Mt. Lebanon comes alive in 2nd half, beats North Allegheny for 1st time since 2005

By: Sam Hall
Friday, October 1, 2021 | 11:32 PM

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The Mt. Lebanon Blue Devils had to bow down to a banner strung across the entrance to their locker room all week long leading up to their Friday match-up with the North Allegheny Tigers.

The banner said just “2005 bow down” and was hung low so as to force each player to duck under it to enter the locker room.

That year — 2005 — was the last time the Blue Devils had beaten the Tigers. Since that time, they had lost 11 straight games to the Wexford powerhouse, being outscored 358-118 during the losing streak.

The Blue Devils will not have to bow down any longer. Mt. Lebanon broke open a one-score game in the second half, outscoring North Allegheny 30-6 and coming away with a convincing 51-20 victory to stay perfect on the season at 6-0, 3-0 in Class 6A play.

Coach Bob Palko laughed when asked if he knew his team had not beaten North Allegheny since 2005,

“I knew and I made sure all my players knew as well. I made them bow down to North Allegheny all week long,” Palko said.

Senior tailback Alex Tecza said it was the perfect motivation for his team.

“It made us so fired up, and it stayed there all week long,” he said. “We wanted this so bad.”

Tecza scored four touchdowns on runs from 2, 1, and 1 yards and a 3-yard pass from senior quarterback Joey Daniels. Daniels threw three touchdown passes and ran for a score. Eli Heidenreich hauled in a pair of touchdown passes on the night for the Blue Devils, who led 21-7 at the half.

With all the offensive fireworks, one would think the focus for the victorious Blue Devils would have been on the offensive explosion after the game. But the consensus from Mt. Lebanon was that it was a defensive moment that decided the football game.

Late in the first quarter with Lebo leading 14-0, North Allegheny put together an impressive drive, and with less than 15 seconds to play in the period, had a first-and-goal from inside the Mt. Lebanon 1-yard line. On the final play of the period, the Blue Devils defense stopped a quarterback sneak, then on three consecutive tries to open the second quarter, the defense stood strong and turned away North Allegheny.

Afterwards, Tecza called the defensive stand, “the defining moment of this football game.”

Palko echoed his running back’s sentiments.

“Oh, there is no question about it,” he said. “You want to wins games in this league, you better have a defense that can answer the bell and they did right there.”

The Tigers came out of the break and looked like they were about to claw their way back into the game to start the third quarter, trailing 21-7, North Allegheny’s defense forced a three-and-out from Lebo to start the second half. Then, on their third play from scrimmage in the third quarter, J.R. Burton, who had a huge night rushing the football for the Tigers, burst out for a 61-yard touchdown run. North Allegheny was within seven points at 21-14.

Mt. Lebanon’s defense, though, stemmed the flow of momentum after that, forcing a turnover on downs that lead to a Tecza score. Then the Blue Devils got an interception from Brendan Anderson that lead to yet another Tecza touchdown.

The Tigers fell to 3-3 overall and 1-2 in conference play, but the past two weeks, Art Walker’s club has had to face the No. 1 and 2 teams in the WPIAL’s 6A classification. Next week, they are at home to face Norwin.

The Mt. Lebanon win sets up a huge showdown next Friday night as No. 1 Central Catholic visits the No. 2 Blue Devils.

Watch an archived broadcast of this game on Trib HSSN.

Tags: Mt. lebanon, North Allegheny