Bethel Park runs down South Fayette
Dinari Clacks (5) makes the stop on Christian Brandi (11) while his teammate Wesmyn Wright (6) attempts to assist on the play.
Nico Lamonde
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
South Fayette quarterback Nico Lamonde attempts to elude Bethel Park linebacker Gavin Moul during Allegheny County Six Conference action.
Dinari Clacks (5) makes a hit on Nate Deanes and he loses the football after making the reception.
An excited Nate Deanes (1) celebrates with Wesmyn Wright (6) after scoring a touchdown for South Fayette.
South Fayette's Nate Deanes (1) eludes a tackle by Bethel Park's Ty Steward (13) and rambles into the end zone for a touchdown.
McDONALD – Usually, when a team’s missing its top running back, that’s a problem.
Not so for Bethel Park Friday night.
Bethel Park’s leading rusher, Austin Caye, wasn’t available because of an injury.
Fortunately, Gavin Moul and Ryan Petras were there.
Both Moul and Petras rushed for more than 100 yards. Moul finished the night with 138 yards and a touchdown on 23 carries, Petras had 116 and two touchdowns on 22 carries, and Bethel also got 65 yards on six carries from Blake Striegel in its 28-9 win over South Fayette.
Bethel Park has clinched at least a share of the WPIAL Class 5A Allegheny Six Conference championship, and the Blackhawks (4-0, 8-1) would win the conference outright with a win over Peters Township next week. Peters is 3-1 in the Allegheny Six.
Bethel coach Brian DeLallo, the rushing attack met its weekly objective.
“We always set a goal of 200 yards rushing,” DeLallo said. “That’s one of our offensive goals. It’s big. It says a lot about our offensive line. It doesn’t matter who’s back there, we’re going to open holes and get the job done.”
Bethel easily eclipsed that goal, going for 309 yards on the ground.
Doing all of that without Caye was “huge,” DeLallo said.
“There’s not a lot of years where… you saw tonight, we had three kids that went in there and played halfback with Austin out,” he said. “And they all did a really good job.
Bethel drew first blood with a beautiful 15-play, 79-yard drive that took 7:39.
Bethel ran the ball 14 times on that possession, and quarterback Tanner Pfeuffer capped it off with a 1-yard QB sneak.
South Fayette (2-2, 5-4) answered on the first play of the ensuing drive on a 63-yard touchdown run by Nate Deanes. Bethel blocked the extra point, allowing it to keep the lead.
The Blackhawks held Deanes to 11 yards on his other six carries.
South Fayette took its first lead of the night on a Tyler Nicholson field goal almost halfway through the second quarter. Bethel got the advantage back on its next possession. Petras ran in from six yards, and Kaden Wetzel’s extra point made it 14-9.
Despite having the lead at halftime, DeLallo wasn’t pleased with his team’s first half performance.
“We didn’t execute real well in the first half,” DeLallo said. “We made some mistakes offensively, and we made a lot of mistakes defensively. We had some linemen mistakes, some assignment mistakes that are uncharacteristic of our kids. So we yelled a little bit at halftime, we corrected some Xs and Os at halftime, and then the kids executed.”
Indeed, they did.
In five second-half possessions for South Fayette, the Lions didn’t get a single first down.
For South Fayette coach Joe Rossi, Bethel Park’s second half dominance was a product of its style of play.
“I just think they grind teams out, man,” Rossi said. “They’re just physically, a bunch of seniors playing and kids have a lot of experience.
Bethel firmly took control of the game in the third quarter with a 6:23 drive that ended on a two-yard touchdown by Moul. A 16-yard run by Petras on the next possession put the game to bed.
Bethel will look to keep it going next week against Peters.
South Fayette is slated to end its regular season next Friday at Upper St. Clair. Both games are scheduled to kickoff at 7.
Upper St. Clair, at 3-1, also has a chance at a share of the conference championship.
South Fayette will look to spoil that and get itself into the postseason.
Next Friday will be fun for both DeLallo and Rossi.
“I think we play in the toughest 5A league in the state of Pennsylvania,” DeLallo said. “Great kids, great coaches. I’m just happy to have… a share is nice, but we would, of course, love to win it outright.
“Gotta get a win,” Rossi said. We’ll see how it all shakes out. I’m sure things will come out tomorrow, what we need to do, I haven’t even looked at it. But we have a great Upper St. Clair team staring at us.”