Teams presently on a run, having won at least 4 straight. There are some new ones of course and some that dropped off.
……..AAAAAA unless otherwise noted.
D7
Pittsburgh Central Catholic 6A 6-1; The Vikings are a lot like Bishop Guilfoyle, just pounding and trouncing people with little to no competition even from quality teams like Pine Richland 48-35 or North Allegheny 55-14. Norwin and Penn Hills are next but they’re not even in NA’s or PR’s league.
North Allegheny 6A 6-2; Nice recovery since Central Catholic winning 5 straight, ending the season on the road at Hempfield (score a lot of points) and Pine Richland. The Rams may have lost their quarterback Phil Jurkovec but aren’t finished by a long shot, with a boatload of young talent and a senior quarterback in Max Devinney who is getting it done better than expected. He doesn’t have Jurkovec’s legs but can sling it downfield with good accuracy.
West Allegheny 5A 7-0; One good thing about the classification re-alignment is it’s given us some great conference matchups, like this one seeing West-A travel to Woodland Hills for a major Allegheny-9 Conference game. We’ll see how Woody handles their passing attack (65%, +1100 yards) and if they can get anything going against the Indians strong defense.
McKeesport 5A 6-1; 5 straight says they’ve found their groove but so has Gateway (6-2) coming in hot winning their last 4.
Gateway 5A 6-2; Looking good now after a 2-2 start until noting the losses to Woodland Hills and Armstrong came by 16 and 14 points respectively. Not awful but McKeesport is a hard place to win.
Woodland Hills 5A 7-1; Have their hands completely full Friday playing West Allegheny then Upper St Clair but they are both at home where they should at least split.
Franklin Regional 5A 5-2; Nice run after the 0-2 start that saw them give Armstrong their only loss, 24-20 at Kittanning! 5-3 North Hills will test them before closing at Gateway.
South Fayette 4A 8-0; Central Valley (6-2) in the opener and Blackhawk (5-2), their only quality road opponent, both gave South Fayette a game so we’ll see how they hold up on the road with expected wins as heavy favorites their final two against Highlands and Montrose.
Thomas Jefferson 4A 7-0; No one is stopping them (380 points scored) and no one is scoring on them (38ppg allowed) including decent teams at Ringgold and Mars. Their last threat West Mifflin (7-1) will probably not survive the gauntlet that is Ringold (5-2) who gave them their first loss last week 29-26, Belle Vernon (7-1), coming in with attitude off their first loss of the season and then TJ. Yikes!
Beaver Falls 3A 6-1; Make that 6 straight wins since losing to Aliquippa 44-13 in the opener. Rival Hopewell (5-3) is next before ending the season with Beaver (6-1).
Derry 3A 8-0; Derry Area (just doesn’t sound right) should finish strong against 0-7 Waynesburg Central and at 4-4 McGuffey before wading into the thick of it in the postseason against the likes of, Beaver Falls, Aliquippa, Central Valley, Beaver and others. If you can get out of 7 in this classification and someone will, you can do some damage until running into D-10’s Hickory (8-0), or Karns City (7-1) out of 9.
Valley 3A 5-2; Better late than never winning 4 straight after the 1-2 start. But Apollo Ridge (5-3) is next for a test and key game in the Allegheny Conference.
Steel Valley 2A 7-0; Unless these guys trip up or get cocky, it’s hard seeing anyone stopping them. Maybe Dunmore or Southern Columbia down the road. When you’re outscoring teams 388 to 52, you look pretty special. But you’d still like to see better comp than they’ve played to date in the Three Rivers Conference before the playoffs.
Brentwood 2A 6-1; Brentwood should enjoy this ride of 5 straight with Steel Valley looming in the near future after Carlynton Friday.
Neshannock 2A 7-1; They’d like the 5 point loss to Quaker Valley back since there is nothing left on the schedule that can beat them.
Clairton 1A 7-0; The Bears bear a remarkable resemblance to Steel Valley in that they field a huge offense scoring 381 points along with a unyielding defense allowing 41. Here’s another example where class realignment provided an interesting conference format with Clairton in the same group as Jeannette who they’ll meet after Riverview Friday.
Jeannette 1A 8-0; Talk about teams cut from the same cloth. Jeannette’s offensive and defensive production mimic Clairton’s and Steel Valley’s, scoring 387 points to 24 allowed. Right, that’s the difference, a freaky defense allowing 3ppg on average after shutting out 5 consecutive opponents. The district is loaded with powerful Single-A’s so get ready for one heck of a postseason ride.
Fort Cherry 1A 7-0; This isn’t Clairton or Jeannette but is good stuff, winning the close ones and surviving tandem quarterbacks. Oddly, the little guy Brady Whalen (5-7, 170, so) is the passer at 65% whereas the junior, Rhyan Culberson (6-3, 195) is at 54% with almost 800 yards rushing. They have a big game Friday at Carmichaels playing the 6-1 Mikes for all the Tri-County marbles.
Carmichaels 1A 6-1; The Mikes only loss of the season came after the long trip up and outside Pittsburgh (on the Ohio) in Coraopolis to play Our Lady of the Sacred Heart where they lost to the 5-2 Chargers 45-28. No tired legs for this one playing Fort Cherry at home.
Rochester 1A 7-0; The Rams looks like a lesser version of Jeannette and Clairton but with a solid resume beating Northgate (6-1) 30-26 and OLSH (above) 28-12. They’ll breeze past Union and Western Beaver to enter the postseason undefeated. Nice rebound from a 5-4 season.
D9
Clearfield 4A 7-1; That’s 7 straight since the opening loss at DuBois (?) with Philipsburg-Osceola next. Then it’s the game at home against Karns City in a non-conference district game for bragging rights with Kane and Brockway. Both of them are undefeated facing off themselves this weekend to help clear things up.
Karns City 3A 7-1; Certifiable bad ass here in KC whose only loss was the opener to 5A 7-1 Armstrong, 35-22. They’ll beat Montineau this week then fully clear up the D9 power structure (see aforementioned games) with the closer at Clearfield.
St. Marys 3A 5-2; The “Dutch” are new to the list with one of their losses being the upset by Clairion-Limestone. The other loss was to Karns City 42-6. No problem this week with Brookville although they look overmatvhed in the final against Clarion (7-1) the following week.
Brockway 2A 8-0; Still streaking after blowing out Bradford last week 63-21 with D-9 Double-A rival Kane up next at Kane in a AA playoff preview.
Kane 2A 8-0; Kane’s Wolves are howling and got in a real dog fight last week at Ridgeway edging the 6-2 Elkers 28-23. Brockway is next at home to decide the Allegheny Mountain FB League-Southern Division.
Otto Eldred 1A 4-4; The Terrors are terrorizing the AMFL-Northern Division lately even winning at Coudersport (4-4) 24-14. Not their best edition but Coudy is usually a tough out. A win against Smethport Friday gets them into positive territory. By the way, Otto Eldred is up there, 60 miles east of Erie and 8 miles south of the New York line.
D10
McDowell 6A 7-1; The only blemish is the Cathedral loss, 31-15. Got a nice win last week beating Austintown Fitch-OH 28-21 with General McLane (5-3) in town this week.
Grove City 5A 8-0; No one is giving this bunch a game except General McLane in the opener. That could change ths weekend with Meadville coming in.
Meadville 5A 6-2; 4 and 8 point losses prevent 8-0 meaning Grove City should have their hands full Friday although it’s an away game for Meadville. This is another Streaker vs Streaker game.
Cathedral 4A 8-0; The Ramblers stormed St. Fransis of New York last week 62 to 35 with more of the same this weekend against neighboring East High of Erie who’s having a rough time of it at 1-7.
Hickory 3A 8-0; The Hornets finally got a competitive game (good timing!) with Double-A Wilmington coming in and giving them what for in a 28-20 win!
Sharon 3A 5-2; Won the last 4 after getting handled by Wilmington 30-13 and Hickory 42-14, so there’s the ceiling. Sharpsville (5-3) is next and they’re scoring a lot of points like the Tigrers are, giving the appearance of a high scoring game.
Iroquois 2A 8-0; Their next opponent North East at 3-5 isn’t striking much fear in anyone and neither is their mascot, the dreaded Grape Pickers! The closer is Cochranton (6-2) also at home to close it out.
West Middlesex 1A 5-3; The “Big Red” have won their last 5 games and are heading for #6 if they beat the 2-6 Union City Bears.
……..AAAAAA unless otherwise noted.
D7
Pittsburgh Central Catholic 6A 6-1; The Vikings are a lot like Bishop Guilfoyle, just pounding and trouncing people with little to no competition even from quality teams like Pine Richland 48-35 or North Allegheny 55-14. Norwin and Penn Hills are next but they’re not even in NA’s or PR’s league.
North Allegheny 6A 6-2; Nice recovery since Central Catholic winning 5 straight, ending the season on the road at Hempfield (score a lot of points) and Pine Richland. The Rams may have lost their quarterback Phil Jurkovec but aren’t finished by a long shot, with a boatload of young talent and a senior quarterback in Max Devinney who is getting it done better than expected. He doesn’t have Jurkovec’s legs but can sling it downfield with good accuracy.
West Allegheny 5A 7-0; One good thing about the classification re-alignment is it’s given us some great conference matchups, like this one seeing West-A travel to Woodland Hills for a major Allegheny-9 Conference game. We’ll see how Woody handles their passing attack (65%, +1100 yards) and if they can get anything going against the Indians strong defense.
McKeesport 5A 6-1; 5 straight says they’ve found their groove but so has Gateway (6-2) coming in hot winning their last 4.
Gateway 5A 6-2; Looking good now after a 2-2 start until noting the losses to Woodland Hills and Armstrong came by 16 and 14 points respectively. Not awful but McKeesport is a hard place to win.
Woodland Hills 5A 7-1; Have their hands completely full Friday playing West Allegheny then Upper St Clair but they are both at home where they should at least split.
Franklin Regional 5A 5-2; Nice run after the 0-2 start that saw them give Armstrong their only loss, 24-20 at Kittanning! 5-3 North Hills will test them before closing at Gateway.
South Fayette 4A 8-0; Central Valley (6-2) in the opener and Blackhawk (5-2), their only quality road opponent, both gave South Fayette a game so we’ll see how they hold up on the road with expected wins as heavy favorites their final two against Highlands and Montrose.
Thomas Jefferson 4A 7-0; No one is stopping them (380 points scored) and no one is scoring on them (38ppg allowed) including decent teams at Ringgold and Mars. Their last threat West Mifflin (7-1) will probably not survive the gauntlet that is Ringold (5-2) who gave them their first loss last week 29-26, Belle Vernon (7-1), coming in with attitude off their first loss of the season and then TJ. Yikes!
Beaver Falls 3A 6-1; Make that 6 straight wins since losing to Aliquippa 44-13 in the opener. Rival Hopewell (5-3) is next before ending the season with Beaver (6-1).
Derry 3A 8-0; Derry Area (just doesn’t sound right) should finish strong against 0-7 Waynesburg Central and at 4-4 McGuffey before wading into the thick of it in the postseason against the likes of, Beaver Falls, Aliquippa, Central Valley, Beaver and others. If you can get out of 7 in this classification and someone will, you can do some damage until running into D-10’s Hickory (8-0), or Karns City (7-1) out of 9.
Valley 3A 5-2; Better late than never winning 4 straight after the 1-2 start. But Apollo Ridge (5-3) is next for a test and key game in the Allegheny Conference.
Steel Valley 2A 7-0; Unless these guys trip up or get cocky, it’s hard seeing anyone stopping them. Maybe Dunmore or Southern Columbia down the road. When you’re outscoring teams 388 to 52, you look pretty special. But you’d still like to see better comp than they’ve played to date in the Three Rivers Conference before the playoffs.
Brentwood 2A 6-1; Brentwood should enjoy this ride of 5 straight with Steel Valley looming in the near future after Carlynton Friday.
Neshannock 2A 7-1; They’d like the 5 point loss to Quaker Valley back since there is nothing left on the schedule that can beat them.
Clairton 1A 7-0; The Bears bear a remarkable resemblance to Steel Valley in that they field a huge offense scoring 381 points along with a unyielding defense allowing 41. Here’s another example where class realignment provided an interesting conference format with Clairton in the same group as Jeannette who they’ll meet after Riverview Friday.
Jeannette 1A 8-0; Talk about teams cut from the same cloth. Jeannette’s offensive and defensive production mimic Clairton’s and Steel Valley’s, scoring 387 points to 24 allowed. Right, that’s the difference, a freaky defense allowing 3ppg on average after shutting out 5 consecutive opponents. The district is loaded with powerful Single-A’s so get ready for one heck of a postseason ride.
Fort Cherry 1A 7-0; This isn’t Clairton or Jeannette but is good stuff, winning the close ones and surviving tandem quarterbacks. Oddly, the little guy Brady Whalen (5-7, 170, so) is the passer at 65% whereas the junior, Rhyan Culberson (6-3, 195) is at 54% with almost 800 yards rushing. They have a big game Friday at Carmichaels playing the 6-1 Mikes for all the Tri-County marbles.
Carmichaels 1A 6-1; The Mikes only loss of the season came after the long trip up and outside Pittsburgh (on the Ohio) in Coraopolis to play Our Lady of the Sacred Heart where they lost to the 5-2 Chargers 45-28. No tired legs for this one playing Fort Cherry at home.
Rochester 1A 7-0; The Rams looks like a lesser version of Jeannette and Clairton but with a solid resume beating Northgate (6-1) 30-26 and OLSH (above) 28-12. They’ll breeze past Union and Western Beaver to enter the postseason undefeated. Nice rebound from a 5-4 season.
D9
Clearfield 4A 7-1; That’s 7 straight since the opening loss at DuBois (?) with Philipsburg-Osceola next. Then it’s the game at home against Karns City in a non-conference district game for bragging rights with Kane and Brockway. Both of them are undefeated facing off themselves this weekend to help clear things up.
Karns City 3A 7-1; Certifiable bad ass here in KC whose only loss was the opener to 5A 7-1 Armstrong, 35-22. They’ll beat Montineau this week then fully clear up the D9 power structure (see aforementioned games) with the closer at Clearfield.
St. Marys 3A 5-2; The “Dutch” are new to the list with one of their losses being the upset by Clairion-Limestone. The other loss was to Karns City 42-6. No problem this week with Brookville although they look overmatvhed in the final against Clarion (7-1) the following week.
Brockway 2A 8-0; Still streaking after blowing out Bradford last week 63-21 with D-9 Double-A rival Kane up next at Kane in a AA playoff preview.
Kane 2A 8-0; Kane’s Wolves are howling and got in a real dog fight last week at Ridgeway edging the 6-2 Elkers 28-23. Brockway is next at home to decide the Allegheny Mountain FB League-Southern Division.
Otto Eldred 1A 4-4; The Terrors are terrorizing the AMFL-Northern Division lately even winning at Coudersport (4-4) 24-14. Not their best edition but Coudy is usually a tough out. A win against Smethport Friday gets them into positive territory. By the way, Otto Eldred is up there, 60 miles east of Erie and 8 miles south of the New York line.
D10
McDowell 6A 7-1; The only blemish is the Cathedral loss, 31-15. Got a nice win last week beating Austintown Fitch-OH 28-21 with General McLane (5-3) in town this week.
Grove City 5A 8-0; No one is giving this bunch a game except General McLane in the opener. That could change ths weekend with Meadville coming in.
Meadville 5A 6-2; 4 and 8 point losses prevent 8-0 meaning Grove City should have their hands full Friday although it’s an away game for Meadville. This is another Streaker vs Streaker game.
Cathedral 4A 8-0; The Ramblers stormed St. Fransis of New York last week 62 to 35 with more of the same this weekend against neighboring East High of Erie who’s having a rough time of it at 1-7.
Hickory 3A 8-0; The Hornets finally got a competitive game (good timing!) with Double-A Wilmington coming in and giving them what for in a 28-20 win!
Sharon 3A 5-2; Won the last 4 after getting handled by Wilmington 30-13 and Hickory 42-14, so there’s the ceiling. Sharpsville (5-3) is next and they’re scoring a lot of points like the Tigrers are, giving the appearance of a high scoring game.
Iroquois 2A 8-0; Their next opponent North East at 3-5 isn’t striking much fear in anyone and neither is their mascot, the dreaded Grape Pickers! The closer is Cochranton (6-2) also at home to close it out.
West Middlesex 1A 5-3; The “Big Red” have won their last 5 games and are heading for #6 if they beat the 2-6 Union City Bears.
