No one had to remind Qualan Cain and Amari Jackson who was on their team’s schedule this week.
The Beaver two-way senior standouts were seeing nothing but Avonworth’s famed red and white with the Antelopes traveling to the Bobcats’ Pat Tarquinio Field Friday night for a showdown of two of WPIAL Class 3A’s hottest playoff teams.
It’s easy to understand why with Cain and Jackson suffering regular-season and WPIAL quarterfinal losses at the hands of Avonworth each of the past two seasons.
“We had a chip on our shoulder coming into the game,” said Jackson, who is a Villanova recruit. “We had doubters all week. All season, no one thought we could beat them because of the previous years. This year, we’re a new group. We’re a more improved group. Our work ethic is just different.”
Beaver proved that point and then some Friday night to wrap up its regular season.
Cain carried the football 23 times for 182 yards and a touchdown, while Jackson racked up 108 all-purpose yards and three scores of his own to lead the Bobcats to a commanding 34-14 victory against the Antelopes.
“I had to get out here and win,” Cain said. “I had to.”
Aside from entering the postseason with some major momentum, Beaver (8-2, 5-1) locked up a share of the Western Hills Conference championship with Avonworth (7-3, 5-1) and Central Valley (5-5, 5-1).
“We didn’t even talk about it this week,” said Bobcats coach Cort Rowse of his team’s conference championship. “We talked about what we had to do to be successful. Those other things come, those other things go. Now that it’s here, yeah, I’m pretty proud of these guys. We’ll celebrate this tonight and then we’ll get back in here tomorrow and we’ll get ready for where we’ve got to go next.”
Cain said he and his teammates were happy to celebrate their program’s first conference title since 2007. The Antelopes were looking to lock down their third straight conference crown.
“It was a revenge game for all of us,” he said. “We had to get that win. It’s very special to the community. It’s special to the school. It’s special in general.”
There was little doubt from the game’s opening drive as to Beaver’s intentions against Avonworth.
The Bobcats drove 70 yards in 10 plays and took a lead it would not relinquish when Jackson scored an 8-yard touchdown to give his team a 7-0 advantage.
“We called a sweep,” Jackson said. “I came around, I was going to look to cut it up because I thought they were going to play heavier on the outside, but my line did a good job containing and hooking them. I just went around the defense and got in there easy.”
After forcing a 3-and-out, Cain broke free for a 72-yard touchdown run, which made the Beaver lead 14-0 just before the end of the first quarter.
“All we needed was momentum, the line working hard, getting us in the end zone,” Cain said.
The Bobcats added 33- and 19-yard field goals by freshman kicker Ty Cosky to take a 20-0 lead into halftime.
Beaver rushed for 220 yards over the first two quarters, led by 132 yards from Cain, while holding the Antelopes to just 35 yards of total offense during that same span.
“I don’t think our offensive line gets enough credit,” Rowse said. “These guys have been starting together, I think this was their 20th game together as a unit. They were all first-year starters last year. I told them before the game, ‘They win the game.’
“I challenged those five,” he added. “I knew they’d respond. These guys have done this for us for two years now.”
Jackson would then catch a 37-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Travis Clear to make the Beaver lead 27-0 with 9:24 left in the third quarter.
Clear completed 11 passes for 146 yards. He completed six passes for 39 yards to Brady Mayo, while also finding Jackson three times for 74 yards.
“In the locker room, we talk about, ‘We’re a family,’” Jackson said. “We play like we’re a family. We play hard, smash-mouth football. In the weight room, we don’t play around. It doesn’t matter, any day of the week, we’re consistent 100%. Good practices equal good game days for us.”
Avonworth began to climb back in the game in the third quarter.
Trailing by 27 points, Antelopes quarterback Carson Bellinger threw a 58-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Nate Kashaba to slice their team’s deficit to 27-7.
After junior Luca Neal stripped Beaver running back Drey Hall and returned the football to the Beaver 3-yard line, Nico Neal then scored on Avonworth’s ensuing offensive play to trim the Bobcats lead to 27-14 with 10:58 left in the contest.
Bellinger threw for 104 yards to lead an Antelopes’ offense which struggled to get much going.
Avonworth managed just 145 yards of total offense, 41 of which came the ground.
Despite their attempt to rally, the Antelopes would turn the ball over on downs in the fourth quarter before Jackson scored his third touchdown of the night on a 5-yard run to pay dirt to put the game out of reach with 3:54 left.
Since suffering a 51-37 loss to Central Valley in Week 4, Rowse said his defense has refocused and been a strong commodity for his football team.
The Bobcats have now won five consecutive games since falling to the Warriors.
“We always talk about a loss not being a loss if you learn from it,” Rowse said. “We kind of came back in as a staff after the Central Valley loss. I took full responsibility for that loss, but what we did was we made some changes with some staff and we made some changes with players.
“The kids have been great,” he added. “We asked guys to step out of their role that they were doing up until that point. They’ve been selfless. I give them all the credit for being great team guys.”
Beaver now enters the playoffs next week as the Western Hills Conference’s second seed behind Central Valley and just ahead of Avonworth.
Cain said his team will be ready for the postseason.
“It’s hard work,” he said. “Just keep on working hard, doing what we’re still doing, don’t change much because we’re doing good. We’ll see if we can go far with this.”
John is a copy editor and page designer at the Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at jsanta@unionprogress.com.