MECHANICSBURG — It’s easy to let things slip away in the biggest moments. And for just a brief wrinkle in time, it almost looked like this was another one that might slip away from Clairton.

Appearing in their first state final since 2016, the Bears began with a lateral pass that was ruled a fumble recovered by a Bishop Guilfoyle team defending its PIAA Class 1A title. Clairton, winners of four straight PIAA 1A titles from 2009-12, stumbled out of the gate against today’s dynasty — titles from 2014-16, 2021 and last year for the Marauders.

But this is a Clairton contingent that looked every part the Old Gods they were, thumping Bishop Guilfoyle 35-3 the rest of the way to win the program’s fifth PIAA 1A title at Chapman Field on Thursday.

“We started off a little slow,” senior quarterba

See Full Page