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Birch passes Jeannette past Avella

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Freshman quarterback Brad Birch passed for four touchdowns and ran for another score — all in the first half — and Jeannette scored twice on returns as the Jayhawks rolled to a 62-14 victory over Avella in a Class A first-round playoff game Friday night.

Jeannette (7-1), the No. 3 seed, led 28-0 after the first quarter and scored 34 second-quarter points for a 62-7 halftime lead.

Birch, who led the WPIAL in touchdown passes in the regular season with 22, threw scoring passes of 10 and 23 yards to his brother, Brett Birch, two yards to Kaelan Piscar and 10 yards to Toby Cline. Brad Birch also scampered 40 yards for a second-quarter score that gave the Jayhawks a 49-7 lead.

Brad Birch completed seven of 10 passes for 88 yards.

James Sanders had a 34-yard TD run and returned a kickoff 61 yards for a score. Ryan Kimmel returned an Avella fumble 14 yards for a second-quarter TD.

Avella (5-3), which defeated Carmichaels in the regular-season finale to ean a playoff berth, scored in the second quarter on a five-yard run by quarterback K.J. Rush. The score was set up by a 42-yard pass to Noah Markle down to the Jeannette 10-yard line.

The only scoring in the second half was an 11-yard TD pass from Avella’s Cole Jaworoski to Tanner Terensky in the fourth quarter.

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