Paul Jones acknowledges he still isn't fully recovered from a broken left ankle sustained in July. Then early in last night's game, the star Sto-Rox quarterback bruised his left shin.

For a half, Jones played like a hurting quarterback. Then he came out in the second half and healed Sto-Rox's stagnant offense.

Jones came alive in the final two quarters and led Sto-Rox to a 25-7 victory in a big WPIAL Class AA Century Conference game.

Jones, ranked among the top senior quarterbacks in the country, finished the game 15 of 29 for 249 yards and two touchdowns. But he was 8 of 13 for 179 yards in the second half as Sto-Rox (4-1 overall, 4-1 conference) came back from a 7-0 halftime deficit to hand Seton-LaSalle (4-1, 4-1) its first loss of the year.

"The first half, I'll take the blame. I was too worried about my ankle and wasn't thinking straight," Jones said. "The second half, I just said forget about it and play."

While Jones' second-half play was certainly big for Sto-Rox, two other keys were sophomore receiver/defensive back Marzett Geter and Sto-Rox's pass rush. Geter caught two touchdown passes of 38 and 44 yards. He also intercepted two passes on defense.

Seton-LaSalle quarterback Anthony Rizza, who came in as the WPIAL's passing leader with 908 yards, finished 13 of 24 for 132 yards. But Sto-Rox sacked Rizza nine times. Sto-Rox rushed him hard, and Rizza took a number of hits trying to scramble from the pressure.

"Nine sacks? That's a beautiful thing," Geter said. "Our defense was sick and tired of people passing on us. Last week, South Fayette passed for over 200 yards on us."

Seton-LaSalle led at halftime on Rizza's 9-yard touchdown pass to Mike Del Sardo with 11:18 left in the second quarter.

Sto-Rox coach Jason Ruscitto said: "We had to make some adjustments, but the big adjustment was simple. We had to get down to fundamentals."

And letting Jones throw is usually a fundamentally sound option for the Vikings. Drew Carswell, a Pitt recruit, finished with six catches for 80 yards.

"I told Paul, 'Just put it out there and I'll catch it,' " Geter said.

Sto-Rox scored on its first possession of the second half when Jones and Geter hooked up on a 38-yard scoring play. Dontae Gilmore's run for the two-point conversion gave Sto-Rox the lead for good.

Jones threw a pretty 44-yard scoring pass to Geter with 5:21 left in the game. Sto-Rox also got a late safety -- and Gilmore returned the ensuing punt 60 yards for a score with 40 seconds left.

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