Dec 2, 2022 4 min read

EBENSBURG – All season, people have spoken about how Belle Vernon’s football team would go only as far as Quinton Martin would take the Leopards.

Friday night, Central (Martinsburg) did everything in its power to shut Martin down, but it was junior quarterback Braden Laux and senior defensive back Chase Ruokonen who were the difference in Belle Vernon’s 21-17 come-from-behind win in a PIAA Class 3A semifinal at Central Cambria High School.

The Leopards will play for their first state championship game next weekend.

Laux finished with 136 rushing yards on 13 carries and a pair of touchdowns, from 42 and three yards, and Ruokonen recovered a fumble and had a key interception, both on Central drives in Belle Vernon territory.

“They are as good as advertised and can stress a defense out six ways to Sunday,” Belle Vernon coach Matt Humbert said of the Dragons. “They were dedicating, two, three, heck, whenever we motioned Quinton out of the backfield, there were four guys on him. They focused so much on Quinton and Braden did what he had to do.

“We did what we had to do to win, and now we are playing for a state title.”

Trying to keep the ball from Martin on the opening kickoff, the Dragons kicked short and it backfired.

Anthony Crews took the kick and returned it 69 yards for a touchdown to give the Leopards the lead 10 seconds into the game.

After forcing a Central punt on the Dragons’ first possession, Laux raced 42 yards to give the Leopards a 14-0 with 7:29 to go in the first quarter.

Unfortunately for the Leopards, the rest of the half belonged to the Dragons.

Central quarterback Jeff Hoenstine, the state’s all-time leader in touchdown passes, led the Dragons down the field on their next drive and hit Shalen Yingling with a 21-yard TD pass on 4th-and-10 to make the score 14-7.

After forcing a Belle Vernon punt, Central tied the score when Hoenstine raced for a 30-yard touchdown, and the Dragons took a 17-14 lead on the last play of the first half when Hunter Smith made a 28-yard field goal.

In the first half, Central gained 223 yards on 33 plays while limiting the Leopards to 66 yards on 14 plays, and minus Laux’s touchdown run, Belle Vernon had 24 yards on 13 plays. The Leopards netted only three yards of offense in the second quarter.

At halftime, Belle Vernon defensive coordinator Brett Berish and his staff made adjustments and held the Dragons scoreless the rest of the way.

“We got the right personnel on the field between our four-down and three-down fronts,” he said. “The coaches made great adjustments, Mike Steeber notably. I am really proud of the coaches and the players.

“I will tell you this. That is the best quarterback in my 30 years of coaching football I have ever seen. He threw for 10,000 yards over his career.”

Hoenstine completed 19 of his 37 pass attempts for 230 yards and hit five different receivers with passes.

Laux scored the game-winning touchdown from three yards with 2:52 left in the third quarter, and he made the same read on both touchdowns.

“(Jake) Gedekoh made an amazing play fake on both touchdowns, and I read the defensive end,” the 6-5 quarterback said. “This is amazing. We have never done this before.”

To clinch the win, Belle Vernon had to make one last stop in the closing minutes in the red zone. It held the Dragons on downs and secured its state championship game berth next Saturday at Cumberland Valley High School in Mechanicsburg.

“The storyline all year has been defense and how better fitting to punctuate a trip to the state championship than with another solid defensive performance,” Humbert said.

Twice, Ruokonen stalled Central drives in Leopards territory with takeaways. He recovered a Hoenstine fumble in the second quarter and intercepted a pass early in the fourth.

“I saw the fumble on the ground, and I fell on it,” he said. “The interception, I saw the receiver’s eyes and as he was about to catch it, I put my hands in there and ripped it away.”

Martin was limited to only 23 yards on six carries, but after the game, he was excited to talk about his teammates and what they did.

“They bracketed me on the wide side of the field, but Jake, Braden and Chase stepped up and I have complete faith in them,” Martin said with a smile. “I trust them, and I am very proud of them.

“This team, we were rusty and down at the half, but we came out and won.”

Belle Vernon finished with 202 yards of offense on only 29 plays while Central had 368 yards on 63 plays.