Peters Township celebrates undefeated regular season

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Lucas Rost of Peters Township gains touch yardage after making a reception in a 35-0 win against Bethel Park. In the win, he had five catches, including one for a touchdown.

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Cole Neupaver escapes the grasp on a Bethel Park tackler during WPIAL Class 5A football action. Neupaver scored twice to lead Peters Township to a 14-0 halftime lead against the Black Hawks. Neupaver has rushed for over 1,000 yards this season for the Indians, who completed a 10-0 regular season before heading into the playoffs this week.

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Nolan DiLucia intercepts a pass on defense for Peters Township in a 35-0 win against Bethel Park. A four-year starter as a defensive back, DiLucia is also the leader on offense, having passed for more than 8,000 career yards in his scholastic career.

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Reston Lehman makes the reception then looks down field to make his move as Max Cortes (72) clears a blocker from his path.

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Before embarking on its quest for a WPIAL championship, Peters Township (10-0) celebrated an undefeated regular season in football.

By shutting out Bethel Park, 35-0, on Oct. 24, the Indians also captured the Allegheny Six Conference championship with a 5-0 mark.

The win marked the fifth time this season the Indians held an opponent scoreless. They have allowed just 6.3 points a game while averaging 34.3 on offense.

“Regular-season accolades come with high expectations,” said PT field general TJ Plack. “Our hard work and dedication has put us in a great position playoff-wise.”

By virtue of their record and conference crown, the Indians clinched the No. 2 seed in the Class 5A tournament.

“Our young men know what it takes to win,” Plack said. “There focus and effort has been rewarded.”

Pine-Richland gained the No. 1 spot. The two teams met in last year’s final at Acrisure Stadium with the Rams posting the victory and earning the championship trophy.

Peters Township gained a first-round bye in the tournament and will host a quarterfinal contest at 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 7. The Indians face the winner of the North Hills (3-7) at Bethel Park contest played Oct. 31.

“We used the bye week to get healthy, work on our weaknesses, get back to fundamentals and to game plan a bit,” Plack said.

In the regular season win against the Black Hawks, Nolan DiLucia completed 18 of 23 passes for 258 yards and two scoring strikes of 4 and 28 yards to Jeremy Poletti and Lucas Rost.

Rost finished with five receptions for 67 yards while Lucas Shanafelt led with seven grabs for 94 yards.

DiLucia, who has passed for over 8,000 yards in his scholastic career, also rushed for a 3-yard touchdown. This fall, DiLucia ranked No. 4 in the WPIAL with 2,150 passing yards. He completed 131 of 196 attempts for 20 touchdowns.

Cole Neupaver accounted for the first two scores on rushes of 47 and 3 yards. Neupaver finished with 129 yards rushing. Heading into the postseason, Neupaver has 1,034 rushing yards on 190 carries for a 5.4-yard average.

Bright spots in the loss for the Black Hawks, who finished the regular season at 6-4 but 2-3 in the conference, were Evan Devine and Santino Nowozeniuk.

Devine completed nine passes for 147 yards. Nowozeniuk pulled in seven of those aerials for 133 yards.

Upper St. Clair and Chartiers Valley entered the playoffs on a positive note.

The Panthers defeated Baldwin, 56-8, to finish in third place in the Allegheny Six Conference. They entered their first-round playoff contest against Plum (5-5) with an 8-2 overall record.

In the win, Ethan Hellmann completed 10 0f 13 passes for 182 yards and five touchdowns to Nico D’Orazio (19 and 5 yards), Drew Sanderson (55), Randy Yan (26) and James Gardner (12). Hellmann also rushed for a 32-yard score.

John Banbury returned a punt for a 33-yard touchdown and Andrew Gaither had a Pick 6 for 63 yards.

Jacobo Echeverria Lozano converted all of the extra points.

Thanks to a shutout win against Ringgold, 38-0, Char Valley finished the regular season with 7-3 overall record and clinched a berth in the Class 4A playoffs to face McKeesport (7-3).

In the triumph against the Rams, Luke Miranda completed 9 of 12 passes for 127 yards. He tossed scoring strikes of 8 and 42 yards to Damien Holloway and Julius Best. Miranda also rushed for a 6-yard touchdown.

Tayshaun Lewis rolled up 219 yards rushing for the Colts. He rushed for two touchdowns, measuring 75 and 12 yards.

Also in the win, Luke Waldron kicked a 23-yard field goal. Waldron also contributed five extra points.

Meanwhile, Mt. Lebanon and South Fayette ended their seasons on losing notes.

While the Blue Devils dropped a 14-7 decision to Norwin, the Lions succumbed to Moon, 24-21.

For Lebo, which finished the season 2-8 overall, Patrick Smith completed five aerials for 145 yards and a 67-yard scoring strike for 67 yards to Maxton Siegel.

For the Lions, who finished 5-5 overall but 1-5 in the Allegheny Six Conference, Drew Welhorsky completed 12 passes for 123 yards and Aayden Wright rushed for 120 yards.

Welhorsky rushed for a 7-yard score and tossed a 30-yard TD strike to Wright. He also completed a 2-point conversion pass to Bo Stover.

Luke Gillen kicked two field goals, measuring 27 and 35 yards for the Lions.