Dynamic Duo: Lehman & Shanafelt lead Peters Township’s top-ranked defense
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
A hallmark of a good football defense is being able to rush the passer.
It always helps the cause when you have a pair of dynamic outside linebackers.
The Steelers have shown that through the years. TJ Watt and Alex Highsmith, Lamar Woodley and James Harrison, Gregg Lloyd and Kevin Greene are just a few examples of the sack master tandems they’ve had.
Peters Township has had its own version of a dynamic duo: Reston Lehman and Lucas Shanafelt.
They’ve harassed quarterbacks in the WPIAL for several seasons and were part of a Peters Township defense that sacked Upper St. Clair quarterback Ethan Hellmann 10 times in the WPIAL Class 5A semifinals.
They’ll take that momentum with them into the Class 5A championship against Pine-Richland, 8 p.m. Saturday at Acrisure Stadium.
It’s the third consecutive season the two teams will meet in the championship.
The Indians have allowed only six points per game, which is the fewest in Class 5A and will be up against a Rams offense that averages 47 points per game which is tops in the classification.
“A lot of the credit goes to the defensive coaches,” Lehman said. “They put a lot of work in and their schemes are awesome, but behind that we have 11 ‘killers’, as we say on defense. We have 11 guys that are ready to fly around. We also play with relentless effort. That stops big plays when everyone is pursuing to the ball.”
Lehman and Shanafelt are both Division I recruits. Lehman is headed to Pitt and Shanafelt is going to Stanford.
They’ve been playing together since they were in the third grade and put their final stamp on their rivalry with Upper St. Clair last week.
Lehman had three sacks in the 31-6 win over the Panthers and Shanafelt had one. Gabe Kita also registered three sacks in the game.
“I think Reston is the best player in the WPIAL and he makes my job a lot easier,” Shanafelt said. “I think the world of him. He’s a great player and it’s been a pleasure playing with him.”
Having two edge rushers with the talent of Lehman and Shanafelt is nightmare fuel for offensive coordinators trying to come up with blocking schemes to mitigate their impact.
“They can’t really stop both of us,” Lehman said. “They can maybe slow down one of us, but if I’m not getting there, he’s getting there and if he’s not getting there, I’m getting there. It happens every single game. O-linemen have to prepare for it. We have three down linemen on defense too, so if they’re going to try and double team one of us, then they are going to be wide open to rush through. It gives us those one-on-ones on the edges and we’ve had a lot of success recently.”
The Indians’ talented secondary, that includes P.J. Luke, Cole Neupaver, Lucas Rost and Nolan DiLucia, give the pass rushers that little bit of extra time to get to the quarterback if they need it.
Peters Township has five shutouts. Outside of a 24-20 win against Upper St. Clair in the regular season, the Indians have not given up more than 14 points in a game.
Like Lehman, Shanafelt credited the coaching staff for putting them in position to be successful. The Indians are aiming for one more defensive gem on Saturday.
“It starts with the coaches and then having players that in general take pride in holding teams to as few points as possible,” Lehman said. “We don’t get taken out late in games, not because we’re trying to run up the score, but because we take pride in what our scores are. We don’t want teams to get a first down let alone a touchdown.”