For more than 100 minutes, Upper St. Clair relied on strong legs and quick feet to stay tied with top-seeded Mt. Lebanon.

But in the end, it was a hand that foiled the Panthers' upset bid.

With less than nine minutes remaining in double overtime, Blue Devils forward Zach Batteer was awarded a free kick after an Upper St. Clair handball. The junior scored from 30 yards out to give Mt. Lebanon (19-1-1) a 1-0 victory against Upper St. Clair (18-3-1) in the WPIAL Class AAA boys' soccer championship last night at Elizabeth Forward.

"I practiced it so much," Batteer said of free kicks. "I knew I could put it in. I had done it before. And it just happened."

But Mt. Lebanon coach Ron Wilcher was not so sure Batteer would connect. The team practiced several free kicks Friday, and Batteer had trouble scoring.

"Zach was just missing and missing," Wilcher said.

But Batteer connected when it mattered, giving the Blue Devils their 10th title in school history -- a WPIAL record.

"Ten titles is pretty awesome," Wilcher said.

Mt. Lebanon had the only quality scoring chances in regulation.

After a scrum in front of the Upper St. Clair net, a Blue Devils player kicked a looping shot that looked as if it would sail over Panthers goalkeeper Scott Matthews and into the net.

But Matthews leapt and pulled down the ball to keep the game scoreless, but the play was costly. Matthews injured his shoulder as he landed.

Though he reentered the game a couple of minutes later, Upper St. Clair coach Uwe Schneider and staff pulled him out after watching him try to play.

Defensively speaking, the Planets have lined up perfectly, resulting in Mars winning a second consecutive WPIAL Class AA championship.

Mars downed section rival Hampton, 1-0, yesterday in the WPIAL finals at Elizabeth Forward. The victory capped a perfect district playoff run by the Planets, who outscored four opponents, 12-0.

"The defense bent but didn't break," Planets coach Chris Knauff said. "The second half of the season, they've been stellar. The defense has been well-organized and they've been really tough. A lot of our success can be attributed to our defense."

Mars (21-1) defeated Hampton (16-4) for the third time this season.

Hampton did not have many scoring chances and missed a golden opportunity in the first half. A breakaway shot by reserve Bryan Margaria went wide right 17 minutes into the match. The Talbots did not have another shot on goal.

The last of five first-half corner kicks by the Planets got Mars on the scoreboard. A shot was deflected in by Alex Perri with 1:49 left before intermission after a corner kick to the far post by Tim Vandall.

"Hampton played us tough both times during the [regular] season," Knauff said. "We knew it was going to be a battle. We were fortunate to get the goal early and to be able to hold them off."

Mars has won 18 consecutive games and has blanked six opponents in a row and 10 of its last 11.

A pair of unlikely heroes led Greensburg Central Catholic to a 2-1 victory against Springdale in the Class A title game at Elizabeth Forward.

The Centurions' won their first WPIAL soccer title since consecutive championships in 2003-04. Tom Kennedy has served as head coach of all three championship teams.

"This is the best-skilled team I've ever had and that's not taking anything away from the other two teams that won titles," Kennedy said.

Greensburg Central Catholic (18-4) controlled play for much of the first half but did not take the lead until reserve Brad Appleby scored on a header via a corner kick by Ryland Smith with 3:37 remaining before halftime.

Smith does not take corner kicks for the Centurions often and Appleby is not among the team's top offensive threats.

"I had just taken Dominic Pimpinela out and he normally takes our corners, so I thought that I had just made a mistake by taking our corner-kicker out," Kennedy said. "Sometimes, you don't mind doing something like that when it works out. But that's the way we've been playing all year. It's a total team effort."

Nursing a one-goal lead late in the game, Greensburg Central gained an insurance goal when Tim Wood set up Daniel Szekely with a perfect pass that led to a 2-0 lead with 3:31 left in regulation.

Mike White's "High School Sports Edition" videos are featured exclusively on PG+, a members-only web site from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.