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Mt. Lebanon tops rival Bethel Park in overtime, avenging last year’s OT loss

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Friday, September 1, 2023 | 11:39 PM

Mt. Lebanon thought they’d won and then were sure they’d lost, so the surprised smile junior Noah Schaerli showed afterward summed up Friday’s win perfectly.

“It was unbelievable,” said Schaerli, who caught an 8-yard touchdown pass in overtime to secure Mt. Lebanon’s 19-16 win over host Bethel Park in a South Hills rivalry now accustomed to OT finishes.

This was the second year in a row that these teams needed overtime.

“That was a hard-fought battle,” Schaerli said. “A lot of trash talk. It really meant the world to me.”

The touchdown was his first in a varsity game.

Mt. Lebanon improved to 2-0 under first-year coach Mike Collodi, who’s new to this rivalry. Bethel Park is 1-1 with new coach Phil Peckich, the team’s offensive coordinator a year ago.

It was Bethel Park that won in OT last season.

“This game was going to be about toughness, and it wasn’t going to be won in quarters one, two or three,” Peckich said, “or, tonight, the fourth quarter. We had a chance to win that game, and we left a lot of plays out there.”

In the first three-and-a-half quarters, the teams scored little.

Mt. Lebanon had two rushing touchdowns, and Bethel Park returned a punt to the end zone. Otherwise, the defenses combined to force four turnovers, eight punts and three failed fourth-down conversions.

Yet, the drama ramped up late in the fourth quarter.

With less than a minute left in regulation, Mt. Lebanon held a 13-7 lead and the Blue Devils thought they’d won when Bethel Park’s Tanner Pfeuffer threw incomplete on fourth down just 9 yards from the end zone. But a defensive holding penalty gave Bethel Park new life.

On the next play, Pfeuffer threw a 4-yard touchdown strike to receiver Ryan Petras. Tied 13-13 with 53 seconds left, the extra-point kick by Kaden Wetzel missed.

Now, Mt. Lebanon had new life.

“This was probably the most emotional game I’ve ever been a part of,” Collodi said. “What’s awesome, though, is the kids responded. (Bethel Park scores) with less than a minute left. They don’t hang their heads. We put out a block team. Maybe that had something to do with it. We have three or four guys that are 6-5 in the front.”

In high school overtime, each team gets four plays from the 10-yard line.

Bethel Park went first, and Pfeuffer saw two would-be touchdown passes slip through his receivers’ hands in the end zone. The Black Hawks settled for a 27-yard field goal by Wetzel.

“We couldn’t seem to make that play that was going to put us over the edge,” Peckich said.

Mt. Lebanon ran the ball on its first two OT plays and gained 2 yards. On third down, quarterback Michael Malone found the Schaerli in the right side of the end zone for the winning touchdown.

Malone completed 5 of 9 passes for only 40 yards with one touchdown and one interception.

“I knew the ball was coming to me,” Schaerli said. “I gave a little double move and just made the catch. It was unbelievable.”

Before that play, Mt. Lebanon coaches moved Schaerli to a slot receiver position to avoid Petras on defense.

“It’s a play we had in our back pocket,” Collodi said. “Noah Schaerli is absolutely phenomenal. He had a big game last week against Gateway and he came up big tonight.”

After Bethel Park won in overtime last season, the Blue Devils insisted they were out for revenge.

“We knew this was our chance to avenge the people from last year,” Schaerli said. “Just get revenge and win.”

The teams went scoreless in the first and third quarters.

In the second, Mt. Lebanon relied on a power running game and the trio of Fred LaSota, Beckham Dee and James Green. The three running backs carried the ball on 15 consecutive plays in one stretch as the Blue Devils grinded out an 84-yard drive and a 4-yard touchdown run by LaSota.

The drive consumed more than eight minutes, and Mt. Lebanon led 6-0 with 3:05 left in the half.

LaSota finished with 77 rushing yards and a touchdown on 18 carries. Green had 48 yards on 10 carries and scored a 4-yard touchdown early in the fourth quarter to lead 13-7.

Pfeuffer completed 15 of 29 passes for 136 yards with one touchdown and one interception for Bethel Park.

The Black Hawks claimed a 7-6 lead just before halftime when Petras returned a punt 48 yards for a touchdown on the last play of the half. Peckich forced Mt. Lebanon to punt by calling two timeouts in the final seconds.

However, Bethel Park’s offense went scoreless on its first eight possessions before the tying touchdown pass from Pfeuffer to Petras late in the fourth quarter.

“Ultimately, the message (to the team) was that we haven’t scratched the surface of what we can be, and we’ve got to continue to improve,” Peckich said. “It goes to show that in close games like tonight, it can come down to one or two plays here or there.”

Chris Harlan is a TribLive reporter covering sports. He joined the Trib in 2009 after seven years as a reporter at the Beaver County Times. He can be reached at charlan@triblive.com.

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