Leopards stun EF with late rally to claim Interstate title
The Belle Vernon football team has regularly practiced the two-minute drill.
“We’ve been working on the two-minute drill probably twice a week since May,” Leopards coach Scott Bryer pointed out. “We do a lot of scenario-based practices, situation stuff.”
All that practice paid off Friday night.
Belle Vernon scored two late touchdowns, the second after recovering an onside kick, and converted a go-ahead two-point conversion after the latter to earn a stunning 29-28 victory at Elizabeth Forward at Warriors Stadium.
The win gave the Leopards the Class 3A Interstate Conference title as they unseated the defending champion Warriors.
Belle Vernon trailed 28-14 after EF’s Rocco Thompson’s 13-yard fourth-quarter touchdown run with just over two minutes remaining.
Leopards quarterback Jace Gedekoh led his team on a 90-yard drive capped by his 12-yard touchdown pass to David Bergstedt with Landon Bell adding the extra point.
Bell then booted an onside kick that was recovered by Skylar Gush at the Warriors 48-yard line.
“Landon’s kick on that was absolutely perfect,” Bryer said. “It scooted across the ground and hopped up at the end and Skylar went in and pretty aggressively got the ball.”
Gedekoh completed a 35-yard pass to Chace Petrosky to the 13 and covered that with four straight runs, the last from 2 yards out for the score.
The Leopards opted to go for the two-point conversion and the lead and again it was Gedekoh running it into the end zone.
“We basically had to run that two-minute drill twice,” Bryer said. “And they did it twice. It didn’t happen by accident. It was something we had prepared for.
“Jace Gedekoh did a great job. He made some great reads and some great plays. Several players came up big, Chace Petrosky, David Bergstedt.”
The game wasn’t over as Elizabeth Forward drove into Belle Vernon territory but Luke Holdren missed a 45-yard field goal attempt and the Leopards had the victory.
“I can’t say enough about our guys,” Bryer said. “This is a tough group of kids, mentally and physically. To stay focused and stay on task when you’re down 14 points with a few minutes left in the game says a lot about these guys.”
The Warriors exploded to a 7-0 lead on Kaden Allen’s 98-yard touchdown run in the first quarter, and Allen’s 35-yard TD pass to Ryan Dolekary made it 14-0 in the second.
Petrosky’s 16-run touchdown run got the Leopards within 14-7 at halftime, but EF’s Travis Dusi returned the second-half kickoff 95 yards for a score to put the hosts up 21-7.
Petrosky’s 35-yard TD run pulled Belle Vernon within 21-14 earlier in the fourth quarter before Thompson’s scoring run for Elizabeth Forward set the stage for Belle Vernon’s dramatic rally.
Thompson had 163 yards rushing and Allen added 106 yards on the ground.
Petrosky led the Leopards’ ground game with 81 yards.
“We have a pretty resilient group. We played some tough games this year,” said Bryer, who noted strong second halves by his team in wins over Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, West Mifflin and Derry. “The Waynesburg game was tight, too, until halfway through the second half.
“I think all those experiences help us Friday night.”