PIAA semifinal rundown: Luca Neal plows Avonworth past Penn Cambria and into final; WPIAL champs Thomas Jefferson, South Park, Fort Cherry all lose

Black Friday was a forgettable one for WPIAL football champions.

Not one, not two, not three, but four WPIAL champs saw their PIAA championship dreams fade to black in semifinal losses.

But on what was a dark day, a team wearing white uniforms with red trim and “Lopes” sewn on the front of them provided the lone bright spot.

Luca Neal ran for a career-high 263 yards and scored a pair of second-half touchdowns to help Avonworth rally for a 16-6 win against District 6 champion Penn Cambria in a PIAA Class 3A semifinal at Norwin.

The win puts Avonworth (12-3) into the final for just the second time. A runner-up in 2019, the Antelopes will shoot for their first title when they face District 11 champion Northwestern Lehigh at 1 p.m. on Dec. 7 at Cumberland Valley High School. Northwestern Lehigh (15-0) lost to Belle Vernon, 38-7, in last year’s final.

Penn Cambria (14-1), which won its first District 6 title this month and was playing in the PIAA playoffs for the first time, took a 6-3 lead to the half Friday courtesy of Gavin Harrold’s 60-yard touchdown run with 2:30 left in the second quarter. Avonworth had gone ahead, 3-0, on Calder Mahan’s 25-yard field goal less than two minutes earlier.

But as what has been the case often for this Avonworth team, one of the Neal brothers stepped up when needed most. Last week it was senior Nico Neal who ran for 102 yards and two touchdowns to help Avonworth shut out Central Valley in the WPIAL final. On Friday, it was junior Luca Neal who led the charge. His 65-yard touchdown run with 4:39 left in the third quarter gave Avonworth a 9-6 lead.

But Neal wasn’t done. On a drive in which Nico had a long touchdown run called back due to a penalty, Luca plowed through the Penn Cambria defense for a 46-yard run that set up his own 2-yard scoring run that increased the Avonworth lead to 16-6 with 1:08 remaining in the game.

Luca Neal finished the night with 27 carries. He now has 75 carries for 561 yards in the playoffs, this after running for 213 yards on 26 carries in the regular season.

Class 4A

District 3 champion Lampeter-Strasburg rallied from a 13-point halftime deficit to defeat WPIAL champion Thomas Jefferson, 20-16, at Mansion Park Stadium.

Thomas Jefferson (14-1) held a 16-3 lead at the half before Lampeter-Strasburg (14-0) stormed back by scoring 16 unanswered points. Caileb Howse scored on a 45-yard touchdown run to trim the Thomas Jefferson lead to 16-10 with 8:03 left in the third quarter and Howse then found Christian Nolt for a 70-yard touchdown to help give the Pioneers a 17-16 lead with 2:30 left in the third. Peter Fiorello kicked a 32-yard field goal, his second 3-pointer of the game, with 9:48 left to play to push the lead to four points. Thomas Jefferson drove to the Lampeter-Strasburg 32 in the final minutes, but a pass fell incomplete on fourth-and-6 with 4:30 to go. The Pioneers took possession and ran out the clock.

Tyler Eber had another big game for Thomas Jefferson, rushing for 206 yards and two touchdowns on 43 carries. Eber scored on runs of 1 and 20 yards, both in the second quarter. The Jaguars scored their other points on a safety in the first quarter. That came when Matt Martinis blocked a Lampeter-Strasburg punt and the ball went out of the back of the end zone. The 16 points scored by the Jaguars were their fewest of the season.

It was the first-ever PIAA win for Lampeter-Strasburg, which was 0-3 all time coming into the game. The Pioneers lost to Thomas Jefferson, 44-2, in the semifinals in 2019. Thomas Jefferson was hoping to add to its collection of five PIAA titles, tied with Aliquippa for the most of any WPIAL school.

Class 2A

South Park had never lost a PIAA playoff game and its opponent Friday had never won one, but history was changed emphatically as District 9 champion Central Clarion pummeled the WPIAL champion Eagles, 55-0, at Farrell.

It was a long night for South Park (12-2), which had won titles in both of its previous trips to the playoffs in 1997 and 2005. Central Clarion (14-0), which is a co-op between Clarion, Clarion-Limestone and North Clarion, has only been around since 2020 and had lost to Westingouse in the first round in each of the past two seasons.

Central Clarion got a gigantic performance from senior quarterback Jase Ferguson, a four-year starter who ran for 170 yards on 15 carries and scored all seven of his team’s touchdowns. Five of those came in the first half when Central Clarion built a 38-0 lead. Overall, Ferguson scored on runs of 5, 5, 28, 3, 10, 30 and 25 yards. He entered the game with 17 rushing touchdowns the entire season. The only other Central Clarion player to score was kicker Thomas Uckert, who booted two field goals and converted seven extra points.

Central Clarion held a 416-71 edge in total yards and 20-4 advantage in first downs. South Park managed to run for only 60 yards on 26 carries. Star running back Eric Doerue was limited to 13 yards on 15 carries.

Class 1A

It was anything but a blissful night for WPIAL champion Fort Cherry, which saw its season come to a close following a 46-8 loss to Aiden Bliss and District 9 champion Port Allegany at PennWest Clarion.

Bliss, a junior running back, produced a masterful performance while lifting Port Alleghany (14-0) into the final for the first time in program history. Bliss ran for more than 300 yards and scored five touchdowns, putting him over 3,000 yards for the season. Bliss scored on runs of 13, 1, 7, 44 and 35 yards to give him 57 touchdowns this season, which leads the state. The other touchdown scored by the Gators came on Isaac Postlewait 22-yard fumble return.

Port Allegany led Fort Cherry, 32-0, before the Rangers got on the board courtesy of Matt Sieg’s 10-yard touchdown run and ensuing 2-point run with 20 seconds left in the first half.

Fort Cherry (14-1) was trying to reach the final for the second year in a row. The Rangers lost to Steelton-Highspire in last season’s championship game.

SCOREBOARD

PIAA CLASS 5A PLAYOFFS

Semifinals

Bishop McDevitt 28, Pine-Richland 14

Roman Catholic 41, West Chester Rustin 17

PIAA CLASS 4A PLAYOFFS

Semifinals

Lampeter-Strasburg 20, Thomas Jefferson 16

Monsignor Bonner 55, Southern Lehigh 26

PIAA CLASS 3A PLAYOFFS

Semifinals

Avonworth 16, Penn Cambria 6