By William Bowman
The Daily Item
HERSHEY -- It seems only fitting that Southern Columbia returns to the PIAA Class A title game to face a team that replaced it as the dominant small-school team in Pennsylvania. The Tigers, looking for their unprecedented seventh state title, meet Clairton on Friday afternoon in Hershey in a battle of teams that have combined to win seven of the last nine state titles.
Southern (14-1), making its first trip to the title game since winning the last of five consecutive titles in 2006, will look to end Clairton's win streak at 46 games in a row, which is tied for the best streak in the entire nation heading into Friday's final. The Bears (15-0) have not lost since the season opener in 2009 -- that coming on the heels of losing the state final the previous season to Steelton-Highspire -- when Laurel edged them 15-8. Since then it has been 46 victories in a row, including state title runs in 2009 and 2010 and another trip back to Hershey this year.
Clairton has been the most successful team, in any classification, over the past five or six seasons in Pennsylvania. While the Bears have won the last two Class A state titles, they have not lost more than one game in a single season since 2005. Since the start of the 2006 season, Clairton is 85-4, reaching the title game four years in a row and losing in the Western Final in another season.
It is tough to tell whether the Bears are tougher on offense or defense. Their numbers, on both sides of the ball, are simply staggering. In nine regular season games only two teams found the end zone against Clairton as the Bears pitched seven shutouts. They allowed 18 total points in nine regular season games and just one touchdown, to Fort Cherry, in the final eight weeks of the regular season. In the meantime, the Clairton offense was clinical, scoring at least 32 points in every game and rolling up 84 points on Avella.
In nine regular-season games, the Bears outscored their opponents 423-18, an average score of 47-2.
In its six playoff games leading to Hershey, Clairton has two more shutouts and has allowed 41 total points, but the offense hasn't skipped a beat, scoring at least 30 in each game. For the season, the Bears are the top scoring team in all of Pennsylvania with 670 points. Two years ago, when it won the Class AAA state title, Selinsgrove scored 680 points.
Junior tailback Tyler Boyd is the backbone of the offense along with quarterback Capri Thompson. Thompson has thrown for better than 1,700 yards and 15 scores and also has rushed for more than 450 yards and seven more scores. His favorite target is Terrish Webb, who has seven TD catches, while Pittsburgh verbal commitment Trenton Coles, injured for part of the season, also has 20 grabs.
Boyd is the star on offense, however. Boyd has averaged nearly 13 yards per carry this season, rolling up 2,182 yards -- 53 yards away from the Clairton single-season record -- on just 172 carries. In total, he has 46 touchdowns and an absurd 312 points. A junior, Boyd is being recruited by the Who's Who of college football, including Southern Cal, Notre Dame, Oregon, Penn State and Pitt.
The two came close to meeting in 2006. In the Western final, Clairton feel to West Middlesex and the Tigers dismantled West Middlesex the following week, winning 56-14 to claim their PIAA record sixth state title.
The Tigers are making their 13th title game appearance in 24 seasons of the state finals. After winning in 1994, Southern lost six in a row in 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001. Then the Tigers won the crown every year from 2002 to 2006, a record five in a row.
