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3 WPIAL Stars Make Super Bowl LVII

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The Super Bowl have been known to include stars from WPIAL as far back as Beaver Falls’ Joe Namath calling the New York Jets victory in Super Bowl III to as recent as Penn Hills’ Aaron Donald sacking quarterback Joe Burrow to win last year’s iteration of the classic championship game.

It’s nearly a tradition in the region to see WPIAL players in the game, so much so that they’ve contributed significantly to the Big 33’s streak – a high school all-star game featuring players from Pennsylvania and Maryland – of having a representative in every Super Bowl in history.

This year the WPIAL will be represented by three players in Kansas City Chiefs wide receivers Skyy Moore (Shadyside Academy) and Justin Watson (South Fayette) going against Philadelphia Eagles running back Miles Sanders (Woodland Hills).

Moore appeared in 16 games this past year as a rookie second round pick out of Western Michigan, although he only started three of those 16 games. He finished the season with 22 catches for 250 yards.

He caught three passes for 13 yards in the Chiefs win over the Cincinnati Bengals in the AFC Championship Game. He’s still in search of his first career touchdown, which would be quite another WPIAL moment if he were to get that in the Super Bowl.

He was key in the return game this season for Kansas City including in the AFC Championship when a 29-yard punt return set-up the Chiefs’ game-winning drive at their own 47-yard line with 30 seconds left.

His teammate Watson isn’t new to the Super Bowl after having won it alongside WPIAL alumni Rob Gronkowski (Woodland Hills) and Jordan Whitehead (Central Valley) with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Super Bowl LV.

After four years with the Buccaneers, Watson signed with the Chiefs this past offseason and tied career-highs in catches (15) and touchdowns (two). He’s been used on a few punt returns this year as well as setting a career-high in receiving yards (315).

Sanders meanwhile has been starting for the Eagles since being drafted in the second round out of Penn State in 2019. He had a career year this past season with career-highs in rushing touchdowns (11) and rushing yards (1,269) en route to his first Pro Bowl nod, although he obviously won’t appear in the event this year.

He’s been a consistent presence at running back since being drafted with getting at least 1,000 all-purpose yards in three of his four seasons and averaging exactly five yards-per-carry in his career.

In the NFC Championship game he excelled, scoring his team’s first two touchdowns to take 7-0 and later 14-7 leads. That 14-7 lead proved to be the difference maker as the 49ers failed to score another point.

Sandy Schall, Coldwell Banker
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Eli
Eli
1 year ago

My cousin played college ball at Penn with Justin Watson. I had no idea he was a WPIAL guy, though. Now I guess I have to root for him even harder.

Pittband
Pittband
1 year ago

Plus Avonte Maddox

Cignetti & Friends
Cignetti & Friends
1 year ago

How did Pitt or Ped State miss the kid from Shadyside Academy ? WVcc too !

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