Penn-Trafford pushes past Mount Lebanon 28-7

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Annabelle Aquino | August 31, 2024

Penn-Trafford’s strong defensive line and successful offensive drives helped them defeat Mount Lebanon this Friday at Warrior Stadium. The Warriors bounced back from a rival loss against Norwin last week, 26-14, while the Blue Devils are 0-2 after a 42-22 loss against Upper Saint Clair last week.

Jonny Lovre was the main QB for P-T, who threw for 217 yards and was 17/26 passing. Working with wide receiver Jack Weishaar, who had 10 catches and 130 yards, Lovre was able to lead a successful passing offense. 

Mount Lebanon’s QB, Patrick Smith, lines up against Penn-Trafford’s QB, Jonny Lovre.

Deviating from the Lovre and Derek Carr tag-team QB style present at their last game, Carr played mainly as a DB, but still appeared as a rushing QB.

Carr scored a rushing touchdown as the first touchdown of the game with 6:45 remaining in the first quarter. 

Sophomore Logan Hunter made the extra point; he went 4/4 in extra points throughout the game.

On the Blue Devils’ first possession of the game, P-T stopped QB Patrick Smith from his common rushing attempt. On fourth down, the Warriors were offsides and Mount Lebanon had a first down, but could not convert this extra opportunity onto the scoreboard and was forced to punt.

The Warrior’s next drive was similarly unsuccessful; after two completed catches by Owen Gisi, senior Joe Jackson was pulled out of the game with a leg injury. A 15-yard penalty set the Warriors back even farther, and an incomplete pass from Lovre stopped P-T from making much progress.

The Blue Devils took over with 18 seconds left in the first quarter but made rushed decisions to lose the ball going into the second quarter. 

Blue Devil’s WR Noah Schaerli gets ready for next play.

Mount Lebanon came back strong in the next quarter, focused on passing to move down the field. Smith threw more to star receiver Noah Schaerli and RB Jimmy Green until junior Grayson Beck rushed for Mount Lebanon’s first score of the game.

By securing the extra point, the Blue Devils had tied the game 7-7 with 5:48 left before half.

After a quick back-and-forth, Warrior’s Tasso Whipple ran the ball to a first down. Weishaar caught another first down with 21 seconds left in the second, where Dom Smith then caught a touchdown from Lovre, boosting the score to 14-7 in P-T’s favor.

The Warriors ended the half on a high note when Hunter’s onside kick was recovered on the 48 by Warrior’s senior Michael Cheplick.

The Blue Devils came out of the locker room with a plan similar to the first quarter– let Smith run the ball. P-T’s defense stopped back-to-back attempts by Smith to QB sneak the ball, eventually forcing them to punt to the Warriors.

P-T’s defense continued to hold off Mount Lebanon, and the Blue Devils similarly didn’t give up any more points in the third quarter.

During the fourth quarter, Whipple had a big rush to get the Warriors out of fourth-down trouble, then had a 37-yard rushing touchdown. After Hunter made the extra point, P-T went up 21-7 over Mount Lebanon with 9:39 left in the game.

Lucah Butler, Ethan Septak and David Dziedzic line up.

The Blue Devils made a final attempt at scoring following a big catch by Schaerli at the 6-yard line. Smith ran down to the 1-yard line, but the Warriors’ defense pushed back against Mount Lebanon. The defensive line, led by Ethan Septak and Stew Pfeil denied the Blue Devils from scoring on the drive, including a big stop on 4th and 3.

With the momentum shifted in their favor, P-T drove down the field for another touchdown. Two long catches by junior Jacob Briggs, (the first to get out of PT’s end zone, the second to get near Mount Lebanon’s end zone), allowed Cheplick to rush into the end zone.

The final score was 28-7, Penn-Trafford over Mount Lebanon. Penn-Trafford’s next game will be home against Moon. Mount Lebanon’s next game will be home against Peter’s Township.

Contributions made by Mia Williams.

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