Aliquippa's Maurice Carter rushed for three touchdowns, and quarterback Rasheem Jones threw for 220 yards to lead the Quips to a 27-14 victory over Shady Side Academy in the WPIAL Class AA semifinal at Seneca Valley. The victory puts Aliquippa in the WPIAL championship for the 19th time in the school's history. Aliquippa has won 12 WPIAL championships.
Coming into the game, Shady Side Academy (11-1) had a stingy defense, with seven shutouts, and an overwhelming offense that had scored at least 35 points seven times this season. But it was Aliquippa (10-2) that took control early, so much so that Shady Side managed just five plays on offense in the first quarter. While the Quips dominated the clock, they did not dominate the scoreboard.
"We hit a big pass on both of those long drives, but we are a pretty diverse offense," Aliquippa head coach Mike Zmijanac said. "The key, though, was stopping them early."
Shady Side Academy head coach Dave Havern concurred with Zmijanac's assessment.
"We felt that playing a team like this, we had to get up on them early," Havern said. "They shut us down. My hat is off to them. They just beat us. They are an experienced team, and we are here for the first time."
Carter rushed for 129 yards on 21 attempts, and Jones, who did not attempt a pass in the second half, completed 8-of-13 passes. Billy Nickel completed 3-of-10 passes for 62 yards for Shady Side, and Brian Nickel led the Indians with 59 yards and a touchdown on 16 carries.
Aliquippa's first drive did not produce a score, but it did keep the Indians' offense on the sideline. After an Aliquippa punt, Shady Side managed just three yards on offense and was forced to punt. The Indians nearly busted a huge play on first down, but Billy Nickel's pass to a wide-open Montgomery Pooley at the Quips' 40-yard line was overthrown.
Aliquippa then answered with the game's first scoring drive. This one consumed 95 yards, but took just eight plays. The key play on the drive was a 22-yard third-down reception by Maurice Carter to pull the Quips out of the shadow of the end zone. On the next play, Rasheem Jones connected with Rashad Kenney for a 51-yard completion that put the ball deep in Shady Side territory.
On the play, Shady Side's Caleb Wilson misjudged his jump at the ball and Kenney then had a free shot at the reception inside the Shady Side 20-yard line. Four plays later, Carter scored on an 8-yard run.
Shady Side had an opportunity to answer the score, but with the ball at the Aliquippa 38, the Indians went backwards. First was a 5-yard penalty, followed by a holding penalty that wiped out a Roman Sandoval run that was close to a first down. Three plays later, Shady Side punted, and once again, the Quips were backed up from their own 5-yard line.
On second down, Jones executed a perfect play-action fake and flicked a pass to Jerriel Goosby, who was all alone behind the Shady Side defense. 84 yards later, Goosby was tackled at the 6. On the next play, Carter scored his second touchdown of the game. and the Quips were off and running, or so it appeared.
Shady Side answered with an eight-play, 61-yard drive that put the Indians right back into the game. On the drive, Billy Nickel completed a key 29-yard pass to Pooley, and Brian Nickel capped things off with a 4-yard touchdown run.
Late in the second quarter, the Quips had a chance to put the game away, but Terry Patrick fumbled just outside the end zone and the ball rolled over the goal line and out of bounds for a touchback. The drive was punctuated by 54-yard completion to Kenney that put the ball at the Shady Side 1.
