Mt. Lebanon beats McDowell in PIAA quarterfinals
The Mt. Lebanon football team embarked on its quest for a PIAA championship with a 47-14 victory over McDowell.
The victory put the Blue Devils one game away from competing for the state title Dec. 10 in Hershey.
Lebo (13-0) needs a win Dec. 4 against State College to advance to the final.
Eli Heidenreich dominated against McDowell.
A Navy recruit, he rushed for 165 yards and three touchdowns on eight carries. Heidenreich also caught three passes for 110 yards.
Joey Daniels completed 6 of 11 passes for 171 yards while Alex Tecza rolled up 109 yards and two touchdowns on 19 carries.
After the Trojans jumped ahead, 7-0, on a 28-yard touchdown run by Christian Santiago, the Blue Devils responded with 47 unanswered points.
Lebo forced five turnovers, the first an interception by Tecza. The interception did not result in a score as McDowell blocked a Blue Devils’ field goal attempt, however, three more McDowell turnovers resulted in Lebo scores.
After a Matt Wertz interception, Lebo drove downfield and scored on an 11-yard run by Tecza. The touchdown afforded the Blue Devils a 21-7 cushion at intermission.
Shortly after, Charlie Pellegrino forced a fumble that Daniel King recovered. Heidenreich, who had scored the team’s first two touchdowns, galloped 80 yards for the score. Noah Bhuta’s extra point pushed the advantage to 28-7 with 7:54 left in the third quarter.
A Tommy Boehner interception ignited another Lebo scoring drive less than a minute later. Daniels connected with Brendan Anderson for a 35-yard touchdown pass at the 6:45 mark in the frame.
A fake punt by Michael Beiersdorf kept another Lebo drive alive. Eventually Tecza scored on a 4-yard run out of the Wildcat offense to expand the Blue Devil lead to 40-7.
The mercy rule went in to effect after Michael Gevaudan hooked up with Pellegrino for a 25-yard scoring strike with 8:13 left in the game.
Bishop Canevin claimed its first WPIAL football championship in 31 years with a 42-7 decision over Our Lady of Sacred Heart in the Class A final played Nov. 26 at Heinz Field.
In 1990, the Crusaders won the Class 2A title when they edged Washington, 21-20, at Three Rivers Stadium.
This year, the Crusaders scored 42 unanswered points to defeat the upstart Chargers.
OLSH had reached the Class A finals by topping three higher seeds: No. 8 Greensburg Central Catholic, 28-8, No. 1 Clairton, 29-15, and No. 5 Rochester, 14-13.
The Crusaders’ route to the finals included victories against Burgettstown, 49-6, Shenango, 31-13, and second-seeded Cornell, 24-7.
The Chargers took their only lead with 4:10 remaining in the first quarter when Nehemiah Akeem connected with Stephen Greer on a 6-yard pass on a fourth-and-goal situation.
Bishop Canevin responded with a 28-point second-quarter blitz.
Keshawn Harris tied the match, 7-7, with a 6-yard plunge into the end zone at the 7:54 mark before the Crusaders turned to Xavier Nelson to blow the game open. A junior, he rushed for 102 yards and scored three touchdowns.
Nelson put the Crusaders ahead with 6:16 left in the half, catching a three-yard hitch from Jason Cross and outrunning the OLSH defense for a 77-yard score. Seventeen seconds later, Nelson had a Pick-6 for 45 yards on the defensive side. A junior, Nelson completed the hat trick of touchdowns with 1:37 remaining left in the half. He hauled in a 36-yard pass from Cole Olzewski to make it 28-7.
Olzewski tossed his second touchdown in the third quarter, finding Willie Banks-Hicks for a four-yard connection to push the gap to 35-7.
Jaiden Torres capped the scoring. While 8:12 remaining in the contest, he broke multiple tackles and raced 52 yards into the endzone.
Defensively, the Crusaders intercepted four passes in total and held the Chargers offense to 126 yards.
With the win, Bishop Canevin improved to 13-1 overall and entered the PIAA 1A Football Championships in the semifinal round on Dec. 3-4 against District 9 champion Redbank Valley.