East Top 20 at bottom minus the typical write ups
District 5….No AAAA teams but home of AAA Somerset (7-1, lost to Wood 63-20 in state semi last year) and Single-A power Berlin Brothersvalley (8-0, 50-10 last 5).
District 6
Little to talk about with the 4A teams in this district.
State College. See District 3
Altoona 3-5
Central Mountain 2-6
Mifflin County 0-8
District 7
X = Clinched playoff spot
Y = Still alive
Southeastern Conference
xWoodland Hills, Wolverines 8-0
Veteran group winning against the better teams beating Bethel Park 28-23, West Allegheny 22-15 and last week against previously undefeated Mount Lebanon 21-17. Finish up at Penn Hills where the Indians are 3-1 and always score a ton of points. Should be a wild one.
xMount Lebanon Blue Devils 7-1
Lebo and Woody wow! Otherwise both close out with their great rivals with ML heading down the road to play Upper St. Clair. Both will likely be a terror in the wide open Wpial.
xUpper St. Clair Panthers 5-3
Panthers recovered from a 3 game slide, losing to Bethel, North Allegheny and Woodland Hills before winning their last three.
xBethel Park Black Hawks 5-3
Bethel is hangin tough looking to go 6-3 with a win against Baldwin Friday. They don’t have quality wins but make teams earn it losing to Central Catholic 28-12, Woodland Hills 28-23 and Mount Lebanon 31-20. Most of last year’s young group returned for this season.
xPenn Hills Indians 3-5
Forget the record. A win against Woodland Hills is something close to Army beating Navy in this fierce rivalry.
yPeters Township Indians 2-6
Real young starting 4 sophomore lineman last year (!) but still losing to +.500 teams 37-12 on average with the closer being Pine Richland coming off the tough loss to Central Catholic. Ouch!
Northern-8
xCentral Catholic Vikings 7-1
Looks like the Vikings have it together winning their last 5 by an average score of 47-11 and beating Pine Richland last week 35-28 at PR! Soph QB Troy Fisher (6-4, 205) completed 9 of 18 passes for 195, rushed for 56 and scored the winning Td with 25 seconds left in the game. Looks like they’re a factor for the next 3 now that they found a QB. This has to make them the co (tri?)- favorite with Woodland Hills and Pine Richland in the coming Wpial postseason.
xPine Richland Rams 7-1
What a rebuild plugging in soph QB Phil Jurkovec who has been spectacular. But they lost last week to Central Catholic allowing the Vikings to go 80 yards in the final 2 plus minutes to pull it out right after PR had tied it. Even so, the sophomore at QB says like Central Catholic they’ll be around a long time.
xNorth Allegheny Tigers 7-1
Remember these guys? They beat Central Catholic 14-17 after losing to Pine Richland 28-14 to show how tight things are in the Northern-8….and likely in the Wpial. They are hot winning the last 6 since the PR loss with rival North Hills is next.
xSeneca Valley Raiders 4-4
No notable wins with losses to North Allegheny 34-24, Pine Richland 35-28 Central Catholic 38-14 and Norwin 35-27 keeping them 4-0 home and 0-4 away but they’ll beat 2-6 Shaler on the road to finish on the plus side.
xNorth Hills Indians 3-5
They’re in but not for long with losses to every winning team on the schedule. Proud program is in a 5 year slide going 4-5, 6-4, 5-5, 6-4 and likely 3-6 after North Allegheny this Friday.
yShaler Titans 2-6
It’s unlikely they’ll beat Seneca Valley Friday but a 2-7 finish is two more wins than they’ve had since 2011 with three consecutive 0-9 seasons.
Foothills
xPenn Trafford Warriors 8-0
Very senior veteran team led by duel threat QB Brett Laffoon and RB Jonah Lisbon gunning for their second straight undefeated regular season. Beat Quad East rival Mckeesport 21-7 back in Week 2 with no challenges since. Like we said in the preseason, the West is loaded!
xMcKeesport Tigers 7-1
The Flex Bone is in high gear storming people by an average score of 51-7 since losing to Penn Trafford. Six backs have significant yardage led by 6-0, 205 Kahleke Hudson’s 778 yards, 6-0, 220 Mark Cromardie’s 420 and QB Tymar Sutton’s (6-0, 220, sr) 344 yds.
xPlum Mustangs 5-3
Fading fast at 1-3 after a 4-0 start, losing to all the winning teams including McKeesport 42-7, Penn Trafford 36-15 and Kiski 23-14 after beating Norwin Week 4.
xNorwin Knights 5-3
2-2 start then 3-1 the last 5 for momentum but end with Penn Trafford. They returned a nice core this year with QB Nick Amendola (6-2, 215), RB Peyton Deri (6-2, 205) and TE Nick Petrick (6-5, 240). Nice turnaround for the Knights in Coach Dave Brozeski’s second year, going 5-5 last year following a 2-7 outing.
xKiski Cavaliers 5-3
The Cavs are greatly improved over last year’s winless season with a veteran team (QB, RBs, WRs) turning things completely around managing to win two road games along the way. Nothing significant but 5 wins on the heels of winless is good stuff. Nothing to lose in the postseason!
yHempfield 3-5
Fun seeing these guys averaging 27ppg making opposition work for it! Very young group but capable of beating the winless Foxes Friday night at Fox Chapel.
yAltoona Mountain Lions 3-5
Disappointing year for the rebuilding Lions but a win at Connellsville Friday keeps them in contention for a AAAA Wild card.
District 8 (Pittsburgh City League)
Brashear Bulls 5-3
Reigning city champ Bulls returned entire backfield led by QB Therran Coleman with 9 Div-1 offers including Pitt, ASU, West VA, VA Tech, etc making him the top player in the city and one of top in state. Lost last two but good scheduling prep for postseason losing to good AAA teams Armstrong (5-3) and Franklin Regional (7-1) from the Wpial’s Greater Allegheny.
Allderdice Dragons 5-3
The Dragons have a few D1 players as well and are always in the City League picture. The losses are non-conf vs Hampton (6-2, AAA-Wpial), Indiana (3-5, AAA-Wpial) and Wheeling Park, WV (6-1-1, 5A) 28-6. Another war between Bulls and Dragons to settle the issue.
District 9
Dubois Beavers 5-3
Rough start losing to Meadville 107-90!, Conneaut 56-21 and Cathedral 63-13 before current hot streak winning last 4. But last year was the year with QB Gabe French’s 3578 yards and 70% completion rate, now at East Stroudsburg. Finish at General McLane then super bad AA power Karns City (8-0) where they will be fortunate to win.
District 10
General McLane Lancers 5-3
Playing up to AAAA with no benefit losing to AAA powers Conneaut 27-13 (8-0) and Cathedral (7-1) 34-14. A lot of bodies back from last year but not enough size. Regular season loss to McDowell 34-6 says the postseason will be brief.
McDowell Trojans 3-5
Have a large roster but still hit hard by graduation losing linemen Chris Larsen, Fernando Frye, Justin Siwiecki, Joe Wierzchowski and Anthony Acquista plus QB Jake Tarasovitch who threw for 1,078 yards and seven touchdowns and ran for 1,110 yards and 14 more touchdowns, making it a huge rebuild. Returned 2 to the offense and 4 to the D that wasn’t enough with aggressive scheduling of games against Lake Catholic 5-4, Canton McKinley 7-3, Cardinal Mooney 4-4 and Austintown-Fitch 6-3, all respectable programs from Ohio. Finish at home to St. Joseph’s Collegiate Institute (2-6, Buffalo, NY) and at Central Tech (5-3).
Top 20: The East-AAAA
2015: Week 8 rankings
Won-loss, current seed, last week’s results, this week’s games
1. Downingtown West 8-0 #2, Beat Henderson 38-14, at Avon Grove
2. Upper Dublin 8-0 #4, Beat Upper Moreland 35-7, home to Hatboro Horsham
3. Downingtown East 8-0 #1, Beat Bishop Shanahan 34-2, at West Chester East
4. St. Joseph’s Prep 5-2. Beat Judge 35-13, home to Roman
5. Parkland 7-1 #2, Beat Freedom 35-7, at Nazareth
6. LaSalle 4-3. Beat Roman 49-14, at Judge
7. North Penn 6-2 #10 tie, Beat Pennsbury 27-20, home to Neshaminy
8. Quakertown 8-0 #3, Beat CR South 35-14, home CR North
9. Easton 6-2 #4, Beat Liberty 49-14, at Freedom
10. Pennsbury 6-2 #12, Lost to North Penn 27-20, at Central Bucks South
11. Perkiomen Valley 8-0 #7, Beat Phoenixville 42-0, home to Upper Perkiomen
12. Spring Ford 8-0 #5, Beat Pottstown 34-0, at Pope John Paul II
13. Liberty 6-2 #5, Lost to Easton 49-14, at Allentown Central Catholic
14. Freedom 7-1 #3, Lost to Parkland 38-7, home to Easton
15. Wyoming Valley West 8-0 #1, Beat Hazelton 49-3, at Scranton
16. Coatesville 5-3 #20, Beat Avon Grove 34-7, at Bishop Shanahan
17. Central Bucks East 6-2 #10 tie, Beat Truman 19-7, home to Central Bucks West
18. Pennridge 5-3 #18, Beat Central Bucks South 28-17, at Souderton
19. Neshaminy 6-2 #13, Beat Bensalem 41-8, at North Penn
20. Unionville 6-2 #6, Beat Kennett 42-7, at Octorara
Honorable Mention
Rustin 6-2, #19, Beat Octorara 55-7, at Sun Valley
West Chester East 4-4, #22, Beat Sun Valley 37-7, home to Downingtown East
Plymouth Whitemarsh 6-2, #14 tie, Beat Hatboro 31-28, at Cheltenham
CR South 5-3, #16 tie, Lost to Quakertown 35-14, at Norristown
CR North 5-3, #16 tie, Beat CB West 33-15, at Quakertown
Northeast 7-1, Forfeit loss to Edison, home to Olney
Franklin 7-1, Beat Roxborough 40-6, home to Edison
Gratz 6-2, Beat Phila Central 34-6, home to Mastbaum
Garnet Valley 6-2, #14 tie, Beat marple 40-17, home to Conestoga the 23rd seed
Upper Darby 7-1, #9, Beat Strath Haven 34-7, at Lower Merion
Haverford 7-1, #8, Beat Radnor 24-12, at Ridley
Ridley 6-2, #21, Beat Penncrest 33-7, home to Haverford
District 5….No AAAA teams but home of AAA Somerset (7-1, lost to Wood 63-20 in state semi last year) and Single-A power Berlin Brothersvalley (8-0, 50-10 last 5).
District 6
Little to talk about with the 4A teams in this district.
State College. See District 3
Altoona 3-5
Central Mountain 2-6
Mifflin County 0-8
District 7
X = Clinched playoff spot
Y = Still alive
Southeastern Conference
xWoodland Hills, Wolverines 8-0
Veteran group winning against the better teams beating Bethel Park 28-23, West Allegheny 22-15 and last week against previously undefeated Mount Lebanon 21-17. Finish up at Penn Hills where the Indians are 3-1 and always score a ton of points. Should be a wild one.
xMount Lebanon Blue Devils 7-1
Lebo and Woody wow! Otherwise both close out with their great rivals with ML heading down the road to play Upper St. Clair. Both will likely be a terror in the wide open Wpial.
xUpper St. Clair Panthers 5-3
Panthers recovered from a 3 game slide, losing to Bethel, North Allegheny and Woodland Hills before winning their last three.
xBethel Park Black Hawks 5-3
Bethel is hangin tough looking to go 6-3 with a win against Baldwin Friday. They don’t have quality wins but make teams earn it losing to Central Catholic 28-12, Woodland Hills 28-23 and Mount Lebanon 31-20. Most of last year’s young group returned for this season.
xPenn Hills Indians 3-5
Forget the record. A win against Woodland Hills is something close to Army beating Navy in this fierce rivalry.
yPeters Township Indians 2-6
Real young starting 4 sophomore lineman last year (!) but still losing to +.500 teams 37-12 on average with the closer being Pine Richland coming off the tough loss to Central Catholic. Ouch!
Northern-8
xCentral Catholic Vikings 7-1
Looks like the Vikings have it together winning their last 5 by an average score of 47-11 and beating Pine Richland last week 35-28 at PR! Soph QB Troy Fisher (6-4, 205) completed 9 of 18 passes for 195, rushed for 56 and scored the winning Td with 25 seconds left in the game. Looks like they’re a factor for the next 3 now that they found a QB. This has to make them the co (tri?)- favorite with Woodland Hills and Pine Richland in the coming Wpial postseason.
xPine Richland Rams 7-1
What a rebuild plugging in soph QB Phil Jurkovec who has been spectacular. But they lost last week to Central Catholic allowing the Vikings to go 80 yards in the final 2 plus minutes to pull it out right after PR had tied it. Even so, the sophomore at QB says like Central Catholic they’ll be around a long time.
xNorth Allegheny Tigers 7-1
Remember these guys? They beat Central Catholic 14-17 after losing to Pine Richland 28-14 to show how tight things are in the Northern-8….and likely in the Wpial. They are hot winning the last 6 since the PR loss with rival North Hills is next.
xSeneca Valley Raiders 4-4
No notable wins with losses to North Allegheny 34-24, Pine Richland 35-28 Central Catholic 38-14 and Norwin 35-27 keeping them 4-0 home and 0-4 away but they’ll beat 2-6 Shaler on the road to finish on the plus side.
xNorth Hills Indians 3-5
They’re in but not for long with losses to every winning team on the schedule. Proud program is in a 5 year slide going 4-5, 6-4, 5-5, 6-4 and likely 3-6 after North Allegheny this Friday.
yShaler Titans 2-6
It’s unlikely they’ll beat Seneca Valley Friday but a 2-7 finish is two more wins than they’ve had since 2011 with three consecutive 0-9 seasons.
Foothills
xPenn Trafford Warriors 8-0
Very senior veteran team led by duel threat QB Brett Laffoon and RB Jonah Lisbon gunning for their second straight undefeated regular season. Beat Quad East rival Mckeesport 21-7 back in Week 2 with no challenges since. Like we said in the preseason, the West is loaded!
xMcKeesport Tigers 7-1
The Flex Bone is in high gear storming people by an average score of 51-7 since losing to Penn Trafford. Six backs have significant yardage led by 6-0, 205 Kahleke Hudson’s 778 yards, 6-0, 220 Mark Cromardie’s 420 and QB Tymar Sutton’s (6-0, 220, sr) 344 yds.
xPlum Mustangs 5-3
Fading fast at 1-3 after a 4-0 start, losing to all the winning teams including McKeesport 42-7, Penn Trafford 36-15 and Kiski 23-14 after beating Norwin Week 4.
xNorwin Knights 5-3
2-2 start then 3-1 the last 5 for momentum but end with Penn Trafford. They returned a nice core this year with QB Nick Amendola (6-2, 215), RB Peyton Deri (6-2, 205) and TE Nick Petrick (6-5, 240). Nice turnaround for the Knights in Coach Dave Brozeski’s second year, going 5-5 last year following a 2-7 outing.
xKiski Cavaliers 5-3
The Cavs are greatly improved over last year’s winless season with a veteran team (QB, RBs, WRs) turning things completely around managing to win two road games along the way. Nothing significant but 5 wins on the heels of winless is good stuff. Nothing to lose in the postseason!
yHempfield 3-5
Fun seeing these guys averaging 27ppg making opposition work for it! Very young group but capable of beating the winless Foxes Friday night at Fox Chapel.
yAltoona Mountain Lions 3-5
Disappointing year for the rebuilding Lions but a win at Connellsville Friday keeps them in contention for a AAAA Wild card.
District 8 (Pittsburgh City League)
Brashear Bulls 5-3
Reigning city champ Bulls returned entire backfield led by QB Therran Coleman with 9 Div-1 offers including Pitt, ASU, West VA, VA Tech, etc making him the top player in the city and one of top in state. Lost last two but good scheduling prep for postseason losing to good AAA teams Armstrong (5-3) and Franklin Regional (7-1) from the Wpial’s Greater Allegheny.
Allderdice Dragons 5-3
The Dragons have a few D1 players as well and are always in the City League picture. The losses are non-conf vs Hampton (6-2, AAA-Wpial), Indiana (3-5, AAA-Wpial) and Wheeling Park, WV (6-1-1, 5A) 28-6. Another war between Bulls and Dragons to settle the issue.
District 9
Dubois Beavers 5-3
Rough start losing to Meadville 107-90!, Conneaut 56-21 and Cathedral 63-13 before current hot streak winning last 4. But last year was the year with QB Gabe French’s 3578 yards and 70% completion rate, now at East Stroudsburg. Finish at General McLane then super bad AA power Karns City (8-0) where they will be fortunate to win.
District 10
General McLane Lancers 5-3
Playing up to AAAA with no benefit losing to AAA powers Conneaut 27-13 (8-0) and Cathedral (7-1) 34-14. A lot of bodies back from last year but not enough size. Regular season loss to McDowell 34-6 says the postseason will be brief.
McDowell Trojans 3-5
Have a large roster but still hit hard by graduation losing linemen Chris Larsen, Fernando Frye, Justin Siwiecki, Joe Wierzchowski and Anthony Acquista plus QB Jake Tarasovitch who threw for 1,078 yards and seven touchdowns and ran for 1,110 yards and 14 more touchdowns, making it a huge rebuild. Returned 2 to the offense and 4 to the D that wasn’t enough with aggressive scheduling of games against Lake Catholic 5-4, Canton McKinley 7-3, Cardinal Mooney 4-4 and Austintown-Fitch 6-3, all respectable programs from Ohio. Finish at home to St. Joseph’s Collegiate Institute (2-6, Buffalo, NY) and at Central Tech (5-3).
Top 20: The East-AAAA
2015: Week 8 rankings
Won-loss, current seed, last week’s results, this week’s games
1. Downingtown West 8-0 #2, Beat Henderson 38-14, at Avon Grove
2. Upper Dublin 8-0 #4, Beat Upper Moreland 35-7, home to Hatboro Horsham
3. Downingtown East 8-0 #1, Beat Bishop Shanahan 34-2, at West Chester East
4. St. Joseph’s Prep 5-2. Beat Judge 35-13, home to Roman
5. Parkland 7-1 #2, Beat Freedom 35-7, at Nazareth
6. LaSalle 4-3. Beat Roman 49-14, at Judge
7. North Penn 6-2 #10 tie, Beat Pennsbury 27-20, home to Neshaminy
8. Quakertown 8-0 #3, Beat CR South 35-14, home CR North
9. Easton 6-2 #4, Beat Liberty 49-14, at Freedom
10. Pennsbury 6-2 #12, Lost to North Penn 27-20, at Central Bucks South
11. Perkiomen Valley 8-0 #7, Beat Phoenixville 42-0, home to Upper Perkiomen
12. Spring Ford 8-0 #5, Beat Pottstown 34-0, at Pope John Paul II
13. Liberty 6-2 #5, Lost to Easton 49-14, at Allentown Central Catholic
14. Freedom 7-1 #3, Lost to Parkland 38-7, home to Easton
15. Wyoming Valley West 8-0 #1, Beat Hazelton 49-3, at Scranton
16. Coatesville 5-3 #20, Beat Avon Grove 34-7, at Bishop Shanahan
17. Central Bucks East 6-2 #10 tie, Beat Truman 19-7, home to Central Bucks West
18. Pennridge 5-3 #18, Beat Central Bucks South 28-17, at Souderton
19. Neshaminy 6-2 #13, Beat Bensalem 41-8, at North Penn
20. Unionville 6-2 #6, Beat Kennett 42-7, at Octorara
Honorable Mention
Rustin 6-2, #19, Beat Octorara 55-7, at Sun Valley
West Chester East 4-4, #22, Beat Sun Valley 37-7, home to Downingtown East
Plymouth Whitemarsh 6-2, #14 tie, Beat Hatboro 31-28, at Cheltenham
CR South 5-3, #16 tie, Lost to Quakertown 35-14, at Norristown
CR North 5-3, #16 tie, Beat CB West 33-15, at Quakertown
Northeast 7-1, Forfeit loss to Edison, home to Olney
Franklin 7-1, Beat Roxborough 40-6, home to Edison
Gratz 6-2, Beat Phila Central 34-6, home to Mastbaum
Garnet Valley 6-2, #14 tie, Beat marple 40-17, home to Conestoga the 23rd seed
Upper Darby 7-1, #9, Beat Strath Haven 34-7, at Lower Merion
Haverford 7-1, #8, Beat Radnor 24-12, at Ridley
Ridley 6-2, #21, Beat Penncrest 33-7, home to Haverford