OREGON, Ohio — Moments after a record-setting performance against NC State, Pitt quarterback Mason Heintschel had one more pass to complete.

The cleats he wore while throwing for a freshman school record 423 yards bore the words “63 Strong” — a reminder of an unimaginable tragedy in his small hometown of Oregon, Ohio, and a testament to his commitment to never let the memory of a friend fade.

One of his best friends, Lukas Mason, was struck by a car while riding his bicycle just outside of Clay High School in the summer after seventh grade. The 13-year-old died the next day.

The loss of a joyful boy with an innate ability to make others laugh rocked the town just east of Toledo.

Mason's response, then and now, offers clues to how he has handled his meteoric rise — from anonymous third-stringer to national star in less than six weeks while guiding Pitt to five straight wins and its first national ranking of the season — with such grace and poise.

“Your biggest fear when you lose a child is ... life goes on for everybody else, but you are worried that your son's name is not going to still be spoken, or that people just aren't going to remember them,” Jodie Mason, Lukas' mother, told the Post-Gazette from her home in Oregon this week. “Mason just did not let that happen.”

From third grade on, Lukas had been Mason's fiercely protective center on the football field and boisterous best friend off it. After Lukas' death, Mason switched his jersey number to 6, with close friend Troy Hazuda adopting No. 3, to mirror the number Lukas wore so proudly.

They also ensured No. 63 was never issued during their sterling high school careers at Clay. It hung near their bench every game.

Mason wore “63 Strong” wristbands as he ascended to the starting job five games into his true freshman season at Pitt. Before his third start at Syracuse, he commissioned custom cleats with the mantra etched above his heel.

One of the laces broke in the next game vs. NC State, with Jodie in attendance. Mason knew what to do next.

He met her and his family at the railing of Acrisure Stadium after the game. Before they realized what he was doing, he reached down and took off his cleats, presenting them to the woman who was like another mother to him.

“As Mason continues to reach these heights, he just keeps bringing my son along with him,” Jodie said. “He keeps bringing his name into the conversation, his number into the conversation, and it's so special to me because he could easily have just let that go.”

Mason would be carrying Lukas with him regardless of his spot on the depth chart. But his rapid ascension is now also giving him a platform and spotlight to honor his friend early in his college career.

The three-star recruit from an otherwise unheralded school in northwestern Ohio had one Power Four offer in addition to various Group of Six opportunities. He had two quarterbacks in front of him at Pitt, including returning starter Eli Holstein.

But since Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi and offensive coordinator Kade Bell — a strong believer in Mason — turned to the true freshman, the Panthers' season shifted dramatically.

They went from consecutive one-score losses to West Virginia and Louisville to five straight wins averaging 40 points per game, a No. 22 College Football Playoff ranking and a showdown vs. No. 9 Notre Dame on Saturday with ESPN's “College GameDay” broadcasting from outside Acrisure Stadium.

Mason's father, Eric, described the last month and a half since his son's first start against Boston College on Oct. 4 as a “whirlwind.”

“It's happened a lot quicker than we thought,” the former University of Michigan pitcher said.

Mason has thrown for 12 touchdowns and an average of 302.2 yards per game in his five starts, garnering serious attention nationwide, including as a semifinalist for national freshman of the year.

Though he now has to attend classes wearing a hoodie and hat to deflect attention on campus, those closest to the quarterback say his sudden stardom hasn't changed who he is.

“He's a grounded kid, and he will always remember where he comes from,” Eric said.

Mason's parents and coaches have long seen a maturity beyond his years, though they say he doesn't take himself too seriously.

That maturity equipped him to step in as an 18-year-old and instantly rejuvenate what looked like a lost season for Pitt.

It can likely be traced back to suffering a crushing loss far too early in life.

For a city of just under 20,000 people, Oregon offers a poignant picture of Ohio — farmland to the east and smokestacks to the west.

It's the type of community where everyone knows everyone, where families stick around for generations. Both of Mason's parents grew up in Oregon and attended Clay.

The high school was not known for football prowess — it hadn't won a league championship since 1982 — but as soon as Mason picked up the pigskin, hope was kindled.

Eric coached his son's peewee team, with Lukas snapping the ball to his friend and ensuring no pass rushers dared to touch him. They had several wide receivers who could catch Mason's crisp passes and became the rare youth team to throw the ball all over the yard — kind of like the freshman is now displaying in the ACC.

“He's been in this type of offense since third grade,” Eric said.

When Lukas and Mason weren't terrorizing the northwestern Ohio peewee circuit, they were running around the house calling each other silly names, swimming in pools, staying up too late and generally being “goofballs,” said Mason's mother, Cyndi Heintschel.

“They were loud and rambunctious and always following each other around in the house and finding funny things to do,” she said.

On the field, Lukas knew how to temper Mason's quiet intensity with perfectly timed wisecracks. Along with their close friend Troy (now a receiver at the University of Akron) and several others from their grade, they looked to be laying the foundation for a Clay resurgence.

Then in June 2020, tragedy struck.

Lukas was riding his bike to meet his mom — a long-term substitute teacher at the time — at the local baseball fields, where she was watching some of her students play.

While crossing the street in front of Clay, he was hit by a car and suffered a severe brain injury. He was declared brain dead the next day.

Jodie knew what her abundantly generous son would want to do. The nearly 6-foot-tall, 210-pound rising eighth grader became an organ donor.

Among the many gifts of life he gave in his final moments, Lukas' heart went to a 13-year-old girl in Michigan.

The recipient attended what would have been Lukas' senior night at Clay last fall, and Jodie was able to hear her son's heart beating again for the first time.

“I always think of things like miracles in the Bible, and things like Jesus restoring sight or restoring life,” she said. “And it always made me think that Lukas was as close to Jesus as you can get by providing miracles for other people. He truly had the ability to give them life.”

Some of the joy Mason was known for exuding seemed to be sucked away after losing his friend. His mother said he'd get quiet — “a little withdrawn at times.”

But that didn't stop him from stepping up for Lukas' family.

He and Troy took Lukas' little brother, Cam, under their wing. They brought flowers to Jodie and texted her on Lukas' birthday and the anniversary of his death.

They continued to come by her house and attend birthday parties for Cam, now 15.

“It is a testament to their upbringing and who they are as people that they just maintained a relationship with me at all,” Jodie said.

For Mason's parents, it didn't come as a surprise that the boys kept in close contact with Jodie and fulfilled big brother roles for Cam.

“That's just the kind of kid he is,” Eric said. “He did that on his own, and you never had to remind him of it.”

Cyndi saw her son develop even greater compassion and maturity after Lukas' death.

“It made them grow up probably sooner than they should have,” she said.

It's a Heintschel family tradition to be the starting quarterback at Clay.

Eric set many school passing records. His older son, Logan, broke some and set others. Less than two years after Logan's career came to a close, Mason wrested control of the starting role as a sophomore and proceeded to break all but one of his brother's passing records.

Logan liked to joke that Mason “did everything I did, just better and faster.”

Inside Clay's stadium, with a farm field next door and a wind turbine whirling behind the north end zone, the youngest Heintschel quarterback took the school about 3 miles south of Lake Erie to heights it hadn't seen in decades.

He could evade pressure and make dazzling throws on the move — a skill now on full display at Pitt.

“I can't teach what is in his DNA with playmaking,” said Brad Maendler, a personal quarterback coach who trained Mason and current Penn State quarterbacks Drew Allar and Ethan Grunkemeyer at his facility in the Cleveland suburb of Brunswick. “He's special there.”

Mason threw for 79 touchdowns and more than 7,300 yards in his Clay career, leading the school to its first league championship in 42 years as a senior.

But throughout most of his high school career, he wasn't getting the college attention those around him felt he deserved.

As a junior, he got his first Division I scholarship offer from the nearby University of Toledo. He drew other offers from Group of Six schools that fall but nothing from the Power Four until Pitt offered him in the winter before his senior year.

The Panthers' offense clearly fit the player who could make quick decisions inside the pocket and had a knack for creating magic on the run as well.

Kade Bell, Pitt's offensive coordinator, made it clear that Mason was “his guy,” Cyndi said.

That was all he needed to hear.

Loyalty is a theme of Mason's story.

He had plenty of opportunities to leave Clay for a more prestigious private-school program in the area, but he didn't want to leave his friends. Even when Michigan — his father's alma mater and the school he grew up rooting for just about an hour north of where they grew up — showed serious interest late in the recruiting process, Mason stuck with his commitment to Pitt.

His loyalty to Lukas ran even deeper.

He and Troy fought to keep their friend's jersey on the sideline throughout their high school careers. Lukas became a central part of their senior night, as they walked Jodie and her family onto the field before teammates held the No. 63 jersey at the center position Lukas should have occupied for the first play.

Mason has carried his friend with him to Pitt.

“When he runs on the field, when he points to the sky,” Eric said, his voice breaking, “he's thinking about Luke.”

From the time he was tearing up defenses as a peewee quarterback for Maumee Bay Turf to his heroics at Clay, it's been clear Mason Heintschel has a gift for throwing the football.

And a gift for leadership.

“He's magnetic,” Cyndi said. “It's a confidence that he demonstrates in everything he does, but not in a cocky way. It's how he carries himself, it's how he engages with people, and he's very respectful.”

Parents of Pitt teammates have told her that even when he joined the Panthers as an early enrollee last spring, their sons noticed he was a player who galvanized others. That has shone through in the team's newfound energy since he took over the starting role.

“What he does is normal to us,” Cyndi said, “but I was so happy for him to get to actually show what he's capable of.”

Usually split between Ohio State and Michigan fans, their hometown in Ohio has become a Pitt outpost.

Many people show up to watch Panthers games at Luckies Barn and Grill, where Clay families would often go to celebrate on Friday nights.

The town has plenty of Notre Dame fans, as well — an “Irish” flag waved across the fairway from Eric's home on a golf course — but there will be a large northwestern Ohio contingent pulling for Mason on Saturday at Acrisure Stadium. Eric said he's heard from 40 to 50 people making the trip for the noon kickoff.

Jodie won't be there this time.

The only time she attended a game Mason started, she received another sign of Lukas' enduring presence.

Mason threw an 84-yard touchdown pass to Blue Hicks to break the NC State game open in the third quarter — a completion from No. 6 to No. 3.

After Mason gave Jodie the first pair of “63 Strong” cleats, Cyndi said her son secured another set before the win over Stanford on Nov. 1.

“I just know that Lukas is a part of him,” Cyndi said, “and always will be.”