Bishop Guilfoyle Academy had plans to be there too so the Marauders could defend their 2024 Class 1A championship.

But while the Bears’ road to today’s 1 p.m. game at Cumberland Valley’s Chapman Field in Mechanicsburg went smoothly early on, the Marauders were left questioning themselves after struggling in their opener against Penns Valley, losing to Richland in the second week in a game that they also lost star running back and linebacker Taurean Consiglio for the season and barely edging Bellefonte, 7-0, in the third week.

“Honestly, I was talking to my coaches and buddies,” Bishop Guilfoyle senior Tyson Lestochi said. “If you would have told me Week 3 when we beat Bellefonte 7-0 that we were going to the state championship, I would have said that was impossible. It feels amazing, and it is well deserved because of how hard we have worked since that game.”

Rather than fold up their tent following the loss of Consiglio with a tough Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference stretch ahead of them, the Marauders battled to save their season.

12/05/24 Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski / Bishop Guilfoyle's Hayden Hosgood (left) and Taurean Consiglio celebrate.

“We fought every practice,” BG sophomore quarterback Justin Wheeler said. “We had that killer mentality to go out and dominate. We wanted to show everybody the abilities we have, and we have just been about non-stop work. This is the goal we always look forward to.”

Justin Wheeler, referred to by his teammates as “J,” is the son of head coach Justin Wheeler. Last year he played mostly special teams and served as the holder on kicks, but he’s played a much bigger role this season and ran for a team-high 119 yards in last week’s PIAA semifinal win over Belmont Charter.

Coaching his son has unlocked a more emotional Coach Wheeler during this playoff run.

“When you have your son and your family is part of it, it’s always a little more special and you don’t want it to end,” Wheeler said. “I think that’s part of it. This team fights and battles. We weren’t even picked to win our section in the Laurel Highlands, and that was before we lost an all-state kid like Consiglio — one of the best athletes to ever come through the school — but when you look at the team, no matter where we started, we were able to move kids that came in and battled and found a way to win game in and game out. You want to win for kids like that, because it hasn’t come easy. A lot of our games have come down to the fourth quarter, and our kids have battled so hard.”

Clairton has been led this season by its upperclassmen. Senior quarterback Jeff Thompson III has thrown for more than 2,000 yards, and senior Deon Lovelace-Pompey is averaging nearly 10 yards per carry.

“We have a great group of seniors and have received great leadership from that group of seniors,” Clairton coach Wayne Wade said. “We have also stayed away from injuries. One issue in single-A football is that if you get an injury or two or three to a couple of your major players, it changes your team. We have seen that over the years, not only with our team but other single-A teams, like (Matt) Sieg, the kid from Fort Cherry, getting hurt this year and them not being able to get to the district championship.”

Though many of the Bears’ regular season wins were lopsided shutouts, they have been tested recently.

After beating Jeanette, 57-0, in the regular season, Clairton won just 38-33 against the Jayhawks in the WPIAL playoffs, and the Bears edged Laurel, 8-6, in the WPIAL championship before blowing out District 10 champion Greenville, 57-0, in last week’s PIAA semifinal.

“They have been battle-tested,” Wade said. “This group of seniors, maybe six or seven of them, have been with us since they were freshmen. Four or five of them started as freshmen. They have played a lot of downs and a lot of reps and understand what we want in our program, and they have been able to do that this year.”

Wade said his team compares favorably to Westinghouse, a Pittsburgh City League team he’s seen play live, and was encouraged by the Bulldogs’ 7-6 loss against BG in the PIAA quarterfinals.

“I think if we can execute on offense like we have been doing the last few weeks and our defense can play like they have been playing and we stay away from the penalties — the ones that hurt you like the false starts and holding calls and those types of things,” Wade said. “We have been doing really well with those types of things. We just have to put a complete game together on Thursday.”

Even though the teams haven’t met since BG’s 17-0 win in the state final in 2016, Coach Wheeler said he’s noticed Wade mentioning that loss has not been forgotten.

“I saw a couple of things already from them in the (Pittsburgh) paper with their coach talking about how they have been waiting to have revenge over some of those losses,” Wheeler said. “We know everyone from the Pittsburgh side will be hoping they get a chance to beat us for the first time.”

The Marauders left Bishop Guilfoyle Wednesday to follow a similar routine as they have in past seasons that’s helped them go 5-1 in state finals.

“We always seem to have our best practices after we leave,” Coach Wheeler said. “We practice on Wednesday out in Mechanicsburg, because there’s so much going on. The kids are excited. They don’t even know how much this is going to mean to them 10 or 15 years from now. We were able to talk to the guys from 2014 and talk about that all the time. A decade later, they still come home and talk about that game. Even though they are enjoying the moment now, hopefully they realize that this is a lifetime memory they are making.”