Hopewell Loses Heartbreaker to Beaver, 51-50, in WPIAL Game of the Year

648

HOPEWELL TOWNSHIP– Wow, where to begin.

Let’s start with the obvious. The fans that packed Tony Dorsett Stadium were treated to what will be the WPIAL Game of the Year for 2025 and a game that both teams will remember for a lifetime. That’s not an exaggeration, that’s a fact.

In a game that lasted 3 and a half hours and included over 200 plays (which is incredible for a high school game), Beaver made one more play than Hopewell and came away with a 51-50 win. Credit both Hopewell and Beaver for the show they put on last night.

It’s impossible to reap a game that featured so many highlights and turning points, so I’ll just mention the key moments and the incredible stat lines that were produced by both teams.

Let’s start with the play at quarterback for both teams. Aside from being the game of the year, I’d be willing to bet that you won’t see a better performance by two quarterbacks in the same game like you saw last night.

Hopewell sophomore quarterback James Armstrong turned in the best performance of his young career as he threw for 346 yards, 4 passing touchdowns and also rushed the ball 22 times for 263 yards and 2 touchdowns. For the game, Armstrong collected 609 total yards and 6 touchdowns.

Equally as impressive was Beaver senior quarterback Travis Clear who went 18 of 38 for 391 yards and 2 touchdowns. Clear made a number of impressive down field throws into tight coverage.

GAME RECAP-
*Hopewell got on the board first on a 30-yard touchdown pass from Armstrong to senior wide receiver Kingston Krotec, Hopewell 7-0.

*After stopping Beaver, Hopewell took over and on the first play, sophomore Nasir Wade produced an incredible 86-yard TD run. Hopewell,14-0.

*Still in the first quarter, after Ty Cosky kicked a 34-yard FG, Hopewell answered as Armstrong hit Avery Bokor with a 35-yard TD pass. A perfectly placed pass and a great snag by Bokor, who didn’t have much room in the corner of the endzone to bring it in, Hopewell 21-3.

*Beaver would then score the next 20 points of the game to take their first lead 23-21 in the 3rd quarter.

*Hopewell would re-take the lead as Armstrong threw a 45-yard TD pass to Bokor. The ball seemed to deflect off Tre Cameron and into the hands of Bokor, who was directly behind Cameron. Hopewell tried for 2 points and were unsuccessful, so the score was Hopewell 27-23.
*Both teams then traded touchdowns, which made the score Hopewell 34-30.
*Armstrong then turned in an incredible run (and that’s an understatement) as he went 70-yards, breaking through a number of Beaver defenders. Hopewell’s lead increased to 41-30.

*In the 4th quarter, Hopewell was driving but Beaver came up with a stop and forced a FG attempt, which Rocco Marcantonio connected on from 34-yards. Hopewell led 44-30.

*But Beaver immediately answered with a quick TD to get within 7 points and then scored the tying touchdown with less than 2 minutes in the game.
*With approximately 1:30 left in the game, Beaver Junior Marino intercepted a pass and ran it in from 40 yards to give Beaver a 51-44 lead.
*Hopewell still had 1:20 left on the clock and 1 timeout left to try and tie the game. The Hopewell offense drove up the field and with 9 seconds left on a 4th and 5, Armstrong threw an 11-year TD pass to Logan Triscilla to make the score 51-50 Beaver.

*Instead of going for the PAT to tie the game, Hopewell was aggressive and tried to win the game with a 2-point conversion but were stopped at the 1-yard line.

FINAL SCORE: BEAVER 51 HOPEWELL 50

*My biggest take from the game and something that I talked about in my preview was the play of both lines and in this game, Beaver’s offense and defensive line played better than Hopewell’s. Also, too many big plays allowed by the Hopewell secondary, which need to get cleaned up. The good thing is that it’s one game and these things can and will get cleaned up.

This is no doubt a disappointing loss for Hopewell, who drops their first section game, and it won’t get any easier as they have to travel to No. 1 ranked Avonworth next Friday.

While being disappointing, the sun did come up this morning and plenty of football left in the season.