Bethel Park defeats Upper St. Clair in Allegheny Eight showdown

By: HSSN Staff
Saturday, October 27, 2018 | 12:06 AM

Bethel Park came into Friday night’s game against Upper St. Clair following a disappointing 35-0 loss to Peters Township last week.

Whatever was said and done during the week of practice, the Black Hawks need to try and bottle that up for the playoffs, as Bethel Park used a punishing rushing attack to defeat the Panthers, 20-14, in a Class 5A Allegheny Eight Conference game.

One change was apparent for Bethel Park as it featured junior Sean McGowan running the “wildcat,” which was quite successful.

McGowan carried the ball 37 times for 230 yards and a touchdown. A large part of the success was due to fullbacks Tiger Burkes and Jack Evans leading the way.

“Sean’s a maniac back there,” Burkes said. “That’s something new (the wildcat) we put in this week.

“I liked it, it worked very well.”

The duo of McGowan and Burkes also hooked up for another score after some trickery by Bethel Park at the Upper St. Clair 5-yard line in the third quarter, leading 14-7.

McGowan took the direct snap and rolled right, then stopped and pushed a pass to a wide open Burkes in the end zone. Burkes didn’t catch the ball cleanly but held on to give the Black Hawks a 13-point lead.

“The ball slipped through my hands because my left glove was too wet,” Burkes said. “I actually caught that ball between my legs for the score.”

Senior Luke Surunis had all three receptions for Bethel Park, including a 19-yard catch and run to start the scoring in the first quarter. Bethel Park’s defense limited Upper St. Clair to 28 yards in the first half.

Jason Sweeney, the Panthers quarterback, heated up in the second half. The senior finished 14 of 31 for 141 yards and threw a 9-yard touchdown on fourth-and-goal to Chris Pantelis to make the score 20-14.

Bethel Park had some problems on the wet night, missing an extra point and a 27-yard field goal attempt due to dropped snaps.

On the final drive of the game for Upper St. Clair, Burkes and Jared Yantek teamed up to sack Sweeney on fourth down. The sack was the fourth of the game for the Black Hawks.

“That sack was not just me; my teammates deserve a lot of credit also,” Burkes said. “We tried to win the line of scrimmage tonight.”

It worked for Bethel Park, as the Panthers were held to just 7 yards rushing and 148 yards total, compared to 306 yards for Bethel Park, 226 which came on the ground. The Black Hawks held a 30:22 to 17:38 advantage in time of possession.

The win for Bethel Park (6-3, 5-2) along with wins by West Allegheny and Peters Township ended a wild regular season in the Allegheny Eight.

Peters Township finished first in the conference, with West Allegheny second and both teams as co-champions. The Black Hawks end up third.

“We need to do the same thing we did tonight and continue to practice hard,” said Burkes looking toward the postseason.

The loss snapped a four-game winning streak for Upper St. Clair (8-2, 5-2) and pushed the Panthers to fourth place in the conference.

Bob Orkwis is a freelance writer.

Tags: Bethel Park, Upper St. Clair