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Friday, October 25, 2024 | 12:46 AM
Christopher Horner | TribLive
Avonworth head coach Duke Johncour works with his team during practice on Monday, Aug.12, 2024, in Ohio Twp.
Which WPIAL football team has the longest active conference winning streak now that Aliquippa’s has ended? That would be Avonworth, which hasn’t lost to a conference foe since 2021.
The Antelopes have quietly won 18 in a row.
“I joke around that we don’t get any love … but we’re doing our thing,” Avonworth coach Duke Johncour said. “We’ve had a great run here the last four or five years.
“We’re proud of it.”
With another win Friday night, the Antelopes can celebrate their third consecutive outright conference title. Avonworth (7-2, 5-0) visits Beaver (7-2, 4-1) at 7 p.m. for the regular-season finale in the Western Hills. Second-ranked Avonworth has already clinched at least a share of the conference title.
However, a win by fourth-ranked Beaver would create a three-way tie atop the conference standings with Central Valley (5-4, 5-1). There are similar scenarios in the Allegheny 7 and Parkway conferences, where one team can win the title outright Friday or finish as tri-champions.
Avonworth surely prefers to stand alone in its conference.
“You’ve got to minimize the big play and not make mistakes,” Johncour said. “If we do that, I’m confident in our opportunity to win the game. If we let up big plays and don’t tackle, they have the potential to make big things happen.”
Beaver last won a conference title in 2007, but Bobcats coach Cort Rowse said his team hasn’t made the conference title their motivation this week. He said their focus was on winning the game, not the ramifications.
“I try to keep these kids grounded in the now,” Rowse said. “I just keep telling the kids, ‘When you win, good things happen.’ Just keep winning.”
Avonworth is coming off a 48-28 win over North Catholic that included two rushing touchdowns by sophomore Dimitri Velisaris and one by sophomore Bryce Metz. The Antelopes built a 42-0 lead in the third quarter over the Trojans.
They did so with an offense that has shared the workload. Six players have at least 20 carries.
Metz leads Avonworth with nine touchdowns, and Velisaris has scored six. Velisaris, who has missed games to injury, leads with 299 yards on 63 carries.
“We preach to them every week that it’s not about you, it’s about us,” Johncour said. “I could have a kid who has 1,500 yards rushing … but we’ve shared the wealth. We have seven or eight kids who’ve scored touchdowns.”
Junior quarterback Carson Bellinger has completed 49 of 108 passes for 837 yards and nine touchdowns. His top receiver is junior Luca Neal, who has 19 catches for 412 yards and four touchdowns.
Beaver defeated Quaker Valley, 51-19, last week. The Bobcats got three touchdowns from wide receiver Amari Jackson and two from running back Quay Cain.
Both are seniors. Jackson has 20 touchdowns and Cain has scored 18.
“What I love about them is their work ethic,” Rowse said. “They definitely are playmakers, but they’re humble guys. They’re all about the group winning.”
Cain has rushed for 1,128 yards on 85 carries. Jackson has 32 catches for 649 yards, along with 493 rushing yards on 48 carries.
A third playmaker is working his way back from injury. Rowse said senior receiver/linebacker Brady Mayo, a Bucknell recruit, is “day to day.”
Beaver quarterback Travis Clear has passed for 1,039 yards and 10 touchdowns. The junior has completed 67 of 109 pass attempts.
This will be the teams’ fifth matchup in three seasons. Avonworth won the past four. That includes a 33-28 win by the Antelopes in the regular season last year. They later won 41-21 in the WPIAL 3A quarterfinals.
Avonworth finished as the WPIAL runner-up the past two seasons.
“Playing against a ranked opponent and a great team like that, that’s what we want at this point in the season,” Rowse said. “Those are the kind of things we strive for.”
Chris Harlan is a TribLive reporter covering sports. He joined the Trib in 2009 after seven years as a reporter at the Beaver County Times. He can be reached at [email protected].
