Rich Johnson might not have shown it on the outside, but the Bishop Canevin coach was likely grinning from ear to ear on the inside.
That excitement came when his defense and special teams kept Cornell off the board after the Raiders had a first-and-goal from the 1 in the closing minutes of Friday’s showdown at Frank Letteri Stadium in Coraopolis.
“We always feel like our offense has a chance when we have 15 behind center,” Johnson said. “We felt like if we got the ball back, we could do something with it.”
And do something they did. After Cornell misfired on a 24-yard field-goal attempt with 1:48 left, the aforementioned No. 15 (senior quarterback Kole Olszewski) found a wide open Jayden Lindsey for an 80-yard touchdown on the very next play to help Class 1A No. 3 Bishop Canevin rally for a thrilling 29-22 win at No. 5 Cornell in a key Black Hills Conference game.
Much of the WPIAL championship talk in Class 1A has focused on defending champion and No. 1 Fort Cherry and second-ranked Clairton, but Canevin believes it should be in that conversation, too. The Crusaders (3-1, 1-0) won a WPIAL title in 2021, reached the final in 2022 and were knocked out by Fort Cherry in last year’s semifinals, and the only loss they have suffered so far this season was at the hands of Seton LaSalle, the No. 1 team in Class 2A.
“We’re sneaky,” Olszewski said after his team handed Cornell its first loss for the second year in a row. “Everyone says we lost all of our playmakers, but we just have as many playmakers coming up and stepping into big roles. We’re sneaky. I don’t think anyone expects us to be [in the championship], but we will be.”
Olszewski is at the forefront of that movement. One of only a handful of four-year starting quarterbacks in the WPIAL, Olszewski had one of the best statistical games of his career Friday against a Cornell team (4-1, 1-1) that had given up only 22 points over the first four games. Olszewski completed 14-of-25 passes for 343 yards and four touchdowns. Olszewski was a big-play machine, hooking up with Damar Olds on touchdowns of 55 and 46 yards before finding Myontae Mott for a 65-yard scoring strike with 6:03 left that tied the score at 22.
“I trust him and I can depend on him anytime,” Mott said. “When we’re down, I know he will bring us up. Great leader. I’m glad he’s my quarterback.”
Olszewski is actually a three-time WPIAL champion. In addition to winning a football championship his freshman season, he is a standout on Canevin’s baseball team that captured back-to-back titles the past two seasons. His career numbers are impressive, as he has now thrown for more than 5,000 yards and 71 touchdowns.
But to his coach, Olszewski, who said he plans to play football in college, is more than just a numbers guy. He’s also a leader and a winner.
“I can look on the sidelines and I see another extension of our coaching staff,” Johnson said. “I look at 15, he looks back at me. I just coach everyone else. I know 15 has got my back and he’s going to lead my team to victory.”
As for Mott, well, Mott’s got that sauce. An electrifying 5-foot-5, 140-pound sophomore running back who loudly announced his presence the previous two weeks when he notched consecutive four-touchdown performances, Mott admittedly was not at his best Friday. He lost a pair of fumbles (Canevin had three turnovers in the game) and was held without a touchdown for the first 41-plus minutes before sneaking past the defense and hauling in the tying score.
“Tae is a gamebreaker,” Johnson said. “He had two fumbles today, unfortunately, so he has some stuff to clean up. But as a whole, I’m proud of him. Tae has been a guy. We’ve just had to wait for him to mature a little bit, and this year he’s coming along great.”
It has been a breakout season for Mott, who had just a few carries and one touchdown last season as he was one of the players backing up Marquis Carter, an all-conference running back who ran for more than 1,000 yards the past two seasons. But Carter graduated, leaving Canevin with a committee approach early this season. Mott has been the headliner, his eight touchdowns the previous two weeks coming on five runs, a catch and two kickoff returns. With the long touchdown Friday, he now has six touchdowns of 50 yards or more. Against Cornell, he finished with 16 carries for 94 yards and four catches for 70 yards.
“I wouldn’t say I expected it,” Mott said of the early success. “It came to me, so I took the opportunity and ran with it. And try to make the best of it.”
Count his veteran quarterback among those impressed, but not surprised.
“He didn’t get a lot of carries last year because we had a really good running back, but every time he ran the ball he was special,” Olszewski said. “I knew he was going to be great.”
And while this Canevin team might not be great yet, it certainly appears to have the pieces in place to make a run at its second title in four years. Among the other stars are senior Henry Barbisch, a wrecking ball of a defensive end who will continue his career at Air Force, and terrific senior lineman Braiden Sudor, who like Olszewski seems like he has been at Canevin for a decade.
“We always feel like, if we don’t beat ourselves, we’re in every single game,” Johnson said. “Unfortunately, the last couple of weeks we had eight or nine turnovers. That’s not WPIAL championship football. So we have a lot of things we need to clean up. I was just happy that they overcame and stayed together, and we were able to finish this in the fourth quarter.”
Brad is a sports writer at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at beverett@unionprogress.com.