(Pine-Richland, Gibsonia PA) - Roman Thompson rushes for 3 touchdowns and the Pittsburgh Central Catholic Vikings win their 10th WPIAL championship after a 42-7 win against North Allegheny.
Two years ago in the 6A Championship, Central Catholic began the game with a kick return for a touchdown. They did the same thing in 2025. Jayden Alexander took the opening return for a 97 yard touchdown.
On Central Catholic’s first possession on offense, they ran the hurry up offense and North Allegheny’s defense couldn’t stop the run game. Roman Thompson capped the drive off with a 13 yard touchdown run and the Vikings went ahead 14-0.
In the second quarter, North Allegheny’s punt to Aiden Nasiadka got returned to the Tigers 25 yard-line but he fumbled the ball and North Allegheny came away with the recovery.
A couple of plays later, Central Catholic’s Asthon Blatt forced a fumble on quarterback Brady Brinkley and Nick Curinga turned it into a scoop and score to extend the lead to 21-0 Vikings.
Zach Gleason intercepted Brinkley’s pass at the Central Catholic 6 yard-line on the next possession for the Tigers. Thompson called his own number for a 62 yard gain to the North Allegheny 25. The Vikings had a touchdown negated by a holding penalty and a field goal waived off for a 15 yard penalty on North Allegheny. Thompson punched in his second rushing touchdown of the half to give the Vikings a commanding 28-0 lead.
At the start of the third quarter, Central would extend the lead to 35-0 on a third rushing touchdown from Thompson.
The skies opened up late in the third quarter and the game went into a delay.
In the 4th quarter, Alexander bursts for a 58 yard touchdown, to make it 42-0 Central Catholic.
In the final minutes of the game, Brinkley connected with Cam Kushner for the touchdown.
Central Catholic will face State College in the PIAA quarterfinals.