Upper St. Clair snaps Peters Township’s winning streak in clash of Class 5A powers

By: Antonio Rossetti
Saturday, September 28, 2024 | 12:09 AM

Purchase Photo Options

Purchase Photo Options

Purchase Photo Options

Purchase Photo Options

Purchase Photo Options

Previous Next

Upper St. Clair snapped Peters Township’s 17-game regular season winning streak Friday night, as Julian Dahlem ran 24 times for 191 yards and two touchdowns in a 21-7 victory at Panther Stadium.

Dahlem’s signature moment came with the Panthers leading 14-7 with 5:29 left in the game.

On a third-and-32 play, the unthinkable happened. Dahlem took it to the house on a draw play for 71 yards.

“I honestly didn’t think it was going to go for anything, but our O-line played excellent,” lineman Nate Stohl said. “We (worked) through all four quarters and we got the win.”

“I mean, it’s just the O-line,” Dahlem said. “They open everything up. Those dudes work their butt off every day at practice. They would make me push myself harder. I got so much respect for them, and I’m so proud of them, and it all goes to them.”

Peters Township (5-1, 0-1 in the Class 5A Allegheny Six Conference) contained Dahlem in the first half, but he was more patient in the second half and picked his holes. He evaded tackles too.

“I think in the second half, Julian let things open up a little bit more and he did a great job of breaking some tackles and finding the end zone,” coach Mike Junko said. “He is shifty in the backfield, so he did a great job for us.”

The Panthers (6-0, 1-0) won without completing a pass. John Bradbury also had a big game, tallying 62 yards on nine carries.

The Indians got the ball into Panthers territory six times but only notched one touchdown on a play-action pass from Nolan DiLucia to Eli Prado for 44 yards.

Dahlem, Van Hellman, and Anthony Rozzo tallied interceptions and Carter Stein recovered a fumble. They also turned the Indians over on downs three times.

The Panthers took a 7-0 lead in the first half when a relentless Stohl pressured DiLucia to roll out right. DiLucia threw it directly to Dahlem, who was a few yards away, and he scored from 25 yards out.

“I rushed my end and I got to the quarterback,” Stohl said. “I made a deflection and my secondary came and he caught it.”

Dahlem said the play gave the Panthers momentum.

“The crowd went absolutely wild,” Dahlem said. “It was the loudest it’s ever been. It’s a huge game and it was nice to have.”

The Panthers shut out the Peters offense in the second half.

“What can you say about the defense?”Junko said. “That’s a a great offense we faced tonight. To hold them to seven points really kept us in the game. It was big because we couldn’t get anything going offensively in the first half. Credit to our offensive line coach Tim Robbins in the second half. He made some great adjustments.”

The Indians were led by DiLucia, who completed 13 out of 25 passes for 165 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions.

Peters coach TJ Plack said he was proud of how his team played on defense, but not executing on offense, especially early in the game, didn’t do them any favors.

“We were driving, and we’d make little mistakes here and there,” Plack said. “It was a receiver, one time our quarterback, one time our O-line, and one time with a bad play call by me. … We were unable to convert. We threw that pick-six, but our kids responded. We went down the field and scored right after. (Upper St. Clair) came out in the second half, and they caught a little bit of lightning.”

Peters drove down the field early and manufactured a solid drive after multiple chunk plays, including an 18-yard run by Nick Courie.

Nevertheless, the Panthers punched the ball free from Courie and Stein recovered the fumble.

The Indians then forced a turnover on downs when Mickey Vaccarello and a feisty Peters line stuffed the run on fourth-and-2.

Both teams were unsuccessful on their next drives, but Peters got the ball into USC territory for the third drive in a row.

Nonetheless, a Beck Shields sack spoiled the drive, forcing the Indians to punt.

The first score came on the Dahlem pick-six. Jacobo Echeverria nailed the extra point, giving the Panthers a 7-0 lead in the second quarter.

The Indians responded at the end of the half on fourth-and-1 when DiLucia found a wide-open Prado on a play-action pass. Anthony Maiello hit the extra point, knotting it up at 7-7.

Peters forced a John Banbury fumble and Reston Lehman fell on it at the USC 44 to start the second half.

Nonetheless, the Panthers forced a three-and-out.

After pinning USC deep, a Lucas Rost sack made the Panthers punt out of their own end zone.

At the USC 27, the Indians tried a reverse pass with Rost, but the pass was picked by Hellman after Stohl hurried Rost.

Banbury took one to the 47-yard line to open things up for USC. Dahlem then took over out of the wildcat formation with multiple chunk plays. Dahlem found a hole and broke it for 16 yards to take a late third quarter lead at 14-7.

DiLucia found Jeremy Poletti for 22 yards to put Peters into USC territory for the sixth time.

On fourth-and-8, Dilucia was pressured and was being brought down by Hellman but got the throw off to Prado. Prado was tackled 2 yards short by Nico D’Orazio.

This led to the Dahlem 79-yard touchdown.

Rozzo picked off a pass to seal the game.

“We haven’t felt this for a while,” Plack said. “We’re going to take this with us, and we’re going to wake up tomorrow and we’re going to look at what we did right, what we did wrong and move on.”

Upper St. Clair has the longest active winning streak in the WPIAL at nine games, and Stohl knew just what he was going to do to celebrate the big win.

“We’re gonna have some fun in the locker room and go get some Primanti’s,” he said.

Tags: Peters Township, Upper St. Clair