Upper St. Clair and Mt. Lebanon had disparate agendas when the neighboring schools squared off in Week Zero.
For Upper St. Clair, it was about defining who the Panthers were as a team, with nine returning starters on each side of the ball, and solidifying their potential as a top contender for the WPIAL Class 5A championship.
As far as Mt. Lebanon was concerned, this was a day for a litmus test against live competition for new head coach Greg Perry’s offensive and defensive schemes.
If nothing else, both got a solid barometer for where they stand heading into Week 1.
Upper St. Clair (1-0) shrugged off a somewhat rough start, giving up a score to Mt. Lebanon on the first drive of the game. But from there on, the Panthers were in total control, as they rolled up a 32-point lead in the third quarter and cruised to a 42-22 win against the visiting Blue Devils.
“I think this started off like a Week Zero game. I don’t think we were in sync, and we didn’t get into a rhythm defensively early on,” Upper St. Clair coach Mike Junko said. “As the game wore on, I think that physically, up front, especially offensively, we won the battles.”
Though Upper St, Clair did have most of its starters returning, the big question for the team was whether junior running back Dante Coury would be game ready from the outset. He shrugged off any lingering doubts late in the first quarter when, on 4th-and-2, he broke two tackles at the line of scrimmage, broke clean into the secondary and rambled 36 yards for the first of his two touchdowns in the game.
Coury finished with 13 carries for 86 yards and the two scores, but he wasn’t the only player who ignited the Panthers offense.
Had a quick chat with @UpperStClairFB senior @JulianDahlem2 after the Panthers 42-22 win against @mtlebofootball
— Keith Barnes (@kbarnes_pghsprt) August 24, 2024
@PGSportsNow pic.twitter.com/VaU2jfYryy
Senior Swiss Army knife Julian Dahlem was everywhere in the backfield and created matchup problems everywhere for the Mt. Lebanon defense. He operated mostly out of the Wildcat, where he carried eight times for 107 yards and a 33-yard touchdown, flipped a shovel pass to Nico D’Orazio that turned into a 57-yard score and also caught a pass for 4 yards.
“The touchdown pass was all on Nico. Great blocking from the line,” Dahlem said. “We expected this 100%, especially because this was our rival. We never lost to them before, and we wanted to get (them) one last time, especially on senior night.”
With Dahlem and quarterback Ethan Hellmann at times rotating snaps and both providing a complement for Coury, this could be a very dangerous offense moving forward. And having Dahlem play off Coury is certainly in the game plan moving forward.
“It’s a basic rule of play calling, is to get your guys touches, and I think we did a good job of doing just that,” Junko said. “We’ve got to continue to do that week to week and have those guys complement each other.”
Upper St. Clair still had a few things to work out on the defensive side of the ball. Despite a pair of first-quarter sacks from Princeton recruit Nate Stohl and a diving interception from Caffery Duplessis with 40 seconds remaining in the first half that led to a 2-yard Coury score and a 28-9 halftime lead, the Panthers had quite a few lapses on that side of the ball.
There were also flashes where Mt. Lebanon and its new spread offense showed real potential.
In his first start, junior quarterback Patrick Smith ran for a pair of touchdowns and completed 18 of 26 for 154 yards. Though he looked comfortable at times, he is still raw and has some work to do.
“This isn’t an easy quarterback offense, and we put a lot on his shoulders,” Perry said. “We expect that he will continue to grow, but for the first time out, I think he did OK.”
That analysis could be extrapolated for the entire Mt. Lebanon team. The Blue Devils are obviously going to have growing pains with their third head coach in three years, but they also know they’ll have to mature quickly with games against Central Catholic and North Allegheny on the horizon.
“We did some good things, and we did some bad things. We have a new staff, and we’re not winning anything on Aug. 23,” Perry said. “We have to get better and start preparing. It’s going to take a little bit of time, and these are young kids.”
First Published: August 24, 2024, 3:12 a.m.
Updated: August 24, 2024, 3:13 a.m.