WPIAL Class 5A championship: Peters Township uses second-half comeback to stun Pine-Richland, 20-19, in title game rubber match

It was Light Up Night Saturday in Downtown Pittsburgh.

Just across the river, Peters Township used a lights-out second half to stun Pine-Richland.

Peters Township pulled the plug on Pine-Richland’s season, rallying from 19 points down at the half to beat the defending champion Rams, 20-19, in the WPIAL Class 5A championship at Acrisure Stadium.

It was the second WPIAL title overall and second in three years for No. 2-seeded Peters Township (13-0), which won its championship rubber match with No. 1 Pine-Richland (12-2). The Indians defeated Pine-Richland, 43-17, in the 2023 final, but the Rams claimed a 20-9 win a season ago to even the series. Pine-Richland was trying to become the seventh school to win 10 titles.

“It was a great comeback,” Peters Township senior Cole Neupaver said. “We bared down and knew what we needed to do at halftime. Then we came out and got the job done.”

Great. Stunning. Incredible. You could use a lot of words to describe Saturday what Peters Township pulled off. It wasn’t just that the Indians trailed, 19-0, at the half. It was the extent in which they were dominated. Pine-Richland outgained the Indians, 205-38, in the first half when it held the ball for 21 minutes, 18 seconds, compared to the Indians’ 8:42.

“That first half we didn’t play like ourselves,” said Peters Township senior Reston Lehman, a Pitt recruit who won this title on his future home field. “A lot of miscommunication, just not doing our job. But the second half we knew we needed to come out ears pinned back and flying around, and that’s what we did. We stopped the run. We established that. And then we got after the quarterback.”

Peters Township, which entered the game allowing a Class 5A-best 6.9 points per game, made life miserable for standout quarterback Oobi Strader and the Pine-Richland offense in the second half. The Rams got little going after the break as Lehman and his buddies brought the heat.

But even more important, Peters Township found its mojo offensively in the final two quarters. It was Neupaver, the team’s leading rusher this season, who was the scoring star as he accounted for all three touchdowns, the first coming on a 74-yard run with 7:47 left in the third quarter to make it 19-7.

“Their running back got on the edge a little bit,” Pine-Richland coach Jon LeDonne said. “We were out of place and they made us pay for it.”

Neupaver was at it again early in the fourth, running for a 22-yard touchdown to cut the Pine-Richland lead to 19-13 with 10:58 left.

Neupaver scoring touchdowns was old news at that point, but he landed the hat trick when he delivered a giant blow, powering his way on a 1-yard touchdown run with 4:50 remaining to tie it.

“Never,” Neupaver said afterwards when asked if he ever dreamed of having such a performance in the WPIAL title game. “I couldn’t do it without the line and everybody on my team. That’s a great team. That’s Peters Township football.”

But it still was a tie score after the 1-yard score. And onto the field stepped Peters Township senior kicker Anthony Maiello, who said he only has missed one extra point in his career. But it didn’t come Saturday, as Maiello booted the ball through the uprights to give the Indians their first lead.

“It’s surreal. It’s unbelievable,” Maiello said. “I just couldn’t think of anything else except the extra point. I was so locked in. I was just so happy. It’s such a blessing to do this with my friends.”

For a half, it looked as if Pine-Richand would not only win, but coast to consecutive titles. The Rams ran the ball down Peters Township’s throats on an opening drive that culminated with a Jay Timmons 1-yard touchdown run a little less than five minutes into the game.

After holding Peters Township to two three-and-outs, Pine-Richland struck again after a poor punt that gave the Rams the ball at the Peters Township 39. This time it was Strader who scored on a 3-yard scamper to make it 12-0 with 10:55 remaining in the half. 

Pine-Richland attempted 2-point conversions after those touchdowns, but came up short on both attempts. Alex Mestre, the team’s starting kicker, was injured in the semifinals and did not play. Those missed points would come back to cost the Rams.

The Rams would extend their lead to 19-0 with 4:13 left in the opening half when Strader threw a pretty ball on fourth-and-12 to Khalil Taylor, whose 23-yard touchdown — with the ensuing extra point by Brody Walkowski — extended the Pine-Richland lead to 19-0 with 4:13 left in half.

But after Pine-Richland dominated the first half, it was Peters Township which controlled the second half. And it was that one point that made all the difference in winning the title.

“We just caught momentum, man,” Peters Township coach T.J. Plack said. “And we just became the team we always are. That’s all it was.”

Added Lehman, “We just showed that we’re really good at playing four quarters. I think we’re a better team in the second half, but we had to come out there and make a statement, and that’s what we did.”