Mars defeats Bethel Park in final two minutes to win 17-13

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Stone Manges | August 30, 2025

On Friday, August 29th, 2025, the Mars Fighting Planets traveled south to take on the Bethel Park Black Hawks and won in thrilling fashion 17-13 thanks to some clutch late game heroics. 

The game started slowly for the Planets and the Hawks. Both teams traded punts on their first two drives and Bethel Park was stopped on fourth down in Mars territory as the first quarter ended scoreless. 

Bethel Park’s Santino Nowozeniuk took advantage of Colin Yurisinec’s mistake on the first play of the second quarter and came up with an interception for the Black Hawks. Unfortunately, the offense couldn’t take advantage of the sudden change and was forced to punt the ball away. 

William Sabatos then took it upon himself to put points on the board for Bethel Park, as he stripped the ball from Ayden Yocum and took it to the endzone to give his team the lead 7-3 with 4:24 left in the half. Both teams punted on their following drives, and after an additional Mars punt, Gabe Hein picked off Evan Devine to end the first half of the game. 

Mars got the ball to start the third quarter and put together what looked like a promising drive to begin the back half of the game. The drive took a turn though, following a blindside block penalty and two incompletions from Yurisinec, and Mars was stopped on fourth down. The Black Hawks utilized David Dennison on their first offensive drive of the third and he answered that call. He marched Bethel Park down the field, converting on third down three times on the drive, capping it off with a Xavier Jackson 21 yard field goal with 1:47 left in the quarter to push their lead to 7, now leading 10-3. 

The Fighting Planets again put together what seemed to be a drive that ended in points on the board. They ripped off a 44 yard rush to set up shop inside the Black Hawk 30 yard line to end the third quarter, but once again failed to find points as Dennison came up with his second fumble recovery of the game to get Bethel Park the ball back to start the fourth. 

The defensive scoring was not limited to just Bethel Park in this game, as Ethan Kresinski intercepted Devine for a pick 6 to pull the game even at 10 a piece early in the 4th quarter. Mars held Bethel Park to another punt, but once again were not able to hang on to the football as Sabatos scooped up the loose ball with 7 and change to play. The Black Hawks again took it inside the Fighting Planet 5 yard line where they stalled and settled for another Jackson field goal to jump in front 13-10 with 2:51 left in the game. 

Mars refused to go down without a fight. Several chunk gains set the Planets up around midfield where they were then tasked with converting a fourth down and long. Yurisinec found Hein for a clutch 19 yard completion, then Mars ran 17 yards deeper into Bethel Park territory, where Liam Corcoran completed the comeback with a 2 yard touchdown run with seconds left. Corcoran sealed the deal with an interception off of Devine to send Planet fans home with stellar smiles on their faces. 

Mars (1-0) travels to North Hills next Friday and Bethel Park (1-1) looks to bounce back against Armstrong. 

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