2 weeks Ago
We have reached the end of the high school football regular season. It’s playoff time. That means the time for scratching and clawing is done.
The days of worrying about math – winning by more than 10 points and losing by less than 10 – are behind us. Now, it’s simple. You either win and advance or you lose and back away the equipment because the season is over.
To quote former Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis, just win, baby. Ten local teams begin play in the WPIAL playoffs tonight. Another, Peters Township, has a first-round bye in Class 5A and will wait until next weekend to make its postseason debut on its home field.
While we all love home cooking, eight of those 10 teams would prefer to have some tonight. Those eight teams – South Fayette in Class 5A, Trinity and Belle Vernon in Class 4A, Washington and Waynesburg in Class 2A, and Monessen, California and Bentworth in Class A – will be on the road. The only teams playing at home are a pair of Class A conference champions.
Fort Cherry will host Brentwood at Jim Garry Stadium while Jefferson-Morgan will play South Side Beaver at Parker Field. Here are five things to watch in tonight’s playoff games: 1. Rematches – Though the WPIAL tries to avoid such scenarios with its first-round matchups, two games are rematches of regular-season contests.
Belle Vernon (4-4) will play at Greater Allegheny Conference champion McKeesport (6-4) while Washington (5-5) will be at Steel Valley (7-3). Washington lost to the Ironmen 28-8 back on Aug. 30 in a game that was delayed at the start because of lightning.
Once the game began, Steel Valley running back Donald Barksdale provided the thunder, rushing for 342 yards and scoring four touchdowns. Barksdale had 1,761 rushing yards on the season, so the objective for Wash High is simple though difficult – stop Barksdale and make Steel Valley pass. Belle Vernon lost at McKeesport 28-7 on Sept.
13. The Leopards gave up too many rushing yards in a loss at Trinity last Friday and the run defense must improve if it is to stop McKeesport’s flexbone offense. 2.
Hey, we know him – Waynesburg (6-4) plays at South Allegheny (8-2) in Class 2A. South Allegheny hasn’t won a postseason game since 1986. One guy who isn’t a stranger to Waynesburg is Gladiators head coach Brian Hanson, who spent four years as the coach at West Greene before leaving for South Allegheny following the 2022 season.
Hanson had a 24-16 record at West Greene and in 2019 went 10-2 and advanced to the second round of the playoffs. Hanson’s West Greene teams were built on powerful rushing attacks. His South Allegheny team is quite the opposite.
Quarterback Ryan Cortes has passed for 1,891 yards and Drew Cook has more than 1,200 receiving yards and is second in the WPIAL in that category. Waynesburg quarterback Jake Stephenson is the 19th player in WPIAL history with more than 1,000 passing yards and 1,000 rushing yards in a season. 3.
Potential rematches – South Fayette (6-4) would get a rematch with Peters Township (9-1) next week if the Lions can knock off sixth-seeded Penn-Trafford (8-2) tonight. The Lions, however, need to find a way to end a four-game losing streak. Trinity (5-5) could get a rematch with top-seeded Thomas Jefferson (10-0) if the Hillers can win at “The Pit” against Aliquippa (6-2).
4. Streaks on the line – Defending champion Fort Cherry (10-0) and Jefferson-Morgan (10-0) will be putting perfect records and some long winning streaks on the line. Fort Cherry will host Brentwood (4-6), which got into the playoffs as a wild-card team ahead of, among others, Carmichaels (5-3).
Brentwood’s four wins came against opponents that had a combined record of 5-32. Two of the Spartans’ victories came over winless teams. Fort Cherry, meanwhile, has won 24 consecutive games against WPIAL opponents.
The last WPIAL team to beat the Rangers was Rochester in the 2022 playoffs. Jefferson-Morgan has won 10 in a row. The last team to beat the Rockets was Fort Cherry, in last year’s playoffs.
5. WPIAL leader – California (7-3) travels to New Castle for a game at Laurel (5-5) in Class A. The Trojans, who were a couple of fumbles away from possibly winning the Tri-County South Conference championship, have running back Lee Qualk, who led the WPIAL in rushing (1,967 yards) and scoring (212 points) in the regular season.
Qualk has scored nine more points than Laurel’s entire team. Laurel prefers to run the ball but quarterback Luca Santini has passed for more than 1,600 yards. California quarterback Logan Hartley is coming off a three-TD pass game against Jefferson-Morgan.
Monessen running back Tyvaughn Kershaw is second in the WPIAL in scoring with 174 points. He hopes to add to that total when the Greyhounds (7-3) play at Greensburg Central Catholic (7-2). Sports editor Chris Dugan can be reached at dugan@observer-reporter.
com.
