, senior, Canon-McMillan

Jake Mele, senior, Chartiers-Houston

Gavin Moul, senior, Bethel Park

Ryan Petras, sophomore, Bethel Park

Matt Sieg, freshman, Fort Cherry

Landan Stevenson, senior. Mapletown

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