Mt. Lebanon unrelenting in victory against Hempfield

By: Andy Stanko
Friday, September 25, 2020 | 11:29 PM

Mt. Lebanon’s offense scored touchdowns on six straight possessions and ran away with its first win of the season, 52-26 over Hempfield.

“When you miss your scrimmage and you miss your game and then you go into a game, for some of these kids, it’s the first varsity game they play,” Mt. Lebanon coach Bob Palko said. “Not taking anything away from Canon Mac, but again, it’s amazing what another (game) will do.”

After penalties derailed Mt. Lebanon’s first drive of the evening and Hempfield took a 7-0 lead with a 56-yard touchdown pass from Christian Zilli to Roman Pellis, the Blue Devils (1-1, 1-1 Class 6A) came alive.

“We battled all night,” Hempfield coach Rich Bowen said. “We knew they were going to be tough coming off a loss to Canon-Mac. I thought Mt. Lebanon played very efficient tonight. We had our chances to make it closer, but offensively they hurt us tonight.”

Lebo marched the length of field to tie the score 7-7 with a 3-yard plunge on a direct snap to Alex Tecza.

Following a three-and-out by Hempfield (1-2, 1-2), a punt return and personal foul penalty set Lebo up at the Hempfield 23-yard line. On Lebo’s first play, Joey Daniels rolled to his left and fired a dart to a leaping Eli Heidenreich for a score.

A strong kick return set the Hempfield offense up on the Mt. Lebanon 45 to start the next drive, but sacks by Charlie Pellegrino and Owen Halter thwarted the drive.

After a Hempfield punt, Tecza took a handoff through the left side and raced past the entire Spartans defense for a 75-yard touchdown run. Following another strong kick return for Hempfield, the Lebo defense pushed Hempfield backward on three plays to force another punt.

Mt. Lebanon drove 74 yards down the field and scored on a 6-yard throw from Daniels to Jacob Munoz to go ahead 28-7 with 4 minutes, 8 seconds left in the first half.

Hempfield’s offense drove 82 yards on the ensuing drive that was capped by a 21-yard TD pass from Zilli to sophomore Ian Tuffs with 1:12 left in the half to trim the deficit to 28-13.

Mt. Lebanon masterfully executed a two-minute drill, scoring its fourth touchdown of the second quarter in just 35 seconds with Daniels working the sidelines and scrambling out of harm’s way. Daniels connected with Heidenreich on a 33-yard catch-and-run for his second score of the evening.

“That’s nice, watching your quarterback be able to execute and be able to put people in the right position and make the proper reads,” Palko said. “It’s just guys feeling comfortable with things and making sure they know what the deal is.”

In the second half, Tecza hauled in a 51-yard catch-and-run for his third TD of the night as Lebo’s lead grew to its largest of the evening at 42-13.

Pellis reeled in another long TD for Hempfield in the final minute of the third quarter, this one from 68 yards.

Heidenreich tossed a TD pass on trick play to Matt Wertz, who also registered a third-quarter interception.

Noah Bhuta converted a 37-yard field goal, and Hempfield’s Mario Perkins had a 7-yard TD scamper to round out the scoring in the fourth quarter.

Hempfield struggled to run the football and finished with minus-8 yards on the ground.

“We got a couple good players up front in William Harvey and Cooper Austin,” Palko said. “Our linebackers are getting better, and we’re trying to get the outside backers rolling. Jack Smith is a kid that’s coming around as an outside ’backer for us. We’re looking for that to continue to get better.

Both of Hempfield’s quarterbacks, Zilli and sophomore Jake Phillips, had more than 100 yards passing. Zilli threw for 259 yards and three touchdowns, and Fillips completed 9 of 12 passes for 103 yards.

“I thought our two quarterbacks played well,” Bowen said. “We’ve got to try and find the way to establish the run game. We’ve got a lot of first-year starters on the offensive line, and we’re still trying to get into a groove there.”

Mt. Lebanon racked up 550 yards of total offense, and Tecza had 157 rushing yards, 58 receiving yards and three touchdowns. Maurice Plummer ran for 109 yards, and Heidenreich caught a pair of TD passes and threw for another. Daniels passed for 169 yards and four scores on the evening.

Mt. Lebanon hopes to carry over the offensive explosion into a meeting with No. 2 North Allegheny next week.

“NA, they’re rolling and doing well and we’re still trying to build,” Palko said. “North Allegheny tends to wear you down and out-physicals you. We have to, eventually, play big-boy football here soon and match that.”

Tags: Hempfield, Mt. lebanon