Nine turnovers derail Beaver Falls in WPIAL Class 2A title game loss to Serra Catholic

PITTSBURGH — As he stood at the podium for his team's postgame press conference, the look on the face of Nick Nardone, head coach of the Beaver Falls High School football team, said it all.

Before he could open his mouth to answer the first question asked, his combination of confusion and disappointment were clear. Surely he and his staff had spent the entire week imagining just about every outcome possible for the Tigers' matchup against Serra Catholic (14-1) in the WPIAL Class 2A final on Friday night at Heinz Field.

However, it would be fair to assume nobody could've predicted that Beaver Falls (9-4) would turn the ball over nine times, leading to a 35-12 loss.

"Things just didn't go our way tonight," Nardone said after the loss. "I feel bad for the kids. They played their hearts out; man, they played their hearts out. It just did not seem like it was our night tonight."

The Tigers' nine turnovers were a WPIAL championship game record for all contests played at either Three Rivers Stadium or Heinz Field. Regardless if it was or wasn't a historically-poor showing, perhaps the craziest part of a game that left nearly everyone in attendance in shock was the fact that Beaver Falls had a legitimate chance to win with just minutes remaining.

Sometimes the final score — and in this case, the numbers to go along with it — doesn't truly indicate just how close things were. While the game ended in a 23-point defeat for Beaver Falls, Nardone's team found itself trailing by just two points with a little more than five minutes left.

By that point in the game, Serra Catholic had already forced six takeaways but only led 14-12 thanks to a strong effort from the Tigers' defense. Excluding an interception that Elijah Ward returned 29 yards for a touchdown in the second quarter, the Eagles were unable to do anything with the several opportunities they'd earned from Beaver Falls' blunders.

Combine that with a pair of solid special teams returns that set up both Tigers' scores — which came from Mekhi Clark and Isaiah Aeschbacher — and Beaver Falls was just a field goal away from the lead when it took the field with the ball on its own 10-yard line with 6:28 to go.

At that point, there was reason to believe that maybe luck was on the Tigers' side – that no matter how many self-inflicted errors they made, they'd still find a way to secure their second straight WPIAL title.

"I had no idea how many turnovers we had made at that point," Nardone said. "We were ready to go down and win the game."

That, however, all changed after the first play of the drive, when quarterback Jaren Brickner took a hard sack while rolling out to the left side of the field. The big hit forced him to leave the field for a play. On third down, on the first play he came back in, the junior threw his third interception of the night, which was returned by Terrell Booth for a touchdown, ultimately putting the game on ice.

Things only got uglier from there.

Brickner was intercepted again on the following drive, which led to the Eagles' offense punching the ball into the end zone for the first time since its first possession of the contest. The touchdown was scored by Machai Duetrieulle-Brooks, who ended the night with 94 rushing yards on 22 carries.

As the Tigers attempted to just run out the clock, a bobbled handoff hit the turf and found the hands of DaQuan Chatfield, who ran 42 yards down the sideline for his team's third defensive touchdown of the evening, turning a once-close battle into an absolute runaway victory.

"If it was all about defense, we would've won that game," senior Tyler Cain said. "But, you can't do anything with all of those turnovers."

Those that didn't watch the WPIAL 2A final might wonder how in the world Beaver Falls managed to turn the ball over nine times. Maybe it was due to something out of the Tigers' control, like poor weather? Nardone and his players were vocal that mother nature had nothing to do with what took place.

Instead, the blame was split between coaching decisions and excellent execution by the opposition.

"I feel bad," Nardone said. "I feel like I didn't put our guys in positions to win the game. I can't blame those turnovers on the players. There were a lot of calls that I made in this game that didn't put our guys in a position to be successful and put the ball at risk."

Nardone was happy to fall on the sword for his players, but those on the field had a different point of view as to why things went wrong. Beaver Falls entered the game knowing that Serra Catholic had a knack for knocking the football loose, as it forced five takeaways in its 13-12 semifinal win over Sto-Rox last weekend. Yet, knowing just wasn't enough.

"It was 100 percent their defense punching the ball out," senior Quadir Thomas said.

"Our defense has been carrying us for a long time," Serra Catholic head coach Jose Regus said. "They know how important it is. The line was struggling, especially in the second half, so we knew we had to pick it up some type of way."

The victory marks the Eagles third WPIAL title in program history and the first since 2007. Serra Catholic advances to the PIAA semifinals where it will face District 10 champion Farrell next weekend at a time and location to be determined.

Contact Noah Hiles at nhiles@gannett.com. Follow him on twitter @_NoahHiles.

This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Nine turnovers derail Beaver Falls in WPIAL Class 2A title game loss to Serra Catholic