Western pennsylvania football games to watch for in week 7: USC-Bethel Park fight for allegheny 6 conference position, Butler seeks first winning season since 1997, mars readies for mckeesport

Burrell's Liam Perdue runs past a diving Valley defender during a kick return last Friday in Lower Burrell. The Buccaneers won 41-21. Josh Rizzo/Pittsburgh Preps and Colleges

The Allegheny Six Conference is once again the most hotly-contested conference in the WPIAL’s Class 5A division. Bethel Park wants to make sure it doesn’t become the forgotten team in a tight race.

The Black Hawks were tripped up by Moon two weeks ago, but will have another tough test when it travels to Upper St. Clair (6-1, 1-1) on Friday. The Panthers also suffered a loss two weeks ago, dropping a closer game with Peters Township.
Bethel Park (5-2, 1-1) has a balanced offense led by running back David Dennison, who has 990 yards on 144 carries.

Quarterback Evan Devine has thrown for 17 touchdown passes and six interceptions. Devine has 1,403 passing yards.

The Panthers also have an excellent quarterback under center. Ethan Hellman has thrown for 1,784 yards and 23 touchdown passes. Hellman has only been intercepted once. Bryce Jones (478 yards) and Nico D’Orazio (411) have 400 or more receiving yards for Upper St. Clair.

This will be a good matchup.

Butler attempts to end 30 years of suffering

The Golden Tornado (5-2) made the move to become an independent program for the 2020 season. Since then, Butler, which had a brief two-year flirtation with District X, has gone 19-27 as an improvement. It’s a big improvement for the Golden Tornado, which were 6-42 in the five years preceding this stretch as a WPIAL program.

The question is can Butler find that elusive sixth win? The Golden Tornado haven’t had a winning season since 1997 and will have three chances to put that stigma behind them.

The first challenger will come this Friday in Allderdice from the City League. The Dragons (4-3) have had an up-and-down season.
Allderdice beat Fox Chapel to open the season, lost to Hollisdaysburg and then ran off three consecutive wins against Perry, Uniontown and Brashear. The Dragons have struggled to get their offense moving against tough competition. Nassir Scott leads Allderdice with 308 rushing yards.

Butler quarterback Nicco Baggetta leads the Golden Tornado with 939 passing yards and has thrown nine touchdown passes. Mark Klemz leads the team with 747 rushing yards.

Butler beat Allderdice 7-0 last season and it could be the Golden Tornado’s best chance to break the streak.

​Butler wraps up the season against Wheeling Park (W.Va.) and Central Clarion.

Mars readies for McKeesport

The Planets have won six of their first seven games and are ready to try and spring an upset on the road against McKeesport, which is considered one of the favorites to win Class 4A. The Tigers (4-3, 2-0) have been inconsistent this year as Penn State recruit Kemon Spell has battled to stay on the field due to injuries.

When Spell plays, he’s hard to take down. McKeesport struggled against West Mifflin last week, rallying to a 28-21 win on the road.
Mars pounded West Mifflin 46-0 two weeks ago and beat Butler County rival Knoch last week.

Josh Rizzo is the editor and publisher of Pittsburgh Preps and Colleges. Story ideas can be submitted to [email protected] or on X @J_oshRizzo.