Luca Santini and Kolton Carlson forged quite the battery on Laurel’s baseball team.

With Santini pitching and Carlson catching, the two seniors made All-Section this past spring and helped guide the Spartans all the way to the Class 2A WPIAL semifinals as the No. 12 seed.

The same applies on the football field. Laurel is 3-0, ranking as the Post-Gazette’s No. 3 team in Class 1A, in large part because of the connection between Santini — the team’s quarterback — and Carlson, the do-it-all receiver/linebacker/punter.

So far, Laurel is outscoring opponents by an average of 34 points per game, and Carlson has hauled in 64% of the passing yardage from Santini.

“They definitely have a good connection there,” Laurel head coach Brian Cooper said. “You can tell they’ve been playing together for

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