Aliquippa Are The Champions, My Friends; And They Kept On Fighting Till The End

The Aliquippa football team celebrates after a 35-0 win over Middletown in the PIAA 3A football championship game on Saturday December 8th 2018.

Source: Pittsburgh-Post Gazette

The Aliquippa football team had to be eating a lot of Hershey chocolate after their 35-0 win over Middletown at Hersheypark Stadium on Saturday December 8th 2018. Avante McKenzie, the Aliquippa starting running back, was an absolute stud in the game as he scored four rushing touchdowns. Aliquippa's starting quarterback, Eli Kosanovich, also passed for one touchdown to Gevod Tyson in the fourth quarter.

Last week we asked, Xavier Harvey, one of the running backs on Aliquippa's football team, "What would a state championship mean to the Aliquippa community?" He answered by saying, "It would mean the most to Aliquippa because we want to make history and make up for the last 2 years we should have been there." Well, the whole Aliquippa community is absolutely happy that they finally got the state championship they should have won in the last two years. Harvey rushed for 12 yards in the PIAA 3A football championship game against Middletown.

If you think about the season that the Aliquippa football team had, you know that these Quip football players will never forget about this season ever for the rest of their lives.

What a crazy 10 days it had been for Aliquippa football player, Will Gipson. On November 29th 2018, Gipson committed to playing college football at The University of Pittsburgh and now yesterday he is now a state championship in the game of football. Gipson's dad is the principal at Aliquippa High School. It's really hard to believe that in Gipson's sophomore year, he played football at North Catholic High School with Dino Tomlin, Joey Porter Jr. and Zack Rocco. Now, Gipson can focus on playing basketball.

After this state championship win, you really have to think about the football players in the Aliquippa community. You just have to think to yourselves, was former Aliquippa football coach, Mike Zmijanac, the reason why a lot of the Aliquippa football players are so good? Or, is it possible you can have anybody with football knowledge be the head coach at Aliquippa and have success? Better yet, is it just possible that any football player born in Aliquippa and plays football at Aliquippa High School is just really good? Let me tell you though, Mike Warfield did one helluva job this year in leading Aliquippa to a state championship.

How about Eli Kosanovich though? Eli played good football this year. You see there are so many talented football players on this Aliquippa football team that Eli does not get much credit or a lot of attention that he should get. A lot of people in the media, this year, focused a lot on Tyler Bradley, Eric Wilson, Hollis Mathis, Derek Johncour, Shane Stump and Ethan Moore. The media should have focused even more on Eli Kosanovich. The man has a strong arm and can throw some really fast bullet passes. Eli plays the quarterback so easily because of the fact that a lot of his wide receivers and tight ends just get open easily for Eli to throw the ball too.

MJ Devonshire, the cornerback at Aliquippa, can finally focus and think about which school he wants to play his college football at. MJ has had offers from big named schools such as The University of Indiana, The University of Pittsburgh, Ohio State University, The University of West Virginia and other schools.

If you are in Mike Zmijanac shoes, you have to be super upset that Aliquippa fired you as head coach. There would have been a chance that Zmijanac could have lead this Aliquippa to a state championship; but, all we can do is give a lot of credit and props to Mike Warfield.

People have talked about if the 1995 Penn Hills football team was one of the best WPIAL football teams ever. People have also talked about if the 2017 Pine-Richland football team was one of the best WPIAL football teams ever. After yesterday's win for Aliquippa, I can say that the 2018 Aliquippa football team is now in the conversation as one of the best WPIAL football teams ever. Yeah, I don't care if you talk about Aliquippa losing to Central Valley in Week 10 of this season. I really don't care. Aliquippa really would have not impressed anybody if they won that game.

Aliquippa will lose some seniors next year; but, we all need to be aware that this team is going to come back next year and try to win another WPIAL and PIAA football championship.