Joe Salvino sat down and leaned back in his chair.
With a 54-49 victory over No. 2-seeded North Catholic Thursday night in the WPIAL Class 4A championship under his belt, the longtime coach of top-seeded Belle Vernon finally could relax from his perch in the Petersen Events Center media room.
“When I get home I’m going to have a nice tall glass of wine and have peace and quiet,” Salvino said. “My stomach, it’s not going to be churning.”
In one final WPIAL title game appearance before his impending retirement at the end of the season, Salvino led his Leopards to their second WPIAL championship in school history and first since 1978.
Salvino, 73, won six WPIAL championships in a storied tenure at Monessen before going to Belle Vernon in 2019. He has 744 career wins to his credit and is one of only seven coaches in WPIAL history to have won at least six district titles.
“It’s unbelievable,” said Salvino, now in his 43rd season. “I’ve won before, but this one here is definitely special. With this group of kids that I have and Belle Vernon not winning the championship … for 47 years and us being able to do that, and it’s my last year, like I said before, it’s just like icing on the cake. It’s phenomenal.
“What coach ever got the opportunity to do what I do?”
Senior Tommy Davis was largely to thank for providing Salvino one final memory on the WPIAL’s grandest stage.
Davis, a 6-foot-6 forward, scored 20 points, added 10 rebounds and 4 blocks to lead his team’s dominant performance in the paint.
Belle Vernon (21-4), which also got 13 rebounds from forward Dominic Ghilani, punished North Catholic (19-6) on the boards by a 40-17 margin.
“That was our plan coming into the game today,” Davis said. “We have more size than them, so that was our goal, and we got it accomplished.”
Guards Zion Moore and Trevor Kovatch also scored 12 points each for the Leopards.
With his team clinging to a perilous 47-46 advantage, Moore slashed to the basket and scored on a layup to extend the Leopards’ lead back to 3 with 1:17 left in the game.
Belle Vernon then iced the game with 5 additional points from the free-throw line.
“I knew that we needed a bucket,” Moore said. “It was a major bucket. I believe Coach Sal wanted us to get a stop and we then needed to score and that’s what he told us and we did it. I [saw] a lane and I took it.”
The Leopards took control of the game on the defensive end of the court. Trailing by two points early in the first quarter, Kovatch stole a pass and drove for an uncontested layup. He then gave Belle Vernon its first lead of the game, which it would not relinquish, on the ensuing possession when he converted a free throw to complete a three-point play with just over three minutes left in the first quarter.
“It’s always defense,” Kovatch said. “Defense wins championships, offense wins games. Coach preaches it every day to us at practice. We had a sluggish practice the other day and then we had a practice before we came out. We just came out and it was fine.”
Belle Vernon used an 11-6 run to end the first quarter and outscored North Catholic, 15-8, in the second to take a 34-22 advantage into halftime.
“It means a lot,” Kovatch said. “I haven’t really ever been a part of a championship team. I was a golf champion, but nothing else. This team means everything to me. It means a lot.”
“It’s way better,” he added. “Way better than golf.”
Despite trailing by as much as 12 points in the third quarter, North Catholic fought back to make a game of it in the fourth.
Junior guard Jason Fredericks led the charge, scoring 20 points and making 3-of-5 attempts from 3-point range.
Jude Rottmann also scored 15 points and made three 3-pointers for the Trojans.
“We’ve been resilient all year,” North Catholic coach Jim Rocco said. “That’s what our group is. For the lack of girth and size that we have, we really battle really hard.”
After trailing by as much as 41-29 with 3:42 left in the third quarter, the Trojans went on an 11-2 run to get back into the contest.
After getting fouled on a 3-point attempt, Fredericks made all of his free-throw attempts to cut the Trojans’ deficit to 44-43 with 5:38 left to play.
When Moore responded with a three-point play on the next possession, Fredericks answered the bell again with a 3-pointer to cut the Belle Vernon lead to 47-46 with five minutes left to play.
It was as close as the Trojans would get.
“I don’t think anybody can beat us, to be honest, if we play as a team,” Fredericks said. “I think that if we just stay as a team we could have beat them easily, but they’re a good team.”
Belle Vernon advances to play the District 10 fifth-place finisher in the first round of the PIAA playoffs. Farrell and Oil City will play Friday night for the chance to face the Leopards.
Salvino said he is excited for a shot to win another PIAA championship, but there is work left to be done.
“I can’t even think about that,” Salvino said. “That is so far our of the realm, I can’t even think about that. I’m going to take the next couple of days off and start practice on Monday, see who we play and then prepare for that.
“It goes on,” he added. “It all depends on them, where they want to be. Hey, I’ll take a state championship.”
North Catholic, meanwhile, advances to play the District 10 third-place team, which will be Grove City or Hickory, in the first round of the state playoffs.
“We’re in a good spot,” Rocco said. “The hidden thing of all of this is you’re doing your best to represent your district in the state championship and that’s what it’s all about. This is akin to the [Southeastern Conference] championship, the Big East championship, and you’re trying to position yourself for the most important tournament in your state. We, and Belle Vernon, and some of the other teams that are going to represent our district are in a good spot.”
John is a copy editor and page designer at the Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at jsanta@unionprogress.com.