PITTSBURGH — Ian Houk-Graves looked down the hallway as he cradled the Class A Penguins Cup Trophy outside the locker room, wondering if he walked out with it if anyone would notice.

Three years of waiting made the senior defenseman for the Mars hockey team want to hold on to it a little longer.

Prying the title from rival Quaker Valley with a 4-2 win Saturday night at Consol Energy Center made the celebration a little sweeter.

The Quakers were the three-time defending champs, with two of those wins coming over teams Houk-Graves played on.

“I had this gut feeling the whole time. I knew they weren’t going to win it four years in a row,” said Houk-Graves, who had two assists. “To stick it to them, it’s about time. … It’s redemption time.”

Mars’ redemption earned the program its fourth Penguins Cup and first since the Planets won three straight from 2009-11. Mars also picked up its first win over Quaker Valley in the finals, having lost the three previous meetings in 2008, 2012 and 2013.

The Planets will try to add their third state title when they play the winner of Ruston-Henderson in the Pennsylvania Cup Saturday at Pegula Ice Arena in State College.

The two West Chester-area schools will determine the Flyers Cup Champion tonight.

“This isn’t enough for us,” Mars forward Beau Heakins said. “We want to go to states and we want to win that and get the rings.”

Overcoming the top-seeded Quakers (21-2-1) required the Planets to be patient. Houk-Graves felt during Mars’ two regular-season losses to Quaker Valley, the Planets folded when the Quakers scored first.

Quaker Valley didn’t stray from the formula. Connor Quinn scored with 11 minutes, 21 seconds remaining in the first period to put the Quakers ahead.

This time, Mars didn’t collapse. Paul Maust banked a shot off Quaker Valley goalie Parker Sherry to tie the game 29 seconds later.

“Our coaches told us to stick to the system,” said Maust, who finished with a hat trick and an assist. “We stuck to the system, we hit their D, dumped pucks in and got one back quick.”

Houk-Graves then set up Maust, who fired a shot that deflected off a defenseman’s skate and into the net with 6:29 left in the first period.

Heakins doubled the lead when he wristed a shot that snuck between Sherry’s legs.

“We didn’t get down on each other,” Houk-Graves said. “We were all like ‘Pick your heads up guys. Come on, it’s only one goal keep going and keep fighting.’ We knew we we were going to get one and that starts it.”

Mars, which outshot the Quakers 34-21, then focused on shutting down Quinn and Adam Pilewicz, who both scored 46-regular season goals.

Tyler Spreng made 19 stops in net for the Planets.

“That was our focus,” Planets coach Steve Meyers said. “Once we got a comfortable lead, it was when they touched the puck, swarm them. We tell a guy on each line, you don’t leave them. They didn’t have any good looks.”

Maust scored his third goal in the second period to stretch the lead to 4-1. Quinn scored with less than three minutes remaining for Quaker Valley, but the Quakers couldn’t mount a comeback.

“We couldn’t get some of the shots through,” Quakers coach Kevin Quinn said. “I thought we turned it on in the third period and got our opportunities. I give credit to their defensive play because they blocked a lot of shots.”

With a possible move to Class AA next year, no one seemed to mind Houk-Graves running around with the trophy.

Championships aren’t guaranteed.

“We really did it for our seniors and our coaches,” Maust said. “We don’t know when our next chance is going to be. If we move up next year, we may not make it out of the Pens Cup.”