Sharpsville is the lone area team still practicing this close to Christmas, but the Blue Devils wouldn't have it any other way...playing in the Western Final this weekend.
"Well, we knew we were good ever since we played with each other in eighth grade," stated Devils senior quarterback Jake Henwood. "Western final good? I didn't know we'd be this good."
But Sharpsville is good enough to reach the state semi-finals... to face the 2-time defending state champs.
"Like, this is what we've been working for," said Devils senior lineman Robby Moss. "We want to play Clairton."
"We joked about it in our younger days, saying 'Let's get to Clairton. Let's get to the Final Four.' Joked about it, and now it's come true," Henwood said.
The truth might hurt, though, as the Bears have won 45-straight games.
"They have a lot of talent," stated Henwood. "Their talent's off the charts. It's how they win their games."
"They have the ability to make a big play out of nothing," added Sharpsville head coach Paul Piccirilli.
"Their running back, he's a stud... that'd be a word to describe him," said Devils senior lineman Dylan Hogue.
Sharpsville lost over two-thirds of their starters from a year ago, so expectations were very low heading into 2011, but this team saw something very special early on this season, and have been riding with a chip on their shoulder ever since.
"Our whole team, I'd say, has a swag... little bit of swagger to it," explained Hogue.
"I feel like we're not supposed to win," said Henwood. "No one in the State of Pennsylvania, not one person outside Sharspville, says we're going to win this game, so being the underdog just motivates us more."
"Nobody expects us to win," added Moss. "Even this season, no one expected us to even make the playoffs, and we proved them wrong, so it's time to make a statement."
A statement that would result in the Blue Devils first trip to Hershey since 1997. It won't be easy, but it's also not impossible.
"Anything can happen," said Piccirilli. "That's why they play the game. It might take an ungodly four feet of snow or something, but we'll pray for that and hope for the best."
"Everybody has bad days," Henwood said. "They're just high school kids like we are. they're not some super-human God team."
"They're just another football team," said Moss. "They're Clairton. We're Sharpsville. We haven't saw them yet, and they haven't saw us yet."
"We go toe to toe, I think it'll be a great fight, and it'll go to like the 13th round," said Hogue.
"It's nothing more than another game to us," stated Devils senior running back Spencer Bland. "And streaks were made to be broken, and you never know what could happen."
The Devils and Bears will kick it off Friday at 7 p.m. at Slippery Rock University. The winner of this game is headed to Hersheypark next Friday for the Class A state championship.
