MCCANDLESS TWP — It was supposed to be a squib kick, but it didn't do much squibbing.

Instead, it took a series of wild bounces for South Park kicker Jaison Mikelonis.

Several North Catholic players had a shot at the bounding football down by five with two minutes left in the first round of the WPIAL 3A football playoffs.

But South Park recovered and denied any hope for the Trojans and senior quarterback Zack Rocco to orchestrate a last-minute comeback in a 32-27 loss at J.C. Stone Field Friday night.

“Well,” said South Park coach Marty Rieck before a long pause. “It worked.

“We were calling for a little bit more of a squib, but it worked out in our favor so we're not going to complain.”

Rieck won't complain, either, about the way running back Rudy Mihoces carried the ball or the way a physical offensive line blocked in front of him.

Mihoces rushed for 186 yards and scored four touchdowns — two coming in the fourth quarter — to help the Eagles rally twice for the win.

“The resiliency is there and that team that we played is a heck of a team and they are resilient as heck, too,” Rieck said.

North Catholic (8-2) showed that before the first offensive play was run.

The Trojans fumbled the opening kickoff — one of their four turnovers in the game — but forced a fumble on defense on South Park's second offensive play.

North Catholic quickly turned that into a touchdown when Rocco found Mathias Benson on a back-shoulder throw in the end zone for a 27-yard score.

The Trojans led 13-7 at halftime and 21-7 after Rocco found Nick Maher for a 16-yard touchdown in the third quarter. It appeared at that point like North Catholic was on its way to a playoff win despite its early sloppiness.

South Park (5-5) had other plans.

“I think that's a credit to South Park and their coaches,” said North Catholic coach Patrick O'Shea. “We scored that (to go up 21-7) and it looked like, hey, this very well may be our game, but they kept battling.”

South Park got a pair touchdown runs of 36 and 4 yards from Mihoces to cut the North Catholic lead to 21-20.

The Eagles took their first lead of the game, 26-21, with 4:14 remaining in the game on a 17-yard touchdown run by Nathan May.

That lead didn't last long.

On North Catholic's first offensive play after May's score, Rocco found Maher on a slant and the wideout sprinted 89 yards for a touchdown to put the Trojans up 27-26 with 3:49 remaining.

South Park didn't fold, even after Joey Prentice intercepted Eagles' quarterback Stephen Kmonk at their own 45 on their next drive.

“Our kids are so in tune with each other,” Rieck said. “I knew from the look in these guys all week there was no way they were going to give up.”

North Catholic had a chance to put the game away on a third-and-2 at the South Park 37, but the shotgun snap to Rocco was wide to the right and the senior quarterback couldn't snag it.

South Park recovered at its own 41, and on its first offensive play, Mihoces burst up the middle for a 59-yard score to put the Eagles up 32-27.

Then the squib that wasn't sealed the deal.

“We just needed one more first down to run out the clock,” O'Shea said. “Unfortunately, we didn't get it.”

Rocco finished 10-of-23 passing for 251 yards and four touchdowns. He also threw two interceptions.

“We preach the formula of football,” O'Shea said. “One is don't turn the ball over. Two is tackle on the initial contact and three is play good special teams. We turned the ball over and didn't tackle on initial contact and that what cost us in the end.”

Rocco finished his career with more than 6,000 yards passing.

“He's been our leader since he's been in 10th grade,” O'Shea said. “The last three years, these seniors have been 25-4 in the regular season. You can't take that away from them. They've put together three conference championships in a row and two semifinal appearances in a row. They still managed to go undefeated in a very tough conference.

This is a tough loss for everybody.”

South Park 7 0 7 18 — 32

North Catholic 7 6 8 6 — 27

First Quarter

NC — Mathias Benson 27 pass from Zack Rocco (Will Kunzmann kick), no time

SP — Rudy Mihoces 11 run (Jaison Mikelonis kick), no time

Second Quarter

NC — Anthony Serventi 33 pass from Rocco (kick blocked), 6:29

Third Quarter

NC — Nick Maher 16 pass from Rocco (Benson run), 10:26

SP — Mihoces 36 run (Mikelonis kick), 5:23

Fourth Quarter

SP — Mihoces 4 run (kick blocked), 11:13

SP — Nathan May 17 run (pass failed), 4:14

NC — Maher 89 pass from Rocco (run failed), 3:49

SP — Mihoces 59 run (run failed), 2:05

Individual Statistics

Rushing:South Park, Rudy Mihoces 27-186, Nathan May 11-83, Stephen Kmonk 4-16. North Catholic, Anthony Serventi 12-77, Zack Rocco 12-45, Pierce Khory 1-4, Joey Prentice 1-2

Passing:South Park, Stephen Kmonk 10-23-190-3. North Catholic, Zack Rocco 10-23-251-2

Receiving:South Park, Nathan May 6-149, Brandon Thomas 2-28, Rudy Mihoces 1-13. North Catholic, Nick Maher 6-135, Mathias Benson 2-64, Pierce Khoury 2-19, Anthony Serventi 1-33