HERSHEY — The bucket of ice water felt good to South Park coach Tom Loughran even on a cold December afternoon. Finishing an undefeated season with a state title felt good, too.

Connor Dixon ran for two scores and connected with Brandon Detwiler for an 80-yard touchdown catch in the fourth quarter as South Park rallied from an early two-touchdown deficit to defeat Wilson Area 28-17 on Saturday and win the PIAA Class AA state championship.

"They just pulled together and calmed down," Loughran said before he was interrupted by players who snuck up and poured the bucket of water on him to celebrate victory.

"I better not catch pneumonia," said a smiling Loughran, who was bundled up in blue sweats. "It felt good. Excellent. Very good."

South Park finished 16-0 and became the second team in state history to finish with that record. Pittsburgh Central Catholic, last year's Class AAAA champion, was the first team to win 16 games.

Things looked shaky at halftime though, with South Park trailing 17-7 to Wilson, which is in Easton. But the Eagles shut out Wilson the rest of the game while piling up 21 second-half points.

The decisive score came with 11 minutes left after South Park's Craig Price intercepted a D.J. Lenehan pass in the end zone. The Eagles' offense took the field and Dixon hit Detwiler on a pass near midfield on the drive's only play.

Detwiler beat his defender, then cut back toward the middle and sprinted toward the goal line virtually untouched to give South Park a 21-17 lead.

Dixon said that going into the play his team wanted to throw early after his receivers were getting double-teamed on third-down passing situations earlier in the game.

After the game, Dixon got bear hugs from family members leaning over the stadium railing and was serenaded by fans chanting his name.

Was he nervous at halftime with his team down by 10 points?

"No, no, no, we were never worried," he said afterward as tears welled in his eyes.

The loss overshadowed a record-setting performance by Lenehan, who played well in the first half but was intercepted three times in the second.

Lenehan finished 27-of-52 passing for 346 yards. The completions and attempts were PIAA playoff records, while the yardage set a new record for a Class AA title game, which had been held by Mark Mussina's 315 passing yards in 1989 for Montoursville.

"D.J. was a lot of what got us here in the first place, so we let him go ahead and have fun today," Wilson coach Bret Comp said as he walked off the field. "In the first half, yeah, we were highly successful. In the second half, South Park was highly successful."

Wilson had a chance to answer after Detwiler's long score, but Price helped turn them back again. On fourth-and-4 at the Wilson 48, Lenehan threw a touch pass intended for Adam Thomas that Price appeared to knock down at the last second.

Dixon plunged into the end zone from a yard out to put the Eagles ahead 28-17 with 1:34 left to seal the victory. He intercepted Lenehan's last-second desperation pass and was mobbed by teammates as time expired.

Price's interception was one of two second-half picks that Lenehan threw into the end zone.

"We had a couple opportunities that we missed," Comp said. "We got down there inside the 30 and we had to capitalize on those things."

Lenehan ran Wilson's offense well in the first half, hitting receivers on short passes, running on designed runs and scrambling out of trouble when needed. South Park appeared to have the edge in size over Wilson on both sides of the line, but the Warriors succeeded early with speed and quickness.

South Park played much of the first half with leading rusher Tyler Scruggs on the sideline, though Scruggs did return after halftime and scored on a 36-yard run to bring the Eagles within 17-14 late in the third quarter.

Scruggs finished with 22 carries and 165 yards.

Brad Walter caught five balls for 98 yards. He also had a three-yard touchdown run in the first quarter and Lenehan added a 3-yard TD rush in the second quarter as Wilson went up 14-0.

Dixon ran in from five yards out with 1:35 left in the first half to give South Park their first score, but Juan Lozano's 21-yard field goal as time expired in the half extended Wilson's lead to 17-7 heading into the locker room.