Aliquippa Upsets Top-Seeded McKeesport in Class-4A Championship
GIBSONIA, Pa. —WPIAL football championship No. 21 for Aliquippa feels like it was a year in the making.
After falling in last year’s semifinal round without head coach Mike Warfield, who stepped away for a season, No. 7 Aliquippa battled through injuries and an up-and-down start to the season en route to knocking off top-seeded McKeesport in the Class-4A Championship by the score of 21-12.
“I said early on, back in April, as long as we stay together then nobody could divide us,” Warfield said after the game. “We had some ups-and-downs, the kids kept fighting and I give them all of the credit.”
“The coaching staff, they had a great game plan,” Warfield continued. “The kids bought into the game plan. As the season went along, they started trusting more and they started playing better. I am so proud of them.”
Just like the overall season, the championship win was an up-and-down fight. After letting up a touchdown on the first snap on defense, the Quips battled back through the play of Yale quarterback commit Marques Council who accounted for all three of Aliquippa’s touchdowns.
“We fighting, we fighting. You got measurable where you got a star here, a star there. You are measuring height, you are measuring weight, you are measuring 40, you can’t measure this,” Warfield said pointing to his heart. “They don’t put a star on this and our kids are all five-stars when it comes to this.”
The biggest play of the game came late in the fourth quarter when the Quips were leading by just two but faced a fourth-and-goal from the Tigers’ 21-yard line.
After dancing around in the pocket, Council threw a moon ball into the back of the end zone where senior wide receiver Qalil Goode hauled it in over the top of multiple McKeesport defenders. Goode’s heroic touchdown pushed the Quips’ lead to two possessions and all but iced the championship bout.
“I keep saying, when you see 14 (Goode) in space, no matter who is down there, you got to give him a chance,” Council said about the game-clinching touchdown.
Aliquippa started the game with the ball but after two rushing plays resulted in negative plays, the Quips were forced to punt the ball to McKeesport and five-star running back Kemon Spell.
While Spell did not take the punt to the end zone, he still managed to kick start the Tigers’ offense as he took the first snap of the drive 68 yards for a the game’s first touchdown.
“There is still a lot of game left,” Council said about going down early. “We showed that. We kept our heads up and we kept fighting.”
The Quips did not let the opening punch startle them as they managed to sustain a long drive on the ensuing possession which resulted in a 24-yard rushing touchdown by quarterback Marques Council after he used his legs to avoid some pressure inside of the pocket.
Council’s touchdown gave the Quips a 7-6 lead due to the Tigers’ missing the extra point on the Spell touchdown to open the game.
The Quips made another huge play on the ensuing Tigers’ possession when a hit knocked the ball out of Spell’s hands which resulted in a turnover for the defense.
After a screen pass from Council set the Quips up with a short field, the quarterback found wide receiver Josh Lay in the corner of the end zone on a back-shoulder fade a few plays later on a fourth-and-goal situation. Lay’s five-yard receiving touchdown extended Aliquippa’s lead to 14-6.
Just as fast as the Quips grabbed hold of the game’s momentum, the Tigers bit back as Akeem Cochran took the kickoff all the way down to the 26-yard line of Aliquippa.
Following the big return, Spell being a five-star prospect, and top running back recruit in the Class of 2027, recovered from his earlier mistake when he ran through a few defenders for his second score of the game.
Spell was chopped down short of the goal line on the two-point conversion which allowed Aliquippa to maintain 14-12 lead.
The Quips being the Quips, and knowing the type of game that they are in, tried to re-extend their lead on the next drive and even went for a fake punt on their own side of the field. After the punter rumbled for 14 yards and the first down, the Tigers’ defense quickly put them behind the sticks and set up a third-and-long situation.
On the third-down play, Council found a receiver going up the seam but a Tigers’ defender tipped it in the air before Taier Swindle hauled in the interception for McKeesport near midfield with just under four minutes left in the half.
After a long pass set the Tigers up inside of the Quips’ 20-yard line, the defense stiffened up and forced a fourth-and-four run by the Tigers which they bottled up for a turnovers-on-downs with just 39 seconds left in the half.
The underdogs Aliquippa carried a 14-12 lead into halftime over top-seeded McKeesport.
The Tigers started the second half with control of the ball and looked to re-claim the lead for the first time since early in the first quarter. That plan was derailed by the hard-hitting Quips’ defense as they forced a second fumble by the usual sure-handed Spell.
“We knew it was going to be a fight but I asked them coming out, the question isn’t is it going to be a fight, it was who is going to fight the longest,” Warfield said. “That was the question. I give my kids credit.”
After trading possessions following the second Tigers’ turnover of the game, the Quips were just yards away from extending their lead but an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty costed them 15 yards before they ultimately turned the ball over on downs.
After the Quips’ defense forced sacks on both first and third down on the ensuing possession, their offense found themselves in a similar position, deep inside of Tigers’ territory but facing a fourth-and-long.
Warfield decided to go for it again and it paid off for the Quips as Council escaped some pressure and found his top receiver Goode in the back of the end zone for the championship-clinching 24-yard touchdown.
“We got to get back on that horse,” Warfield said. “Our community won’t allow us to be satisfied so we got to get back on that horse tomorrow and go from there.”
The win over McKeesport is not the end of the road for Warfield’s Aliquippa squad as they now advance to the PIAA state playoffs. The Quips will play Oil City, the District 10 champions, next week in the quarterfinal round.
