The city of Clairton turned out to party.
After a ribbon-cutting ceremony was held at its newly renovated Tyler Boyd Stadium a day earlier, a capacity crowd descended upon the City of Prayer Friday night to officially open its venerable football mecca for a Week 0 showdown with one of WPIAL Class 3A’s championship contenders.
Imani Christian was happy to show up.
“I hate that I’ve got to be the guy to try to ruin this day, but if you know me, I relish in the opportunity to be the villain,” Saints coach LaRoi Johnson said. “I don’t mind to step up and be the villain. It’s one of them where it’s unfortunate that I’ve got to play the bad guy, but there’s probably no better guy to play the bad guy than me.”
Well, maybe Imani Christian junior Gabe Jenkins should be added to that list.
The junior quarterback and defensive back rushed for 211 yards and a touchdown, while also connecting with tight end Dajuan Craighead for a 3-yard scoring strike late in the fourth quarter to send the Saints to a 19-12 victory over the host Bears.
“Everybody was doubting us,” Jenkins said. “We had to prove them boys wrong. It feels good, man. It’s Imani against everyone.”
Jenkins opened the scoring for the Saints with a 37-yard first-quarter touchdown run, which gave his team a 7-6 lead with 8:42 left in the first quarter. Penn State recruit David Davis also added a first-quarter touchdown run of 39 yards for the Saints.
It would be Jenkins’ late-game heroics, though, that made the difference.
Facing a critical third-down play late in the fourth quarter, Jenkins broke through the tackles of several Clairton defenders and rambled 88 yards for a back-breaking run to set Imani Christian up with a first-and-goal play from the Bears’ 5-yard line.
He then sealed the victory with the touchdown pass to Craighead on a fourth-and-goal play from the 3-yard line.
“I saw a wide open gap so I just took off,” Jenkins said. “I was running down the sideline just watching the clock. I would’ve scored, but I was catching cramps in my calves.
“It felt good,” he added. “Now my coaches can trust me. I told [my coaches], ‘I’ve got you.’”
The 6-foot, 190-pound Jenkins is rated by 247 Sports recruiting as the top cornerback in Pennsylvania in the 2027 class, and the third overall in the state today. The four-star recruit holds scholarship offers from several Power Four conference schools including Pitt, Penn State and West Virginia.
Jenkins is poised for a breakout season on offense, too. He moved from running back to quarterback this season to replace former Saints quarterback Stephen Vandiver.
“That’s what he’s done his whole entire career, which is make plays and show up in the moments that he’s always needed to show up,” Johnson said. “That’s always what I say about Gabe Jenkins, ‘He’s going to show up when you need him to.’
“He got us through for what we needed him to in the end.”
As strong as Jenkins was Friday night, Imani Christians’ defense was equal to the task.
The Saints frustrated a Bears offense, which averaged 49.5 points per game to lead the WPIAL a season ago, for most of both teams’ 2025 opener.
Clairton senior Taris Wooding rushed for a 19-yard touchdown with 10:17 left in the first quarter to open the scoring. The Bears would not score again until quarterback Jeff Thompson III connected with Wooding for a 16-yard touchdown pass with 1:02 left in the game.
“Those guys, they have an attitude when they play,” Johnson said. “They are determined to not let people score. Like I said, ‘They know how talented they are.’ They just had a gut check. They really stepped up and just big time answered the call.”
Clairton’s offense was held to just 61 yards on the ground, while Thompson passed for 230 yards and three interceptions.
Imani Christian also kept Clairton from scoring inside the Saints’ 10-yard line on a critical series late in the fourth quarter.
“For us, as a Single-A football team, we should have won the game,” Clairton coach Wayne Wade said. “We’ll be ready next week.”
Wade said his team will learn from its loss to Imani Christian.
“The issue is with us up front,” he said. “That’s a very good football team up front on both sides of the ball. We’ll get it together. We’ll make sure we’re tougher up front.”
Clairton sophomore receiver Brandon Murphy Jr. caught six passes for 112 yards.
Wade said Murphy reminds him a lot of another great Bears receiver. Tyler Boyd was in the stadium to see Murphy play Friday night.
“Brandon Murphy was probably the second-best player on that football field tonight,” Wade said. “He’s a sophomore.”
Although he was disappointed Clairton couldn’t win the first game in Tyler Boyd Stadium with its namesake in attendance, Wade said he was thankful his former player showed up for the current crop of Bears.
“He was in the locker room with us before we came out and then at halftime,” Wade said. “Tyler has done so much for this program, you know, putting our name on the map, just being an excellent person. You’ve never heard anything bad about Tyler Boyd.
“He left here, went to Pitt, did everything he was supposed to do,” Wade added. “He left Pitt, went in the NFL, did everything he was supposed to do. My hats off for him and his family for him being able to have the stadium named after him. He’ll be around for a long time helping this program.”
John is a copy editor and page designer at the Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at jsanta@unionprogress.com.