South Fayette completes comeback, knocks off TJ for 4A title
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
South Fayette football players celebrate after a comeback victory over Thomas Jefferson, 31-24, to win the WPIAL Class 4A championship at Heinz Field in 2018. The two perennial powerhouses will play each other in nonconference games each of the next two seasons.
Coach Joe Rossi, right, led South Fayette’s charge to its fourth WPIAL title Saturday night.
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Eleanor Bailey/the Almanac
South Fayette’s Charley Rossi, left, had 38 catches for 613 yards and nine touchdowns last season.
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
South Fayette offensive linemen Jaelin Krocker and Ben Wright (55) knock down Thomas Jefferson’s Darius Barrett to provide protection for quarterback Jamie Diven in the WPIAL Class 4A championship game last Saturday. Diven is nearing 3,000 passing yards for the season. The Lions play Erie Cathedral Prep in the state quarterfinals tonight.
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
South Fayette’s Peyton Tinney, Mike Trimbur and Tom Elia attempt to contain Thomas Jefferson’s Max Shaw during Saturday’s WPIAL Class 4A championship game.
RayQuin Glover maneuvers his way downfield after avoiding TJ tacklers.
Shane Stump, right, reaks up a pass intended for South Fayette's Mike Trimbur in the end zone. Trimbur caught the Lions' lone TD in the first half.
Jamie Diven (17) scrambles for yardage during South Fayette's 31-24 win against Thomas Jefferson.
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
South Fayette fans give a thumbs-up during Saturday’s WPIAL Class 4A championship game at Heinz Field.
South Fayette players hoist the WPIAL trophy after beating Thomas Jefferson, 31-24, in the WPIAL Class 4Achampionship game.
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
South Fayette players in the background celebrate as Mike Trimbur crossed the goal line with his second scoring reception in the WPIAL 4A championship game against Thomas Jefferson.
PITTSBURGH – Bending over and straddling the 30-yard line, South Fayette High School football coach Joe Rossi was pushing all his chips into the middle and betting on his defensive backfield, like he did all night.
Even after senior cornerback Mike Trimbur came over and apologized three plays earlier, after giving up a 44-yard stop-and-go route to put Thomas Jefferson in the red zone, Rossi was betting on his guys over the Jaguars.
In man-to-man coverage without safety help most of the night, Trimbur made sure Rossi’s trust was paid in full.
By sticking to the back of the TJ receiver, Trimbur tempted and then tormented Thomas Jefferson quarterback Shane Stump. Diving in front of Stump’s intended pass, the senior cornerback squeezed the football for the game-clinching interception at the Lions’ two-yard line with 47 seconds remaining to secure South Fayette’s 31-24 victory in the WPIAL Class 4A championship Saturday night at Heinz Field.
“The game was sealed. We just won a WPIAL championship,” Trimbur said. “I just sort of stuck with my guy, tried to bait (Stump) a little bit and jumped it.”
It is the fourth district championship for South Fayette (12-1) in the last nine years. The Lions will play two-time defending state champion Cathedral Prep in next week’s PIAA quarterfinals. The day, site and time has yet to be determined.
The loss for Thomas Jefferson (11-1) ended an opportunity to make history. The Jaguars were trying to become only the third team – Braddock in the 1950s and Clairton from 2008-2012 – to win four consecutive WPIAL championships. It would have tied TJ coach Bill Cherpak with West Allegheny’s Bob Palko with eight district titles.
The willingness of Rossi to remain in man coverage turned into a requirement in the second half, after the Lions trailed 21-10 at halftime as Thomas Jefferson’s standout running back Max Shaw had 114 yards and three touchdowns.
“We knew we had the advantage going into the second half,” Shaw said. “Without a doubt. We were doing what we wanted to do and controlling the clock. We just didn’t bring it in the second half and didn’t make enough plays.”
South Fayette shifted momentum in the second half with a pair of special-teams plays.
Joey Audia returned the second-half kickoff to the Jaguars’ 28-yard line. Four plays later, Andrew Franklin plunged into the end zone for a one-yard touchdown to cut the Lions’ deficit to 21-17 less than two minutes into the third quarter.
Then, with the game tied at 24-24 after a TJ field goal and 10-yard touchdown pass from Jamie Diven to Trimbur, South Fayette’s Eamon Horowitz rushed off the edge and blocked a Jaguars punt. Three plays later, Diven threaded the needle between a pair of Jaguars defenders to Charley Rossi for the go-ahead 14-yard touchdown pass with 27 seconds left in the third quarter.
“We made some plays in the second half,” Rossi said. “It was just setting the tone of us wanting to wear (Thomas Jefferson) out.”
The Lions wore out the usually dominant TJ defense by spreading the field with five wide receiver sets.
Diven finished 12 of 23 for 249 yards and three touchdowns. Trimbur had five catches for 138 yards with scores of 82 and 10 yards.
“(South Fayette) has some great skill players,” Cherpak said. “That No. 4 (Trimbur) is such a great athlete. He made a lot of plays for them. We had a really difficult time covering. That is such a tough offense to defend and they run it really well. We worked so hard on pulling back and playing coverage, because if you blitz them then you are done.”
After converting eight of its 10 third-down conversions in the first half, Thomas Jefferson only converted two times on eight chances in the third and fourth quarters.
Shaw, the workhorse tailback, finished with 40 carries for 211 yards for the Jaguars, who were outscored 21-3 in the second half.
“I trust in all of them,” Rossi said about his secondary. “We’ve gotten better each week defensively and have come together. There weren’t a lot of starters back there (to begin the year). I’m just so proud of all of them. We got a good pass rush and our secondary held up in the second half. I thought in the fourth quarter we had the energy and the momentum. We gave that away a little bit until (Trimbur) made one of the best plays in our history.”