Leopards, Quips to collide in clash of Class 4A powers

MVI SPORTS GAME OF THE WEEK – BELLE VERNON AT ALIQUIPPA

Curty Wade faces a huge test in his debut as the Leopards’ quarterback.

The saga involving whether Aliquippa’s dominant football team would be forced to move up from Class 4A to 5A made headlines all offseason.

Ultimately, the Quips will stay in 4A after cruising to a 35-21 victory over McKeesport in the WPIAL championship and a 60-14 drubbing of District 2 Dallas for the state title last season.

Due to the typical rules of enrollment that sort the majority of the PIAA football programs, Belle Vernon is returning to Class 4A this season, and who better to welcome them back than the Quips?

The Leopards will travel to Aliquippa tonight to face the squad that defeated them in the 2021 WPIAL championship, but they were busy in the two years after, capturing backto- back district and state championships in Class 3A.

Now the two headliners will go toe-to-toe in one of the most highly anticipated games of the WPIAL calendar. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. from Aliquippa’s Heinz Field.

“Preparation for (opening the season at Aliquippa) is challenging,” Belle Vernon head coach Matt Humbert said. “You can prepare for a lot of different things. For example, you can play music for crowd noise, so to say that you can’t prepare for stuff like that, you really can. However, it’s hard to replicate what comes with Friday night. The way that we’ve handled it is just focusing on ourselves.”

BVA will see new quarterback Curty Wade at the helm of the offense. His weapons will include Alonzo Wade, Anthony Crews, Deaubre Lightfoot, Anthony DiCenzo, Caleb Horner and Luca Ghilani at receiver along with Lightfoot and Kole Doppelheuer in the backfield.

At linebacker, Wade is set to be a leader for the Leopards’ defense as a guy that has been there, done that when it comes to playing in and winning big games.

The Belle Vernon defense will have its hands full against the Quips, though.

Tiqwai Hayes is a threestar running back and set to join Belle Vernon’s recently graduated Quinton Martin in the backfield at Penn State next season. Sophomore cornerback Larry Moon III will have his pick of football squads across the country in a few years while RB Sa’Nir Brooks earned a WVU offer over the summer.

Needless to say, there’s a plethora of Division I talent at Aliquippa’s disposal.

“I see a team that has probably some of the most high-profile athletes that I’ve faced from a scholastic standpoint,” Humbert said of the Quips. “They are chock full of Division I talent. They are a team that does not have many deficiencies.”

For the Leopards to pull out a win, they’ll look to avoid some of the typical opening-week errors.

“We have to be procedure based in everything we do,” Humbert said. “This is the first game for both of us, so the probability for mistakes like penalties and bad snaps is a lot higher. We need to win that battle and control what we can control. That can’t be sloppy even though it’s Week One.”