PIAA Class 5A championship preview: Peters Township vs. Imhotep Charter

When Peters Township players and coaches look at their opponent Friday night, they will see one of the most impressive collections of talent in the entire state.

To say that Imhotep Charter has a wealth of gifted players wouldn’t do the Panthers justice. The next-level talent includes a running back headed to play at Georgia, a pair of Penn State recruits, one headed to Pitt, and a defensive end considered the top junior in the state who boasts offers from three of the four teams in the College Football Playoff.

“This is a great opportunity for our kids,” Peters Township coach T.J. Plack said. “[Imhotep Charter] has some hardware as in offers from different schools. The guys in our senior class, the majority of them are Division III players and for some it will be their last football game.”

One that could see Peters Township win its first-ever state title.

Peters Township (15-0), three weeks removed from winning its first WPIAL title, will shoot for more history when it faces Imhotep Charter (14-0) for the PIAA Class 5A championship at Cumberland Valley High School in Mechanicsburg at 7 p.m. Imhotep Charter’s only title came in 2015.

When Peters Township held its banquet Monday night, each of the team’s captains spoke. They all shared the same message: Let’s cap this season with a state title Friday.

Hailing from the Philadelphia Public League, Imhotep Charter may be uber-talented, but the Panthers aren’t unbeatable. A couple of WPIAL teams have proven that. Similarly talented Panthers teams have been beaten by WPIAL opponents in the final each of the past two seasons — Penn-Trafford defeated the Panthers, 17-14, in overtime in 2021, and Pine-Richland topped them by a score of 28-14 last season.

“They definitely have a lot of pieces in place, and I’m sure they’re extra motivated after losing to WPIAL teams the last two years,” said Plack, who is 69-25 in eight seasons after taking over a program that had just one playoff win and two winning seasons in the previous 21 seasons.

Still, the amount of talent Imhotep Charter has on its roster is undeniable. The senior class alone includes Tyseer Denmark (Penn State wide receiver recruit), Kenneth Woseley (Penn State cornerback recruit), Jashear Whittington (Pitt defensive tackle recruit) and Zafir Stewart (Illinois offensive line recruit). The junior class might even be better with the likes of Jabree Wallace-Coleman (Georgia running back recruit), Zahir Mathis (defensive end ranked the No. 1 junior in the state) and cornerback Saimire Locks, whose list of offers includes Pitt and Oregon. Heck, even the freshman class has a big prospect in wide receiver Kareem Haqq, who recently received offers from Pitt and Penn State.

The Imhotep Charter offense flows through senior quarterback Mikal Davis, a three-year starter and Army recruit who has thrown for 2,239 yards and 17 touchdowns and rushed for 614 yards and 13 touchdowns. Wallace-Coleman leads the running attack and has rushed for 1,373 yards and 27 touchdowns for the Panthers, who average 43.7 points per game. Four players have at least 20 receptions, with Denmark (30 catches, 350 yards, 4 touchdowns) leading the way.

“Their quarterback has a good skill set. He does a good job of running and throwing,” Plack said. “They’ve got a couple of good receivers. Their running back, the Georgia commit, he’s dangerous.”

Wallace-Coleman ran for 73 yards and three touchdowns on 12 carries in a 42-14 semifinal win against Strath Haven. Davis threw for 336 yards and three touchdowns, two of them going to the freshman Haqq.

Peters Township might have the best defense Imhotep Charter has faced all season. The Indians and their 3-3-5 formation have given opponents fits. Peters Township has surrendered only 123 points on the season, an average of 8.2 a game. The Indians unquestionably played at a high level in last week’s 14-9 semifinal win against Cocalico. They gave up only 170 total yards and used a goal-line stand in the final seconds to hold on for the win. Two of the standouts have been outside linebackers Mickey Vaccarello and Reston Lehman. Vaccarello is a junior and Lehman a sophomore, and both have FBS offers. Vaccarello has racked up team highs of 12 sacks and 28 tackles for loss. A ball-hawking secondary that has collected 29 interceptions includes senior Eliot Schratz, who has a team-best seven picks.

“That’s what they do. That’s their job,” Plack said of a defense guided by coordinators Darrin McMillon and Troy Grunseth. “Our defensive coaches do a great job week in and week out coming up with a plan of attack, taking away the other team’s best players. We do have some pieces, some guys in the middle that do a great job. And I’ve been saying for a while, we’ve got five defensive backs that can cover and play like linebackers. Once [Imhotep Charter] sees our speed and scheme, it’s going to be a little different from what they have played.”

Peters Township sophomore quarterback Nolan DiLucia threw for 193 yards and two touchdowns against Cocalico. He tossed a 24-yard touchdown pass to Carter Shanafelt and a 14-yard strike to Thomas Aspinwall, who did a remarkable job of getting one of his feet inbounds as he made the catch on the right side of the end zone.

On the season, DiLucia, a first-year starter, has passed for 3,049 yards and 29 touchdowns. Five players have at least 25 catches, with Shanafelt hauling in a team-best 43 for 811 yards. Shanafelt, who is also the team’s kicker, has accounted for 153 points (11 touchdowns, 7 field goals, 66 extra points). The run game is led by Vinny Sarcone (926 yards, 18 touchdowns) and Preston Blair (663 yards, 8 touchdowns).

Imhotep Charter has a defense that is even stingier than its counterpart. The Panthers have shut out seven opponents and have given up 100 points on the season, an average of 7.8 per game. Whittington has a team-high 11 sacks, and Woseley has collected six of the team’s 22 interceptions.

“Defensively, their two bookends are really good,” Plack said. “They’ve got some highly active kids and a couple of nice corners.”

Considering the special season Peters Township has already had, some might think the Indians are playing with house money at this point. But according to Plack, that’s anything but the case as his team prepares to try to knock off a very talented team to win a first PIAA title.

“We’ve earned all of this,” he said. “This is our money, not house money. We’re going into this not thinking whatever happens happens. We’re going in there to win this game.”