Familiar foes to meet in opening round of WPIAL playoffs
Katie Roupe/Observer-Reporter South Fayette's Justin Watson and other teammates hold up the WPIAL trophey after beating Aliquippa in the 2013 WPIAL Championship Game. Area teams found out Monday night what their road to a possible title game will be when the WPIAL announced its football pairings.
GREEN TREE – When the PIAA expanded to six classifications in football this season, it not only changed the landscape for teams and conferences, but also their playoff system.
For the first time in memory, the first round of the WPIAL playoffs, which were announced Monday, will have matchups between teams from the same sections. And it involved some area teams.
• Undefeated South Fayette, which got the No. 2 seed behind Thomas Jefferson in Class 4-A, hosts Northwest 9 opponent New Castle a month after beating the Red Hurricane, 37-13.
• On the other side of that bracket, Belle Vernon and West Mifflin, which tied for second place in the Big 9 Conference, play each other in the first round.
And there were some other interesting seeds.
• Aliquippa is top seed in Class AAA despite a two-loss season. One came against Clairton in a non-conference loss and the other came against Beaver Valley Conference opponent Beaver, which was the No. 1-ranked team in the state but failed to qualify for the WPIAL playoffs.
• Washington, which won its third straight conference title, was seeded second to Three Rivers Conference champion Steel Valley in Class AA. Both teams are 9-0.
• Chartiers-Houston (7-3), runner-up to Washington in the Interstate Conference, was seeded eighth, one behind Brentwood, a third-place team in the Three Rivers Conference.
• Undefeated Derry, making its first appearance in the playoffs since 2009, got a fourth seed in Class AAA. The Trojans were the only undefeated team that did not get a 1 or 2 seed.
South Fayette (10-0), which saw its 44-game winning streak snapped by Aliquippa in last year’s WPIAL Class AA championship game, had an historic win over New Castle four weeks ago. In a driving rain, running back Geavonie Love rushed for a school-record 308 yards and scored four touchdowns. He became the first runner in South Fayette history to surpass 300 yards rushing.
“We knew there was the potential of New Castle coming back to us,” said South Fayette head coach Joe Rossi. “They obviously have some good athletes. We’ve had some injuries but our backups have done well. We’re getting some kids back, which is nice.”
Nick Milchovich thought he might be preparing for South Fayette but the head coach at Ringgold got an away game against Mars (8-2), the runner-up to South Fayette. Ringgold (7-2), fourth in the Big 9, got a sixth seed, one better than New Castle thanks to the Rams’ 41-27 win over New Castle two weeks ago.
“You never know. You come here every year and they can throw a surprise at you,” said Milchovich. “We prepared all weekend with some film of South Fayette and New Castle. So much for all that work.”
Chartiers-Houston hosts Laurel (7-3), the third-place team in the Class AA Midwestern Conference.
“We don’t know much about Laurel,” said C-H head coach Terry Fetsko. “I give our kids a lot of credit. We have a good group of seniors and they have been through the battles with Clairton, Jeannette and North Catholic. It prepared us for this. It’s real satisfying to be second place and have a home game for the first time in 16 years, I think.”
Washington, which has a 29-game regular season winning streak, hosts South Side Beaver (4-5), which finished in fifth place in the Midwestern Conference.
“I’m not really surprised,” said Wash High head coach Mike Bosnic. “South Side Beaver was one of three teams we thought we could draw. We don’t know a whole lot about them so I’ve got to get home and get to work.”
As expected Avella (2-8) was seeded 16th in Class A and will be sent to top-ranked Clairton. Carmichaels (7-2), which suffered its second loss of the season last week, was seeded sixth and will host No. 11 Springdale (5-5), the fourth-place team in the Eastern Conference. California (6-4) and Mapletown (5-5) were seeded 12th and 13th, respectively, and will be on the road for the first week.
The Trojans play Bishop Canevin at 7 p.m. Saturday, while Mapletown visits Northgate on Friday.
Beth-Center (3-6), the fifth-place team in the Century Conference, drew top-seeded Steel Valley in Double-A. No. 6 Burgettstown (4-5), making its second straight playoff appearance, hosts North Catholic (5-4).
The WPIAL playoffs, which includes 64 of the 122 participating schools, begin Friday night, each game with a 7:30 start. The championship games will be split up over different weekends. Class 6-A, 5-A, 4-A and 3-A will hold their finals Nov. 18 at Heinz Field. Class AA and A will play their finals Nov. 26 at Robert Morris University’s Joe Walton Stadium.
Central Catholic (6-A), Thomas Jefferson (4-A), Aliquippa (3-A) and Clairton (A) – the four defending WPIAL champions – received No. 1 seeds.