The same dream spawned about the same time for two little boys growing up in the South Hills.

Lyle Marsh said he was "probably 7 or so when I first thought about it."

Erik Olson said he was "a little kid when I said, 'That's the game I want to play in for Bethel Park.' "

And now, both have transformed their wide-eyed, pee-wee football aspirations to realizing that well-defined dream -- becoming Bethel Park High School standouts and propelling the Black Hawks to a date in the WPIAL Class AAAA championship game.

The pair made sure of as much last night, rallying Bethel Park (12-0) from a seven-point deficit with 7 minutes remaining to pull even and then skirt past McKeesport (9-2) as the Black Hawks earned a 20-13 semifinal victory at North Allegheny's Newman Stadium.

Bethel Park will play Gateway in the title game next Saturday at Heinz Field. Studying the statistical data from last night, one can extract three glaring numbers that led Bethel Park to the win: Olson, a senior quarterback threw for 221 yards; Marsh, a senior running back had 122 yards receiving; and McKeesport self-destructed, being penalized for a total of 100 yards.

"We did what we needed to," Marsh said. "We made some plays and kept it all together."

Marsh should know. He made, perhaps, the biggest play of Bethel Park's season.

After Olson's 1-yard sneak tied the score, 13-13, with 6:51 remaining, Bethel Park forced McKeesport to punt and got the ball back at its 7 with 2:59 left.

Five plays later, Marsh caught a swing pass that looked innocuous enough, maybe bent on going for a first down. But it all opened up in front of him down the sideline, and 71 yards later he was in the end zone, giving the Black Hawks the lead, for good, with 1:40 remaining.

"Generally, it doesn't go for that many yards," Olson said. "But we were glad to see that it did. It was a fake dive up the middle and then just a screen. And then ..."

Then Marsh did the rest -- getting some help from a demolishing downfield block thrown by Andrew Fossick.

"That's an old Don Nehlen play," Bethel Park coach Jeff Metheny said. "I'll tell you what, that was a pretty good one right there. [Marsh] just got out there and made a play."

From a vantage across the field, it looked different.

"Total defensive breakdown," McKeesport coach George Smith said, whose team was done-in by momentous penalties down the stretch. "But by that time, we had lost our discipline. ... It was breakdown galore."

In the early going, it looked like the Tigers might clear a path, using their signature flexbone, all the way to Heinz Field.

McKeesport scored first, and the drive was, well, pure McKeesport.

The first-quarter march encompassed 13 plays, ate 7:55 off the clock and ended when Nico Price hammered in from the 2, giving McKeesport a 6-0 lead.

The counter punch was immediate.

Bethel Park made it 6-6 just 1:05 later when Marsh pulled in a 20-yard touchdown pass from Olson on a deftly thrown touch pass to the short corner of the end zone.

McKeesport took the lead just before halftime, making it 13-6 on Sam Gooden's 9-yard run. But in the second half, both scores belonged to Bethel Park and now, so too does a ticket to Heinz Field.

The Black Hawks have advanced to the WPIAL championship for the first time since 1980, when quarterback Shawn Morton and his top target Larry Miles pushed Bethel Park to a championship game matchup against rival Mt. Lebanon.

Bethel Park lost that game at Pitt Stadium. This time, against mighty Gateway, the Black Hawks are looking for something different.

"Gateway is a great team and we know we are going to hear about them all week and they earned that because they are so good and they have been so dominant," Marsh said. "But we need to take care of our business. We need to do what we have to do. I think a lot of people probably didn't think we could beat McKeesport. We were losing and they were tough, they were so good. But I just kept thinking, we just need to make a play and we'll get to the WPIAL championship."

Now they've reached the WPIAL championship -- that destination that's been in their dreams since they were little kids.