Sometime in the coming weeks, Pennsylvania state workers will bring permanent neutrality to the world's largest football trophy -- a bridge.
They will mount a "Rochester-Monaca Bridge" sign on the east end of the span over the Ohio River and a "Monaca-Rochester Bridge" sign on its west end.
And thus will end a rivalry that was short in lifespan -- 21 years is nothing in western Pennsylvania football -- but perfect in every other way.
Monaca and Rochester are small, working-class towns, both populated by second- and third-generation immigrants, both left bereft by the vanished steel industry and both football-crazy.
They have long winning traditions on the field and little else to brag about. They stare each other down across the Ohio River, with an imposing steel arch running from the heart of one downtown to the heart of the other.
Since 1988, the winner of the Rochester Rams-Monaca Indians game has won naming rights for the bridge for 12 months. When the Rams win, police stop traffic and workers mount "Rochester-Monaca Bridge" signs to the overhead beams at each end.
When the Indians win, the signs read "Monaca-Rochester Bridge." The game -- always the last of the regular season, the only time to schedule a true rivalry match up -- naturally has become known as "The Bridge Game."
"We've had some big ball games," Monaca principal and assistant coach Shawn McCreary said. "I've coached when both teams were undefeated, and as recently as last year, we played for the division title. ...
"You have to experience it to understand it," former Rochester coach and current Monaca administrator Dan Matsook said. "There's a lot of pride."
This year's players had better hold onto that pride because on Saturday, it all comes to an end.
The Monaca School District this summer merged with Center Area School District to form Central Valley. The elementary schools were consolidated this year, and the middle and high schools will consolidate next year. Monaca Junior-Senior High School will be no more; the building will become Central Valley Middle School.
This year's Indians will become part of next year's Central Valley Warriors, playing in what is now Center's stadium.
"I understand why we're merging, and I look forward to the future," McCreary said. "But it is the end, and it's going to be bittersweet no matter what the outcome is."
The two districts merged largely because Monaca's shrinking enrollment -- it has fewer than 700 students this year -- was making it difficult to offer a full curriculum, and the district was facing eventual renovation needs it could not afford. Center, meanwhile, also was losing enrollment, and leaders there saw an opportunity for a revitalized district.
The initial results have been good -- Central Valley's 2009-10 budget is $1 million less than the two district's combined 2008-09 budgets, elementary programs are reportedly humming along and planning is under way for an enhanced secondary curriculum and further costs savings next year.
But there is no way to plan for the Bridge Game -- Central Valley probably will be two class levels larger than Rochester.
"We're playing for the biggest trophy in the United States," Rochester head coach Gene Matsook said. "I'm sorry to see it go."
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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