South Park offense continues to produce in victory over Deer Lakes

By: Michael Love
Friday, August 29, 2025 | 10:47 PM

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The South Park football team got a measure of payback and remained undefeated on the young season Friday night at Deer Lakes’ Lancers Stadium.

The Eagles, who lost just twice last season with one of the defeats coming at the hands of the Lancers on their home field, got three touchdown passes and another on the ground from senior quarterback Robert Lenzi in a 35-14 nonsection victory.

“Each practice, each day, each game is unique to us,” South Park coach Brian Abbey said.

“That is the approach we are taking. The battle is within ourselves. It’s about what we’re doing to get a day better. We showed a lot with young guys who took a step in the right direction. For us to get out here in a nonconference game and improve like we did and get a nice win against a good football team, I couldn’t be prouder of our guys’ effort.”

South Park’s 35 points against Deer Lakes on Friday come a week after it tallied 33 in a Week Zero win over East Allegheny. The Eagles will go for 3-0 next week when they cap the nonconference part of their schedule at Keystone Oaks.

Deer Lakes will hope to bounce back next week when it hosts Derry in its final nonconference game before Allegheny 7 play begins at Freeport on Sept. 12.

“When we talked after the game, I told them it is little mistakes that hurt us,” Lancers coach Tim Burk said.

“But at the same time, South Park is a really good football team. They won the WPIAL last year. They took advantage of a number of those mistakes we just can’t afford to have. We got a little uncharacteristic in who we are and what we should be doing. We just have to make plays. We have a lot of inexperience out there with guys who have never played at this level under the lights, and it showed tonight. There were things, both mental and physical, that we’ve got to fix, and we will.”

Deer Lakes, down by two scores at the half, drew to within a touchdown on the first play of its third possession of the third quarter.

It was brother to brother as junior quarterback Dante Mangieri found senior wideout Luca Mangieri for a 51-yard scoring connection. Sophomore Connor Moore added the extra point to make it 21-14 with 2:11 left.

“We were setting that up and felt we could do that,” Burk said. “I am glad for them. It was an awesome experience for brother to throw to brother for a touchdown.”

Dante Mangieri finished 10 of 22 for 162 yards. He was intercepted three times.

The Lancers got the ball back early in the fourth, but they were pinned deep as South Park downed a punt at their 1.

On the first play, Dante Mangieri looked to get Deer Lakes some breathing room, but his pass was intercepted by Eagles junior cornerback Nathan Walz.

“That was an example of a kid who got beat earlier in the game but who didn’t let that get to him, came back, and overcame that with a really nice effort,” Abbey said.

South Park turned the turnover into points four minutes later on a touchdown from Lenzi to Logan Ludwig. Lenzi’s pass was tipped by Deer Lakes defender Daniel Bichler before landing in Ludwig’s hands.

A touchdown pass from Lenzi earlier in the drive was called back on a penalty.

“Ludwig is one of the better all-around athletes on the team,” Abbey said.

“That was just a hand-eye coordination thing. He’s a basketball kid, too. He stuck with it and made a nice play.”

Deer Lakes had two more chances to score after the Eagles TD. The first drive ended in a punt, and the Lancers’ last opportunity with the ball, a drive that went from their own 16 to the South Park 11, ended when Tavon Carter intercepted Mangieri as time ran out.

“This group has shown they are a resilient bunch, and are able to live in the present,” Abbey said.

“The highs aren’t getting too high, and the lows aren’t getting too low. We knew that Deer Lakes would make a charge at us in the second half, but the guys weathered that and made plays.”

Lenzi ended the game with five completions in 10 attempts for 137 yards.

“We’re going to lean on our guys, and everything runs through him and his leadership,” Abbey said.

“He never comes off the field. I don’t think he gets enough credit for the type of player that he is.”

South Park ran the ball 17 times in the first half and threw just twice, but both passes went for touchdowns.

Junior tailback Quintin Napper, who finished with 12 carries for 87 yards, used his feet to get the Eagles on the board.

On South Park’s third play of its first drive, Napper broke a tackle and scampered 60 yards to the end zone. Kolby Kostelnik’s point-after made it 7-0 with just 1:32 gone in the first quarter.

Lenzi connected with junior Jacob Raimondi for a 62-yard score with four minutes left in the first and then found a wide open Napper out of the backfield for 12 yards with 3:43 left until halftime to put the Eagles ahead by two touchdowns, 21-7.

Deer Lakes moved the ball well on the ground in the first quarter as senior Ryan Love collected 85 yards on 12 carries over the first 12 minutes. His nine-yard scoring run with 5:52 left in the first quarter and Moore’s PAT kick knotted the game at seven.

Love finished the game with 29 carries for 159 yards.

Down by two scores, Deer Lakes had one final shot to put points up in the first half.

The Lancers drove the ball 62 yards on 12 plays and had a second and goal from the three in the waning seconds of the half.

Mangieri tried to connect with Love in the right corner of the end zone. However, Eagles free safety Leland Stone was right there to pick off the pass to snuff out the Deer Lakes scoring opportunity.

“We have to be able to finish there,” Burk said.

“That was a killer. If we score there, we get the ball to start the second half, and things could’ve been different. But that’s football, and we can’t play the what-if game. We just have to make plays, and we failed to do enough of that tonight.”

Michael Love is a TribLive reporter covering sports in the Alle-Kiski Valley and the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh. A Clearfield native and a graduate of Westminster (Pa.), he joined the Trib in 2002 after spending five years at the Clearfield Progress. He can be reached at mlove@triblive.com.

Tags: Deer Lakes, South Park