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Dec 9, 2025
Defense Powers 1A State Champ Clairton: 'If They Can't Score, We Can't Lose'
On3
The Clairton Bears entered a three-way tie with Aliquippa and Thomas Jefferson for the most PIAA football state championships in WPIAL history on Thursday, Dec. 4, blowing out Bishop Guilfoyle 35-3 for their fifth-ever title.
After taking a 14-0 lead, Clairton allowed a drive that lasted more than eight minutes and culminated in a field goal after a Marauders' fumble pushed them away from the goal line. While Bears head coach Wayne Wade Jr. said his team adjusted to Bishop Guilfoyle's attack at halftime, he acknowledged that the fumble helped his team maintain a two-score lead, especially with the Marauders set to receive the second half kickoff.
"They were able to hit us with some flat routes, quick slant routes," Wade said. "We were playing kind of a man defense, getting there late, but then to get the one fumble was huge."
Clairton seized momentum on the opening drive of the second half, with senior linebacker Deon Lovelace-Pompey intercepting a pass and returning it 24 yards for a touchdown. Although the play came just 52 seconds into the third quarter, Lovelace-Pompey, who ran for two more touchdowns, said his pick six deflated the Marauders and won the game.
"I think that ended the game right there. They were done after that. They had nothing that was left," Lovelace-Pompey said. "I was reading his eyes, I saw the ball thrown, put my hands up, it bounced a little bit, [but I] came down with it and scored."
Offensive miscues plagued Clairton early, with a bad snap on the second play from scrimmage that quarterback Jeff Thompson barely managed to recover and throw away. Later in the drive, a missed connection on a lateral pass turned into a Marauders' fumble recovery. Leaning on their defense came naturally to the Bears, who shut out ten of their 15 opponents this season.
"We talk about it all the time. If the [other] team can't score, we can't lose," said Wade Jr., who got his start with the Bears as a defensive coordinator and has imparted that mentality
