Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski BG’s Brody Gartmann (left) and Monroe Gates stop Clairton’s Donte Wright on Thursday afternoon.

MECHANICSBURG — Clairton joined Southern Columbia, Steelton-Highspire and its opponent on Thursday, Bishop Guilfoyle Academy, as the only teams to win the PIAA Class 1A football championship five times with a 35-3 rout of the Marauders.

“It feels incredible and means everything,” Clairton wideout Brandon Murphy said. “This is what we have been wanting since we were 4 playing youth football. To actually do it, it’s truly a blessing.”

Around the same time many on this current Bears teammates started playing football, the community they play for was suffering through state championship losses to Bishop Guilfoyle in 2014 and 2016.

Murphy said part of his team’s focus on Thursday was on those losses.

“Our coaches told us that this game was not just for us,” Murphy said. “It was for our whole community. We all took those losses back then. Revenge feels great.”

It was Murphy who came up with two fourth-down conversions on Clairton’s first scoring drive, including a 14-yard touchdown on fourth-and-10.

“That was huge for us,” Clairton coach Wayne Wade said. “We felt like we had a mismatch there, and Brandon is a heck of a football player and is only a sophomore. There’s more to come from him. At times, we just throw it up to Brandon and tell him to make a play. He’s been huge for us.”

Though Murphy got it started, Deon Lovelace-Pompey kept it going with a pair of rushing touchdowns and an interception return for a score on BG’s first drive of the second half that seemingly sealed the game and gave Clairton a 22-3 lead.

“That shifted the game,” Lovelace-Pompey said. “They did not like that and didn’t handle it well at all. After that score, it was over.”

Lovelace-Pompey finished with 84 yards rushing and the three scores.

“To score three touchdowns and help my team on the scoreboard feels great,” Lovelace-Pompey said. “The whole team played so well.”

Clairton finished 15-1 and ended the season on a 15-game winning streak. The Bears held Bishop Guilfoyle to minus-1 yards rushing for the game, and the Marauders lost 7 yards of total offense in the third quarter while Clairton pulled away.

“They pose problems for everyone,” Bishop Guilfoyle coach Justin Wheeler said. “They are a really good football team. I thought for the first half, we went pretty much toe to toe, but at the start of the third quarter we got too far behind and had to change some things and it went downhill. We played to win and didn’t hold anything back.”