Previewing the Beaver Valley WPIAL playoff football first-round matchups
When the football playoffs begin Friday, 10 teams from the Beaver County Times coverage area will resume their pursuit of a WPIAL championship.
One local team – the Aliquippa Quips in Class 4A – has a first-round bye.
Following are capsule looks at Friday’s games involving Beaver County area teams:
Moon at Gateway
This Class 5A game features two teams with 5-5 records that both started the season with three straight losses.
Since its 0-3 start, fifth-seeded Moon has gone 5-2. The Tigers’ first win came on Sept. 15 when they pulled off a 14-13 upset at Penn Hills (8-2), which went on to win the Northeast Conference title and land the No. 2 playoff seed.
Moon was one of three teams that tied for second-place in the Allegheny Conference with 3-2 conference records. Based on the WPIAL’s tie-breaker system, Moon edged out Bethel Park and Upper St. Clair for second place.
The Tigers, which runs a run-oriented Wing-T offense, have only thrown 100 passes (that’s 10 per game). By comparison, running backs Josh Bladel and Naz Brookins have carried 131 and 125 times, respectively. Bladel leads the team with 817 rushing yards while Brookins isn’t far behind with 735. Bladel leads the team with 10 touchdowns.
Fourth-seeded Gateway has also gone 5-2 since its 0-3 start. But the Gators, led by quarterback Brad Birch, won the Big East Conference with a 5-0 conference record.
Gateway senior quarterback Brad Birch continues his climb in the WPIAL record book and is one of the WPIAL’s top five passers of all time. He recently surpassed 8,000 career passing yards. This season, Birch has thrown for 1,876 yards and 18 TDs. He’s a major-college recruit with offers from Oregon and Akron. One of Birch’s top targets is wide receiver Steven Jenkins, a Bowling Green recruit.
Highlands at Central Valley
This will be a very difficult game for 12th-seed Highlands (6-4), which tied for third place in the Class 4A Greater Allegheny Conference.
In each of the past four years, fifth-seeded Central Valley (7-3) has recorded blow-out, first-round playoff wins on its home turf at Sarge Alberts Stadium: 36-7 over Laurel Highlands, 48-6 over East Allegheny, 70-21 over Keystone Oaks and 42-6 over Mount Pleasant.
Central Valley, the WPIAL 4A runner-up a year ago, is led by running backs Jance Henry, a freshman who’s rushed for 950 yards, and T-Mason Dixon, a junior who’s rushed for 717. Those two have combined for 25 TDs.
The Warriors, who finished in third place in the Parkway with a 5-2 conference record, lost last week to Aliquippa, 27-17. Before that, they lost two close one-score games, 28-20 to Avonworth (10-0), the No. 1 seed in 3A, and 21-20 to third-seed Montour (9-1), the second-place team in the Parkway.
Running back Luke Bombalski is the Golden Rams’ top threat offensively. He’s rushed for 954 yards and 13 TDs.
Latrobe at West Allegheny
This Class 4A game pits two programs with vastly different playoff histories.
Last year when Latrobe won its first-round game, it won a playoff game for the first time since 1968 when it won its first and only WPIAL title.
Meanwhile, even though West Allegheny hasn’t had a lot of post-season success in recent years, it did win eight WPIAL titles when Bob Palko coached the Indians, the most recent in 2016.
West Allegheny (6-4, 4-2), now coached by Dave Schoppe, qualified for the playoffs this year by finishing fourth in the Parkway Conference. Its only two Parkway losses were relatively close home losses to conference champ Aliquippa (29-22) and Central Valley (29-20).
The Indians are led by Brock Cornell, a versatile multi-position athlete – running back, wildcat quarterback, defensive back and kick returner -- who’s scored 17 TDs. Cornell leads the Indians with 1,009 rushing yards.
Latrobe is led by dual-threat QB John Wetzel, who’s thrown for 1,175 yards and 14 TDs while rushing for a team-high 793 yards and 13 TDs. The Wildcats’ roster also includes Alex Tatsch, a 6-foot-3, 210-pound junior running back/linebacker who has a scholarship offer from West Virginia.
Shady Side Academy at Beaver
Of all third-place teams in the WPIAL’s 17 conferences, only two won at least eight games during the regular season. One of them is Beaver (8-2).
Three of the Bobcats’ wins were blowouts against Class 2A teams (Western Beaver, Freedom and Brentwood). Two other wins were blowout wins against 3A programs that have struggled mightily in recent years (Quaker Valley and Hopewell).
That being said, Beaver’s only two losses were against the top two teams in the Class 3A Western Hills Conference: 28-16 at West Mifflin (6-4) and 33-28 at home against second-seeded Avonworth (10-0).
Meanwhile, 10th-seeded Shady Side Academy is only 5-5 overall after finishing 2-3 and in fourth place in the Allegheny Six Conference. However, one of the Bulldogs' losses was a 1-0 forfeit to Knoch on Oct. 6. Shady Side forfeited due to an undisclosed illness among several of its players.
While Shady Side does enter the playoffs on a two-game losing streak, those losses were close conference encounters with No. 4 seed East Allegheny (8-2) and No. 8 seed Deer Lakes (7-3).
And the Bulldogs do have some intriguing athletes. One of them is sophomore quarterback Devin Harris, who threw for 361 yards and four touchdowns in a win over North Catholic earlier this season. Another is freshman wide receiver/defensive back Carter Bonner, who’s 6-foot-3 and 180 pounds. He already has a scholarship offer from Pitt.
Western Beaver vs. Serra Catholic at Norwin
Because the WPIAL reserves the right to assign first-round playoff games to a synthetic turf field when a team plays its home game on grass, Serra Catholic will host Western Beaver at Norwin High School instead of its field in McKeesport.
This Class 2A game between eight-seeded Serra Catholic and ninth-seeded Western Beaver features two of the WPIAL’s top quarterbacks.
Western Beaver freshman Jaivin Peel ranks third in the WPIAL with 2,434 passing and third with 27 TD passes. Serra Catholic’s Quadir Stribling ranks fifth with 2,076 passing yards and is tied for seventh with 24 TD passes.
The game also features a pair of receivers with 40-plus receptions. Serra’s Jesere Young is tied for seventh in the WPIAL with 44 catches while WB’s Mikey Crawford is tied for 14th with 41 receptions.
The Eagles are only 4-5 overall and 4-2 in the Allegheny Conference. Their game on Sept. 22 against Imani Christian (7-2) was canceled after a 15-year-old Serra Catholic cheerleader was killed in a car accident.
Western Beaver (6-4) finished in third place in the Midwestern Conference with a 5-2 conference record. The Golden Beavers’ only conference losses were competitive road games at second-place Neshannock, 27-26, and at first-place Mohawk, 31-21.
Ellwood City at Washington
Ellwood City’s reward for making the playoffs for the first time since 2011?
The Washington Little Prexies, one of the WPIAL’s most successful programs over the years.
With 740 wins, they rank fourth on the WPIAL’s all-time wins list behind Aliquippa (778), Jeannette (777) and New Castle (754).
This season, third-seeded Washington is 9-1 overall after winning the 2A Century Conference with a 5-1 conference record.
The Little Prexies are led by running back Eddie Lewis, who’s rushed for 930 yards and 14 TDs.
Ellwood City (5-5, 3-4) qualified for the playoffs with a fifth-place finish in the Midwestern Conference, one of two conferences in Class 2A that sent its top five teams to the playoffs.
The Wolverines are led by running back Elijah Palmer-McCane. He’s fourth in the WPIAL with 1,393 rushing and fourth with 223 rushing attempts.
Beaver Falls at Keystone Oaks
With a 5-5 overall record and a No. 10 seed, it appears that Beaver Falls might be hard-pressed to make it back to the WPIAL Class 2A championship game for the fourth straight season. That being said, no one should overlook the Tigers, who won the WPIAL title in 2020.
With the exception of a 26-6 Saturday afternoon loss at Western Beaver last week, BF has been competitive in all its other losses. Two of them were against Class 3A teams that made the playoffs (Beaver and Knoch)). The other two were against Neshannock, 27-26 in overtime, and 21-12 against Mohawk.
The Tigers are best offensively when running backs Da’Talian Beauford and Brizz Rawl have the ball in their hands. They’ve rushed for 978 and 648 yards, respectively. Beauford leads the team with 14 TDs.
Quarterback Da’Sean Anderson has thrown nine interceptions compared to five TD passes. But he’s a threat running the ball with 428 rushing yards. He’s scored eight TDs.
Seventh-seed Keystone Oaks (6-4, 4-2)) is the third-place team from the Century Conference. The Golden Eagles are the only team to beat Century champ Washington.
KO is led by quarterback Dimajio Liocante. With only 199 passing yards, Liocante isn’t much of a threat passing the ball. But when he carries the ball, he’s rushed for 1,119 yards and scored 10 TDs.
Monessen at South Side
Last year in the Class 1A bracket, top-seeded Bishop Canevin opened the playoffs with a 63-14 win over No. 16 Jeannette. Might history repeat this year when top-seeded South Side (10-0) hosts 16th-seeded Monessen (4-6)?
Well, South Side, the Big 7 Conference champs, do rank fourth in the WPIAL in scoring at 44-6 points game. And the Rams did score 62 points in a game this season and 56 and 55 in two others. They are led offensively by the trio of quarterback QB Brody Almashy (15) and running backs Ryan Navarra (20) and A.C. Corfield (13) who’ve combined to score 48 TDs. Navarra and Corfield have rushed for 954 and 750 yards, respectively, while Almashy has rushed for 557 and thrown for 703 yards and 11 TDs.
South Side, which advanced to the WPIAL semifinals last year, has gone 21-2 over the past two seasons.
Monessen finished fourth in the Tri-County South Conference with a 3-4 conference record. Running back Tyvaughn Kershaw leads the Greyhounds with713 rushing yards and 10 TDs.
Rochester vs. Cornell at Moon
Because the WPIAL reserves the right to assign first-round playoff games to a synthetic turf field, Cornell will host Rochester on Moon’s Tiger Stadium instead of its home grass field in Coraopolis, Frank Letteri Stadium.
Even though both teams finished in third place in their respective conferences – the Rams in the Big 7 and the Raiders in the Black Hills – the WPIAL awarded Cornell a higher seed based on overall record.
The seventh-seeded Raiders (8-2) only lost to No. 2 seed Fort Cherry (10-0) and No. 3 seed Bishop Canevin (8-1), the top two teams in the Black Hills Conference.
Meanwhile, might 10th-seeded Rochester (5-4) rekindle any of the magic it had last year in the playoffs?
After finishing fourth in the Big Seven (7-5, 3-3), the Rams qualified for post-season play as a No. 14 seed. Then in the playoffs, they stunned No. 3 seed Greensburg Central Catholic, 36-15, routed No. 6 seed Fort Cherry, 30-14, in the quarterfinals before losing to 10th-seeded Union in an 18-16 semifinal thriller. Union went on to win the WPIAL title.
Cornell running back Khylil Johnson has rushed for 1,029 yards and scored 11 TDs. QB C.J. Jackson has thrown for 976 yards and 14 TDs, while rushing for 373 yards and seven TDs.
While Rochester runs a run-oriented offense with running back by committee, it hasn’t had star RB Antonio Laure most of the season due to a leg injury. Last year he earned first-team honors on the Big 7 all-star team when he rushed for 1,407 yards and scored 26 TDs. However, because of very limited playing time, he’s only rushed for 181 yards. Laure didn’t play last week when Rochester lost to South Side.
This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Previewing the Beaver Valley WPIAL playoff football first-round matchups
