Belle Vernon stuns EF to win Interstate title
High school football
Belle Vernon was down two touchdowns with a little more two minutes remaining but rallied for a 29-28 victory over Elizabeth Forward to win the Class 3A Interstate Conference title Friday night.
After David Bergstedt caught a 12-yard touchdown pass from Jace Jedekoh to cut the Elizabeth Forward lead to 28-21, the Leopards recovered an onside kick with 1:12 remaining. Gedekoh scored on a 2-yard run with 48 seconds left and Cameron Jenko punched in a two-point conversion, which gave the Leopards (6-0, 9-1) a 29-28 lead and capped a 22-point fourth quarter.
EF’s Luke Holdren missed a 45-yard field goal as time expired.
The Warriors (5-1, 8-2) led 14-7 at halftime and saw the lead grow to two scores when Travis Dusi returned the second half kickoff 95 yards.
Belle Vernon’s Chace Petrosky scored on a 35-yard run to cut the lead to 21-14, but Rocco Thompson answered for Elizabeth Forward with a 13-yard touchdown.
Petrosky also had a 16-yard touchdown in the second quarter.
Warriors quarterback Kaden Allen opened the scoring with a 98-yard touchdown run and threw a 35-yard touchdown to Ryan Dolekary.
Trinity 20
Bethel Park 0
Owen Samogala passed for 110 yards and rushed for 135 more as Trinity earned a 20-0 shutout of Bethel Park (1-4, 3-6) in the Class 5A Allegheny Six Conference.
Samogala threw a one-yard touchdown pass to Chase Kostelnik to givethe Hillers a 7-0 lead at halftime.
Trinity put the game away with two TDs in the fourth quarter. The first was a 64-yard run by Samogala and Owen Gardner closed the scoring with a 26-yard run.
Waynesburg 55
Valley 8
Waynesburg made the long drive to play Valley worth it, scoring a 55-8 win over the Vikings (2-8) in a nonconference game.
Teagen Crouse accounted for seven touchdowns, throwing four and running in three.
Crouse had a pair of TD passes to Jack Ricciuti of 35 and 24 yards, hit Cole Phillips twice for seven- and 40-yard scores and had rushing TDS of 19, 6 and 30 yards.
Ky-mani Sumpter also had a one-yard touchdown for the Raiders (8-2).
Avella 48
Frazier 20
Avella rode a big first half all the way into the WPIAL Class A playoffs.
The Eagles scored 36 first-half points and cruised to a 48-20 victory over Frazier in the Tri-County South Conference.
Avella (5-2, 6-4) finished in third place in the TCS and gained the final automatic playoff spot. Frazier is 4-3, 5-5.
The Eagles scored five first-half touchdowns and three of them covered more than 40 yards. Dominic Muzzi opened the scoring only 64 seconds into the game when he rambled 56 yards up the middle to the end zone. Gavin Gatewood ran in the first of his three two-point conversions.
Frazier (4-3, 5-5) answered on its first possession as Brady Secrest scored on a one-yard sneak. The conversion failed and Avella led 8-6.
It didn’t stay that way for very long as Avella used a 57-yard jaunt by Gatewood, only 58 seconds after the Frazier score, to take a 14-6 lead.
Gag Samol had a pair of 13-yard touchdowns in the second quarter – he also had a 54-yard TD negated by penalty – and Gatewood ran in both conversions that made it 30-6.
Avella took flight on their next possession as Chas Rush passed 44 yards to Muzzi to make it 36-6.
Samol led Avella in rushing with 124 yards on 10 carries.
Burgettstown 41
Bentworth 14
tworth 41-14 to secure third place in the Class A Black Hills Conference.
Burgettstown (4-2, 8-2) led by only 14-7 at halftime but outscored Bentworth (2-4, 4-6) 27-7 after halftime.
Brady Rightweiser carried 24 times for 200 yards and four touchdowns to lead Burgettstown. He had scoring runs of 15, 22, 3 and 55 yards. Quarterback Blake Neal completed eight of 16 passes for 156 yards, including a 25-yard TD to Bryce Speer.
Cole Matalik had a 30-yard touchdown run.
The scoring plays for Bentworth were not reported.
Charleroi 50
Brownsville 13
Jaxson Klinger passed for two touchdowns, Elijah Allah ran for 130 yards and a touchdown on only four carries and Charleroi defeated Brownsville 50-13 in the Class 2A Allegheny Conference.
Charleroi ends the season with a 1-5 record in conference and 4-6 mark overall. Brownsville went winless (0-6, 0-10).
Carmichaels 40
Mapletown 26
Carmichaels will take some momentum into the 2027 season.
The Mikes defeated visiting Mapletown 40-26 in a Class A Tri-County South Conference game Friday night, giving Carmichaels a three-game winning streak to end the season.
Peyton Morecraft passed for three touchdowns and ran for another to lead the Mikes. Morecraft completed nine of 12 passes for 135 yards and TDs of 25 and 44 yards to Stephen Lewis and 8 yards to Job Smith. Morecraft also had a one-yard TD plunge. KC Shook ran for a game-high 220 yards including TDs of 18 and 39 yards.
Andrew Vanata rushed for 112 yards and two scores on only 13 carries for Mapletown (0-7, 0-10). Vanat scored on runs of 64 and 17 yards. The Maples’ Austin Hennessey returned a kickoff 80 yards for a touchdown.
Thomas Jefferson 28
Peters Township 6
Tyler Eber ran for three second-half touchdowns as Thomas Jefferson pulled away for a 28-6 win over Peters Township in the Class 5A Allegheny Six Conference on Friday night.
TJ (3-2, 7-2) led 7-0 in the first quarter on a 19-yard TD pass from Anderson Kolling to Kane Eggerton.
Peters Township, which ends the season at 1-4 in the conference and 3-7 overall, pulled to within 7-6 at halftime as Talen Stauffer ran five yards for a touchdown in the second quarter.
Eber sealed the win for the Jaguars with TD runs of 67, 17 and 6 yards in the second half.