Leopards’ loss to Quips ‘devastating’
Belle Vernon did plenty of good things early in the game and again late, but Aliquippa dominated the middle and that carried the Quips to a 33-25 victory over the Leopards in a WPIAL Class 4A semifinal game Friday night.
Top-seeded Aliquippa (9-0) wiped away a 13-point second-quarter deficit by scoring 26 unanswered points. The Quips will play second-seeded Thomas Jefferson in the WPIAL title game next Saturday. Thomas Jefferson held off Plum, 20-17, in the other semifinal.
It will be Aliquippa鈥檚 13th consecutive appearance in the WPIAL finals.
The fourth-seeded Leopards were seeking a second straight trip to the championship game and coach Matt Humbert was confident his team could get back there and win it.
鈥淲e felt great going in,鈥� Humbert said. 鈥淓ven with losing our starting free safety and tailback, we still felt we were on really good footing.
鈥淭he best way to catalog the loss was that it was devastating to us because we did feel this was our year. We wanted to get back in that game (WPIAL final) and to play TJ again. I felt terrible for our kids and our coaches.鈥�
Belle Vernon (6-2) started quickly, scoring on the game鈥檚 second offensive play, and leading 13-0 in the first quarter and 19-7 in the second quarter.
鈥淲e scored twice right off the bat, and then we had a wide open receiver and didn鈥檛 complete that pass,鈥� Humbert said. 鈥淭hat would鈥檝e put us up right there with 19-20 points and maybe the outcome would鈥檝e been different.鈥�
Two short touchdown runs by Karl McBride, one set up by Belle Vernon quarterback Devon Whitlock鈥檚 fumble, gave Aliquippa a 20-19 halftime lead.
鈥淒evin is what makes the machine roll, we wouldn鈥檛 be here without him,鈥� Humbert said. 鈥淗e had a nice little run for a first down and he got wrapped up and fumbled, and they scored off that.
鈥淭he key was us making mistakes. We made mistakes in the kicking game, we made mistakes defensively, we made mistakes offensively. I鈥檓 to blame, too. I wear this loss as much as anybody does.
鈥淚鈥檓 not trying to downplay Aliquippa. The idea that they鈥檙e a Single-A team, you can throw that out the window because they鈥檙e a solid football program and anyone who knows anything about high school football around here realizes that.鈥�
Vaughn Morris passed 26 yards to Dorius Moreland to make it 27-19 in the third quarter. Morris completed 13-of-27 passes for 214 yards.
Humbert tipped his hat to Aliquippa鈥檚 coaching staff.
鈥淭hey like to run the ball with the tight ends-fullback set. We felt like we really matched up well against that,鈥� Humbert said. 鈥淭hen they came out in two-by-two and spread and threw the ball a majority of the time. We knew they could throw, but we weren鈥檛 expecting that was going to be their game plan.
鈥淜udos for them for realizing they probably would鈥檝e had a hard time running the ball on us and deviating from that.鈥�
Vernon Redd bolted 17 yards off left tackle in the fourth quarter to give the Quips a 33-19 advantage with 6:27 remaining.
Whitlock, who scored three touchdowns, rambled 39 yards for a score that pulled the Leopards to within 33-25 with 4:32 remaining. Aliquippa, however, was able to run out the clock.
Belle Vernon took a 6-0 lead only two plays into the game when freshman Quinton Martin raced 47 yards for a touchdown. Martin also had two interceptions on defense.
Whitlock gave Belle Vernon a 13-0 lead when he returned an Aliquippa punt 64 yards for a touchdown with 2:53 left in the first quarter. Whitlock finished with 151 yards rushing on 24 carries.
Aliquippa finally scored when Morris scrambled 12 yards for a touchdown in the first minute of the second quarter.
After the ensuing kickoff, Whitlock bolted 76 yards to the Aliquippa 3-yard line. He scored on the next play to give the Leopards a 19-7 lead, but Belle Vernon would not score again for more than 30 minutes of game time as turnovers proved costly.
McBride put the Quips in front with TD runs of two and three yards.
Belle Vernon blocked an Aliquippa punt in the third quarter and Martin returned his second interception to the Quips鈥� 40 early in the fourth quarter. However, the Leopards were unable to convert either of those big plays into points.
鈥淲e didn鈥檛 take advantage of opportunities,鈥� Humbert said. 鈥淲e were able to get three turnovers. It really came down to we didn鈥檛 score one touchdown off those turnovers.鈥�
While Belle Vernon proved it was on a par with the Quips, that didn鈥檛 make the result any easier for Humbert and his squad to swallow.
鈥淭his is one of the toughest losses that I, personally, have had to deal with because I was just so confident in our kids,鈥� Humbert said. 鈥淭hat game could鈥檝e went either way and when you lose a close one like that 鈥� that鈥檚 a tough one to deal with.鈥�
It was Humbert鈥檚 and his players鈥� first trip to Carl A. Aschman Stadium, a grass field known affectionately as 鈥淭he Pit.鈥�
鈥淭he field conditions weren鈥檛 great, but they weren鈥檛 terrible,鈥� Humbert said. 鈥淚t was worth being able to play in that type of atmosphere. The best way to explain it is it鈥檚 like if you walked back into 1920. I don鈥檛 mean that in a negative way at all. It was cool. It was awesome. I felt the kids really enjoyed playing there.鈥�
Although he鈥檚 reluctant to turn the page, Humbert did admit the Leopards鈥� program is on stable ground and has high hopes again for 2021.
鈥淚 guess the remedy is just looking at next year,鈥� Humbert said. 鈥淭he nice thing is we return a lot of kids. Our entire linebacking corps with the exception of one player comes back. With Quinton there now we鈥檒l have three returning starters in the secondary. O-line-wise we鈥檝e got three guys back, and all but one of our receivers is back.
鈥淲e鈥檝e also got a large underclassmen group coming up that really has everything. We鈥檝e got linebackers, receivers, quarterbacks, linemen. If we can expediate the learning curve with the young kids, I think we鈥檙e going to be solid.鈥�
The great strides Martin has made in his freshman year gives Belle Vernon a second dangerous weapon in addition to Whitlock next year.
鈥淨uinton was our tailback in our spread stuff and he started at receiver for us. But when Dane Anden got hurt, we pushed him into that (starting tailback) role and he did real well in the three games Dane wasn鈥檛 there. He鈥檚 a kid who has a ton of upside. It鈥檚 nice to have Devin but it鈥檚 nice to have Quinton as a complementary asset, as well.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 something to look forward to. But it still doesn鈥檛 cloud the fact that we thought this was the year for us to finally get that WPIAL title, and maybe even a little bit more.鈥�
(Rob Burchianti contributed to this story.)