2023 PIAA Class 5A Championship Preview: Peters Township (15-0) @ Imhotep Charter School (14-0)

Chapman Field at Cumberland Valley will again be at the eye of the Pennsylvania high school football world this weekend when the state’s top 12 high school teams meet for PIAA state championships.

This will be Imhotep’s eighth trip to the finals (2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2021, 2022 and 2023). The Panthers won the Class 5A title in 2015, becoming the first Philadelphia public school to win a state championship in football. To get here, Imhotep beat Strath Haven, 42-14, and outscored their last two opponents by a combined 73-21. The Panthers are led by Army-bound, three-year starting quarterback Mikal Davis Jr., who completed 20 of 24 passes for 323 yards and three touchdowns against Strath Haven. Davis became Imhotep’s all-time leading passer with 2,233 career yards, exceeding Nasir Boykin’s previous mark of 2,168. Hopefully there is some symmetry to the new mark, since Boykin was the starting quarterback of Imhotep’s only state champion in 2015. This is a team that has been constantly reminded about the program’s history in state title games. An ongoing theme to this season has been Imhotep players openly admitting numerous times, “The West thinks we’re chokers because we reach the state finals and lose, and what they think of us is right until we prove them wrong,” Davis said. “This year we have to change that.” Imhotep has won everywhere else. The Panthers are 18-8 in the state playoffs and 1-6 in state championships, though 17-2 in the state semifinal and quarterfinal rounds combined.

Peters Township has reached the finals carried by sophomore quarterback Nolan DiLucia, who threw for a pair of touchdowns in the Indians’ 14-9 victory over District 3 champ Cocalico in the state semifinals. DiLucia has a 300-yard game on Peters Township ride through the state playoffs, and kicker Carter Shanafelt can be an effective weapon. This is the Indians’ first time reaching the state championship, but they are facing a very determined Imhotep team that has posted seven shutouts this year and once dropped 87 on an opponent.