Upper St. Clair coach makes his championship debut
Photos: Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Jamaal Brown (7) fends off Bethel Park linebacker Gavin Moul (35) while making a big gain for Upper St. Clair. The senior tailback rushed for 132 yards on 22 carriers to lead the Panthers to victory, 17-7, and to a berth in the WPIAL Class 5A championship game.
Cody Marn (5) shakes off a tackler on his way to a 64-yard touchdown after catching a pass from Ethan Hellmann. The score helped Upper St. Clair defeat Bethel Park, 17-7, in the WPIAL Class 5A semifinal playoff game.
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Mark Banbury rejoices after Upper St. Clair defeated Bethel Park, 17-7, and advanced to the WPIAL Class 5A football championship game.
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Aidan Besselman (4) leaves Blake Striegel (6) in his wake as he darts to the inside to continue his jaunt to the end zone. Besselman’s 27-yard TD run afforded Upper St. Clair a 7-0 lead near the start of the second quarter. The Panthers went on to defeat Bethel Park, 17-7, and advanced to the WPIAL Class 5A championship contest.
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Ty Lagoni (43) celebrates as the buzzer sounds and Upper St. Clair advances to the WPIAL Class 5A final by virtue of its 17-7 victory against rival Bethel Park.
Upper St. Clair football coach Mike Junko has played in his share of WPIAL championship contests. His appearance in this year’s Class 5A final, however, marked his first as a coach.
Thirty years ago, Junko was a senior catcher on the USC baseball team. On May 28, 1992, the Panthers won their only WPIAL baseball championship by virtue of a victory against Butler, 7-2, at Flaherty Field in New Castle.
In 1989, as a sophomore, Junko served as a punter and backup quarterback on the Panthers’ WPIAL winner. USC also won a PIAA title that autumn.
Once the Panthers qualified for the championship contest on Nov. 19, thoughts of those past championships crossed Junko’s mind.
“I will never forget walking out onto the turf of Three Rivers Stadium for the first time and looking into my teammates eyes. All of the sacrifice and hard work was suddenly all worth it,” Junko said.
“As high school kids, we were in awe of our surroundings, but there was a sense that we belonged there. Seeing our friends and family in the stands, the support of our community made those moments even more special.”
According to Junko, football memories linger longest because of how “uniquely” the sport brings players together. In football, there are no AAU or club teams as there are in other activities such as baseball, basketball, volleyball, soccer, swimming and softball.
“You play with your best friends from your hometown,” Junko said. “It makes the wins sweeter and the losses more painful. Those moments of joy and grief seem to never fade because you are out there fighting alongside your brothers.”
When Junko stepped onto the field at Norwin Stadium to guide his Panthers against Pine-Richland in the championship contest, he relied on the coaching brotherhood to guide him. He depended on his assistants. Some, like Shawn Morton, were participating in their seventh WPIAL title game.
“As a head coach this certainly is a new experience for me but I am surrounded by a wealth of wisdom from assistants who have coached in these games multiple times. I have relied heavily on them and their experiences to guide me through our preparation for the game.”
Junko and the Panthers did not need Google directions to find their way to Norwin Stadium. They had played at the site of this year’s championship match when they defeated the Knights, 42-6, in the season opener.
Even before embarking on a 10-2 campaign, that sported back-to-back losses to Bethel Park, 27-14, and Canon-McMillan, 28-24, USC vowed to return to Norwin.
“In the locker room after that game we talked about fighting our way back to that same spot in November. For our kids, their field of dreams this year was Norwin High School,” Junko said referencing how the largest WPIAL classifications had to play at local venues instead of Acrisure Stadium because of when they enter the PIAA tournament.
“We talk a lot about vision and expectation. I think that experience gave them a sense of familiarity and calmed their nerves.”
The Panthers demonstrated a calm demeanor when they battled Bethel Park. In a semifinal showdown played Nov. 11 at Canon-McMillan’s AHN Field, USC ended Bethel Park’s successful season and avenged its lone Allegheny Six Conference loss by posting a 17-7 victory.
While contending with heavy rain from the remnants of Hurricane Nicole, the Panthers wore down the weary Blackhawks, who were reeling from injuries to two of their stars. Ryan Petras (more than 1,000 all-purpose yards and 17 TDs) was out with a broken collarbone. After aggravating a previous injury, Austin Caye left the game in the first quarter. He finished with 13 yards on three carries.
“We talked about flipping the script,” said Junko. “We had to do to them what they did to us. We knew with the weather coming in, we couldn’t necessarily play our style of offense. So we did some things that sort of were out of our nature.”
The Panthers received huge lifts from Aidan Besselman, Cody Marn and Jamaal Brown, not to mention sparks from their youthful quarterbacks: Ethan Hellman and Julian Dahlem.
Besselman got the scoring started on a reverse. The senior weaved 27 yards before reaching the end zone less than two minutes into the second stanza.
“We felt like we were going to have a hard time throwing the ball,” Junko said. “That got Besselman a touch and boy, oh boy, did he do something with it. Julian also threw a great block on the play and that was another momentum shift.”
Marn provided USC with a bigger swing. He provided the go-ahead score when he hauled in a short pass from Hellman and rambled 64 yards for a touchdown. The grab was one of only three receptions by the Panthers in the game. Ty Lagoni had the other two for 52 yards.
“The big play was Cody taking the hitch down the sideline,” Junko said. “You could feel the momentum switch. It was a huge play by a senior kid that has contributed all year long. Cody comes up with a big play when we need it most.”
Because of the weather, USC needed Brown’s powerful ground attack most. The senior rushed for 132 yards on 22 carriers while Aidan Conn provided 65 yards on 12 carriers, most of them coming in the fourth quarter.
“Jamaal had a great game. He emptied the tank,” Junko said.
Although the game was played in a consistent rainstorm, surprisingly there were no fumbles lost on either side.
USC’s defense held BP to 222 total yards — 131 rushing and 91 passing. That was a big difference from the last encounter when the Black Hawks rolled up 259 yards rushing on 58 attempts.
“Our emphasis was to have our secondary as disciplined as they could be but at the same time dedicate as many guys to stopping the run as we could,” Junko said. “We felt if we could stop the run and establish the run then we would win the football game. We did both of those things.”