Oct 11, 2025 4 min read

When a team has the leading passer in the WPIAL, an opponent suspects it will throw the ball.

On Oct. 10, however, Upper St. Clair surprised Bethel Park. The Panthers rushed for 317 yards and six touchdowns in a 57-32 win against the Black Hawks.

“Teams peg us as being a team that throws the ball and I think we do that well, but we can run it too,” said USC skipper Mike Junko. “We feel like we are a balanced attack.

While Ethan Hellmann did throw for 159 yards and two touchdowns to improve to 1,943 yards and 25 scores on the year, Dante Coury churned out 144 yards and three touchdowns on 17 carries. John Banbury rolled up 101 yards and two scores on eight carries. Josh Snyder also rushed for a TD.

“If you like old-school WPIAL football, this was the game to take it all in,” Junko said. “We were efficient.”

James Gardner, Kenny Davis, Will Stohl, Mason Geyer, Chse Kaczmarek, Ryan Robbins and Jake Gillespie were among the linemen paving the path for the Panthers offensively.

“It all starts up front,” Junko said. “The offensive line from the inception really won the line of scrimmage and John and Dante are a load to bring down themselves.

“Offensively, we’ve really grown each week as a team,” Junko continued. “We know we can throw it if we want to but there’s a lot of opportunity in the run game and those guys up front were calling for it.

“Their confidence is growing. It’s not just with our quarterback. You are starting to see it with the rest of the crew because it’s opened some things up for us. That’s fun to watch.”

Because of Evan Devine and David Dennison, the Black Hawks kept the contest entertaining. Dennison rushed for 134 yards on 22 carries. He rushed for two scores.

Devine completed 13 of 25 aerials for 236 yards and three scoring strikes, a pair to Santino Nowozeniuk and one to Charles Simmons.

“Credit Bethel Park. They did a good job offensively all game. They made a number of explosive and big plays, their running back is very good and they caused a lot of problems for our defense.”

Nevertheless, USC made the stops necessary with Banbury and Nevin Shegan-Siniawski leading the way. They led with nine and 10 tackles respectively, all but one of each for them were solo. Anthony Bunn, Caffery Duplessi, Beck Shields and Nico D’Orazio were among the next top contributors on defense.

D’Orazio, Coury, Randy Yan and Josh Snyder were among the top receivers for the Panthers although Banbury, Drew Sanderson and Logan Lapinski also pitched in with single receptions. Yan, who had four catches, and D’Orazio (three grabs) both scored touchdowns. Snyder and Yan pulled in five and four passes.

With the win, USC improved to 7-1 overall and 2-1 in the Allegheny Six Conference, a game behind Peters Township. The Panthers will travel to Moon (2-1, 5-3) on Oct. 17.

“We have some things we need to fix because we play a good Moon team next. So we will have our hands full,” Junko said.

Junko noted the win over Bethel Park, however, was a nice finish for the seniors, who were playing their last regular season game in front of the home crowd.

“I don’t think they’ve lost a home game, at least in a long time, and I don’t think they were too interested in losing to Bethel,” Junko said. “So our seniors were determined. I give them a lot of credit because they have won a lot of football games.”

With the loss, Bethel Park slipped to 1-2 in the conference and 5-3 overall. The Black Hawks visit South Fayette at 7 p.m. Oct. 17 before wrapping up the regular season hosting Peters Township on Oct. 24.