Win at West Mifflin keeps TJ perfect in ‘first half’ of season

The 5-0 Jaguars will turn their focus to conference play after the 35-7 victory.

Thomas Jefferson’s football team has split its season into two halves, the five games in the nonconference slate and the five matchups in Big Six Conference play starting next week.

Friday night ended the opening section of the season as the Jaguars (5-0) traveled to West Mifflin and returned with a 35-7 win.

“We divided the season up into halves, and this was the first half,” TJ coach Bill Cherpak said. “We played five pretty tough non-section games, so we wanted to come out of this strong. Honestly, did I think we’d come out of it 5-0? Probably not. But we wanted to come out of it healthy and playing well, and I think we’re doing that for the most part.

“I felt pretty good (about Friday’s performance). I think we played well offensively and defensively, and especially on special teams, the kickoff team did fantastic. That was a real worry for us because they have such great returners and skill players. Besides one play, they really didn’t do much on us.”

That play opened the second drive of the night for the Titans (2-2) as quarterback Zahir Ismaeli threw a strike to Sincere Degree that ended up being a 73-yard catch and run to the end zone.

Unfortunately for West Mifflin, there wasn’t much offense after that as the Jaguars scored 28 unanswered points to conclude the game. Star running back Armand Hill finished with 50 rushing yards on 12 attempts and Ismaeli went 7 for 17 with 137 yards and the score.

“I thought the kids fought, but (TJ) took advantage of some situations with our personnel,” West Mifflin coach Rod Steele said. “Give credit to (Cherpak) and his team because they’re a good football team and they executed and made plays. Our kids were in position to make plays, but the ball just didn’t go our way.”

Steele cited three TJ touchdowns where plays could’ve been made, but just slipped away.

“Three times, take 21 points, where (Armand) Hill is there on the throw, then (Jose) Perez was there on the one down here, and the one in the back corner could’ve been stopped. That’s 21 points where we had a chance but just couldn’t get off the field. Give credit to Cherpak and his team. (Luke) Kosko is a good quarterback and they’ve got some good receivers who can go get it.”

Kosko finished 11 for 15 with 175 yards and three scores through the air, two of which went to his favorite target, Brayden White.

White had six receptions for 110 yards and the two touchdowns while Kane Eggerton caught Kosko’s other touchdown. On the ground, Tyler Eber had another monstrous performance with 34 carries for 215 yards and a pair of touchdowns.

The contest couldn’t have started better for the Jaguars as they forced a punt from West Mifflin after allowing one first down. From there, Kosko got started through the air with a 47-yard connection with White on TJ’s first offensive play of the game. The passing game kept at it, but it was the ground game that put the first points on the board.

On fourth-and-5, Eber scampered into the end zone from 13 yards out. Sam Wessel’s extra point made it 7-0 for the Jaguars with 6:58 remaining in the first quarter.

The Titans came right back with a score of their own.

On the first play of their ensuing drive, Ismaeli connected with Degree for a short completion before the sophomore wideout ran all the way to the end zone for a 73-yard touchdown. An extra point from Jason Martin quickly tied the contest just 19 seconds later.

The Jaguars retook a lead early in the second quarter as Kosko and White began to heat up.

The Jaguars faced third and long from the West Mifflin 24 after a delay of game, and Kosko dropped back to try and get the line to gain by floating a pass to White. It looked like West Mifflin had a chance at an interception in the end zone, but White managed to go up and snatch the pass to give TJ another lead.

From there, the Titans turned to the run game, but the Jaguars mostly bottled it up as Hill finished with 17 rushing yards at the halftime break. Thomas Jefferson quickly got the ball back and went on a long drive of its own before halftime.

Eber was fed for the next few minutes of the contest, racking up constant gains before Kosko hit White for an 11-yard touchdown to bring the halftime score to 21-7.

Thomas Jefferson got the ball to open the second half and Eber had runs of seven and four yards before his third carry went 48 yards to the house to quickly make it 28-7 in favor of TJ.

Eggerton’s 32-yard receiving touchdown capped the scoring at 35-7 with just over 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter.

Both squads have tough opponents next week as they begin conference play. The Jaguars will host rival Belle Vernon, while the Titans will welcome Mars to open their Greater Allegheny Conference campaign.

“I think we’re in good shape heading into the conference, but we have to keep executing,” Cherpak said. “We’re a little banged up, but I think we’re playing well heading into it.”

“We just need to learn from our mistakes and get ready for next week,” Steele said. “It doesn’t get any easier with Mars. Mars is a very good football team and we have to be ready to play. We’ll get back to the fundamentals and go back over some basics at every position.”