Peters Township Tops Bethel Park on Late-Game Touchdown

Courie finished the game with 133 yards rushing on 33 attempts and a touchdown.

It was a battle between two of the top passers in the WPIAL with Bethel Park’s Tanner Pfeuffer accounting for 2,059 passing yards and 27 touchdowns to lead the district and the third-best offense that averages 44.6 points per game. On the other side, Peters junior Nolan DiLucia ranked fourth in passing with 1,960 yards and 17 touchdowns.

Peters opened the contest with a long, methodical drive behind a heavy ground presence with Courie that turned into DiLucia keeping it on a pair of keepers for 10 and 11 yards as the Indians moved deep into Bethel territory.

At the 14-yard line, Peters got tricky as Courie received the inside handoff before hitting receiver McCullough on the reverse. McCullough picked up a variety of blocks leading to the end zone as the Indians struck first.

As Bethel Park’s offense took the field with Pfeuffer, it came as no surprise that the Black Hawks attacked through the crisp fall air. After a pass interference call and a 4-yard run, Bethel set up at midfield as Pfeuffer ran play-action and then dialed up a deep ball on a post route to Ryan Petras — who recently returned from injury — as he caught it and raced for the 50-yd score.

With one week separating these two teams from playoff action, both teams transitioned into postseason mode as the Peters defense stepped up with a forceful hit from edge Reston Lehman before Pfueffer’s fourth-down pass was knocked down by the Indians’ secondary.

Peters fed off of its defense as McCullough would add his second and third touchdowns of the game in the second quarter. The Indians motioned McCullough as DiLucia dropped the touch pass off on the jet sweep as the receiver motored around the end for for a 13-yard touchdown.

McCullough would go in motion again, however, DiLucia kept it, rolled to his right and delivered a strike to McCullough for a three-yard touchdown play to put the Indians ahead 21-7.

Through a majority of the first half, Peters found a way to stymie the explosive Bethel Park offense, but the Black Hawks would not be denied as the second quarter creeped to a close. On the first play from the Bethel 40, Pfeuffer wired a pass to Jack Bruckner, who picked up a big 44-yard gain.

Bethel moved it slowly down to the one-yard line where Pfeuffer was stopped on his first sneak attempt. On fourth down, Pfeuffer got the push he needed from his offensive line to cross the plane as the Black Hawks cut into the deficit to make it 21-14.

As the Bethel offense found its footing near the end of the first half, the Black Hawks carried it into its next drive to start the third quarter as running back JaVaughn Moore — the fourth-best rusher in the WPIAL with 1,477 yards entering Friday — showed his vision and speed as he burst through a hole and sped to the end zone on a 50-yard run. Moore finished with 126 rushing yards on 20 attempts.

Peters would regain the lead on a 20-yard field goal before Bethel Park orchestrated a lenghty drive midway through the fourth quarter. Looking for the end zone, Pfeuffer found himself in trouble but released a wobbly pass that was caught by Clancy Orie inches from the ground to put Bethel ahead 28-24 with 7:26 to go.

Staring down a four-point deficit, Peters produced the game-winning drive as the clock ran down with Courie barreling into the end zone and Lehman sealing the victory with an interception.

Seedings for the Class 5A playoffs and the rest of the WPIAL postseason brackets come out during the KDKA Playoff Selection Show at 1 p.m. on Saturday. In the 5A classification, the top four teams receive a bye, while seeds No. 5-8 host first-round games.