Oct 12, 2018 4 min read

BRIDGEVILLE – Playing for a spot in the postseason, Peters Township did what it has done for most of the regular season – playing winning football by leaning on its defense and quarterback.

After spotting Chartiers Valley a quick 8-0 lead, the Indians’ defense slammed the door shut and sophomore quarterback Logan Pfeuffer heated up as the game progressed to help PT clinch a spot in the Class 5A postseason with a convincing 41-24 Allegheny Eight Conference victory.

“It’s nice to get that out of the way,” said Peters Township head coach T.J. Plack. “A couple years ago, when we weren’t that type of team, that was a big accomplishment. That’s great and we are proud of that, but we have bigger things we want to accomplish and one of them is a conference championship and we have two good teams standing between us and a chance at that.”

The Indians (4-1, 6-2) allowed only 29 yards total offense as they built a 34-8 halftime advantage.

Meanwhile, the PT offense gained 265 yards, 148 of those coming from the arm of Pfeuffer as he threw four first-half touchdowns to four different receivers.

Peters Township had a 13-1 edge in first downs during the first half.

“Defense has been paying great and our offense is starting to get going,” Plack said. “It was Senior Night for (Chartiers Valley) and they came out and made a couple of plays, but our defense got it together quickly and played a great game.”

After the Indians forced a CV three-and-out on the opening drive of the game, they tried some trickery and attempted a reverse on the punt return, but the exchange was sloppy, and PT lost a fumble.

Chartiers Valley (0-5, 3-5) was set up at the PT 23-yard line and attempted a double-reverse pass and running back Connor Barrett found Thomas Heckroth with a 21-yard gain down to the PT two. Three plays later, Barrett punched it in out of the Wildcat formation from a yard out to give the Colts a quick 8-0 advantage.

That would be it for CV as the PT defense tightened up.

The PT offense started to get things going midway through the first quarter and scored on four out of five drives.

Pfeuffer hit Aiden McCall with a 30-yard touchdown pass to get the Indians on the scoreboard. The play was a great effort by McCall, who broke seven tackles on his way to the end zone.

After CV went for it on fourth down from their own 41-yard line, Pfeuffer hit Josh Casilli with a pair of passes, the second of which was a 24-yard touchdown that gave the Indians a 12-8 lead.

“Logan will be the first to tell you that he has a lot of weapons,” Plack said. “More importantly, he understands how to use those weapons and knows when we have good matchups. He’s doing a fine job and I couldn’t ask for anything more.”

The second quarter saw more of the same.

After a big punt return from Casilli, Michael Peyton scored from a yard out to extend the PT lead to 20-8. Peyton finished with 81 rushing yards on 14 carries.

PT closed the half in strong fashion as Pfeuffer hit Corban Hondru with a 23-yard score, and after the defense recovered a CV fumble Jackson McCloskey caught a 35-yard strike to send the Indians nto the locker room with a 34-8 halftime lead.

Pfeuffer completed 12 of 20 pass attempts for 172 yards and four touchdowns. He completed 8 of 14 for 149 yards and all four scores in the first half, which was even more impressive considering he started the game 1-for-5 for five yards.

“We had some good matchups on the outside and when we see that we try and go to them and exploit mismatches,” Pfeuffer said. “It all starts with the line though. They did a great job and gave me time to throw.”

The Indians got off to a sloppy start in the second half, having a punt blocked and losing a fumble. CV quarterback Griffin Beattie turned the fumble into a three-yard touchdown run that made it 34-16.

It didn’t take long for the Indians to get those points back as Ryan Magiske broke loose with a 30-yard touchdown. Magiske finished with 108 yards on 16 carries.

Peters Township can take a step towards a possible conference championship in a big game next Friday when it hosts old rival Bethel Park.

“We have to clean a lot of things up,” Plack said. “We have to put four quarters together, which we aren’t doing on a consistent basis, and we have to clean up the mistakes on special teams.”