ADAMS TWP — It didn't take long for North Catholic football coach Patrick O'Shea to conduct a postmortem.

“The better team won the game tonight,” O'Shea said. “That's just how it goes sometimes.”

It certainly didn't go as planned for North Catholic, which managed just 115 yards on offense.

Most striking was the Trojans — averaging 44 points per game this season —were held scoreless by Elizabeth Forward in a 17-0 loss in the WPIAL Class 3A semifinals Friday night at the Mars Athletic Complex.

“We said all week long it was going to be a defensive battle,” O'Shea said. “Sometimes you just come up against a team on a given night that just plays better than you in every phase of the game.”

North Catholic (8-1) struggled all night on offense.

The Trojans had just one first down in the first quarter and only got inside the red zone once on a drive that resulted in a missed field goal.

A lot of that had to do with the Elizabeth Forward defense, which flew around the field and delivered big hits all night.

“Our kids played out of their minds, man,” said Elizabeth Forward coach Mike Collodi. “I'm so proud of these guys.”

The North Catholic defense didn't play too shabby, either, holding the Warriors (8-0) to just a 25-yard field goal by Andrew Smith in the first half.

Thing unraveled for the Trojans in the second half.

North Catholic's first four drives after the break resulted in a fumble, fumble, punt and interception.

Still, Elizabeth Forward was able to only get points off one of those turnovers on a 5-yard touchdown run by DaVontay Brownfield for a 10-0 lead.

“When you turn the ball over, no matter what level it is, (you're in trouble),” O'Shea said. “But the reason we turned the ball over was they were hitting, man. They were hitting. They were going for the ball. Hats off to them.”

North Catholic turned the ball over four times.

Elizabeth Forward got its licks in on North Catholic quarterback Joey Prentice, in particular.

Prentice finished with just 54 yards passing and 15 yards rushing. He had to leave the game three times because of hard hits.

Even backup quarterback Carson Laconi got dinged up, leaving the field with an injury after a sack/fumble that ended North Catholic's last gasp.

Kyle Tipinski led the Trojans with 38 yards rushing.

Elizabeth Forward put the game out of reach midway through the fourth quarter when wide receiver/running back Nico Mrvos took a direct snap from center — something Elizabeth Forward did a lot of Friday night — and burst up the middle for an 8-yard score.

Still, there were no deep breaths taken by Collidi.

“I wasn't feeling confident until there were zeros on the clock,” Collidi said. “Not with the guys they have over there. They can score from anywhere on the field.”

Elizabeth Forward will play Central Valley for the WPIAL 3A title next week at North Allegheny High School.

For North Catholic, it will be time for reflection.

“To go 8-0 with the win last week, to put that string together in a crazy year with so many uncertainties, we could not be prouder of them,” O'Shea said. “It's hard, not so much the loss on the scoreboard but the loss of the 10 seniors. That's the loss that hurts more than anything.

“I actually said to my wife the hardest day is the day we collect equipment,” O'Shea added. “That's the hardest day.”

Eliz. Forward 3 0 7 7 — 17

North Catholic 0 0 0 0 — 0

First QuarterEF — Andrew Smith 25 field goal, :55

Third QuarterEF — DaVontay Brownfield 5 run (Smith kick), 7:02

Fourth QuarterEF — Nico Mrvos 8 run (Smith kick), 7:29

<b>Rushing: Elizabeth Forward,</b> Nico Marvos 16-80, Kyle Flournoy 11-40, DaVontay Brownfield 8-28, Zion White 2-7, TEAM 2-(-10). <b>North Catholic,</b> Kyle Tipinski 11-38, Nick Maher 1-21, Joey Prentice 11-15, Carson Laconi 1-(-3), Liam Straub 4-(-6), TEAM 1-(-4).<b>Passing: Elizabeth Forward,</b> Zion White 5-14-60-1, Nico Mrvos 0-1-0-0. <b>North Catholic,</b> Joey Prentice 6-11-54-1<b>Receiving: Elizabeth Forward,</b> DaVontay Brownfield 2-27, Nico Mrvos 2-24, Zach Boyd 1-9. <b>North Catholic,</b> Nick Maher 2-12, Tyler Maziarz 1-13, Carson Laconi 1-13, Isaiah Jackson 1-10, Kyle Tipinski 1-6.