2024 PIAA Class 6A Championship Preview: Pittsburgh Central Catholic (12-2) vs. St. Joseph’s Prep (10-2)

Class 6A Saturday at 7 p.m.

(D-7) Pittsburgh Central Catholic (12-2) vs. (D-12) St. Joseph’s Prep (10-2)

They are the Darth Vaders of Pennsylvania high school football and they relish the role. Like it or not, and many across the state do not, St. Joseph’s Prep has been the standard of Pennsylvania big school football. The 2024 Hawks are probably a year ahead of schedule with a very young team that learned valuable lessons in its 35-34 four-overtime loss on Oct. 5 to Catholic League rival La Salle, which many feel is the second-best team in the state. Since then, Prep is riding a seven-game winning streak, which includes avenging the La Salle setback. For three straight weeks entering this game, the Hawks have mercy-ruled a champion, District 12 champion Imhotep Charter (42-0), District 11 champion Parkland (46-7), and District 1 champion Downingtown East, 36-7, in the state semifinals. In the state semifinals, the Hawks did not permit Downingtown West to cross midfield until there was :39 left in the third quarter—and that came against the Hawks’ second unit. In the state quarters, St. Joe’s held Parkland to minus 17 yards rushing, which was aided considerably by four Prep sacks that amounted to negative 32 yards. And in the District 12 championship, they roadblocked potent, Penn State-bound tailback Jabree Wallace-Coleman to a season-low 13 yards rushing, and powerful Imhotep had minus-2 yards rushing. Central Catholic has reached the Class 6A finals for the first time since 2016 by beating Harrisburg, 38-33, in the state semifinals. Vikings’ quarterback Jy’Aire Walls was 7 of 15 passes for 89 yards, throwing for two touchdowns and rushing for two more. Running back Elijah Faulkner ran for 131 yards and a touchdown. This will be the third time the state powerhouses have met in the state championship, with St. Joe’s Prep winning the first two games by a combined 77-17 (St. Joe’s Prep 35-10 2013 4A championship; St. Joe’s Prep 42-7 2016 6A championship). This is the 11th trip to the state finals in the last 12 years for St. Joe’s Prep (2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024). The Hawks will be looking for their ninth state championship overall and sixth Class 6A state title in the last seven years. The Hawks are 31-2 in state playoffs, with their only two losses coming in state title games to Pine-Richland (41-21 2017 6A championship) and Mount Lebanon (35-17 2021 6A championship). The last time these teams met, St. Joe’s Prep needed a dramatic Marvin Harrison Jr. catch in the back of the end zone to eventually beat the Vikings in overtime, 31-24, in the 2019 6A semifinals.