5 things to watch in Week 9: Winner-takes-all matchups in 2 WPIAL conferences

By: Chris Harlan
Friday, October 29, 2021 | 3:56 AM

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Serra Catholic hasn’t celebrated a conference title since 2007, and the 14 seasons since included some lean years for the Eagles. The team went winless in 2012 and endured one-win seasons in 2013 and ’14.

Yet, with the program turned around in coach Jose Regus’ fifth season, Serra Catholic is hoping to finally hang another conference banner on their McKeesport campus.

The Allegheny Conference title will be decided at 7 p.m. Friday when Serra Catholic (10-0, 4-0) visits Steel Valley (8-0, 4-0). Both are undefeated and tied for first, so whichever team wins is the outright champion in the conference.

“They’re totally excited,” Regus said. “They’re looking forward to this game. They’ve put in a lot of work. … They’re ready to go out and get that conference championship.”

Theirs is one of two winner-takes-all conference title games on the Week 9 schedule. The other features McKeesport (8-1, 5-0) visiting Belle Vernon (7-0, 5-0) in the Big Eight.

Other head-to-head matchups this week could result in a shared conference title, but Serra Catholic vs. Steel Valley and McKeesport vs. Belle Vernon are all-or-nothing scenarios.

“It means a lot to this group,” Regus said. “It’s the start to their legacy. It’s building history and something they can tell their grandkids: They won a conference championship.”

That last time Serra Catholic won its conference, in 2007, the team went on to win the WPIAL title and reach the state finals.

This year, Serra Catholic is ranked second in the WPIAL and Steel Valley is fifth in what might be the district’s deepest classification. Entering Friday, there are five undefeated teams in 2A.

Regus was promoted to head coach in 2017 after two seasons as an assistant. The Eagles finished 5-6 in his first season in 2016, before posting consecutive winning records of 7-5, 6-5, 6-5 and 5-1. Previously, the team hadn’t had a winning season since 2009.

“It took time to build,” Regus said. “It took time to put things in place. Now we’re operating on a system that just works.”

For a time, Serra Catholic thought last year might’ve been its banner year, but that was before covid issues caused the team to miss five games. The Eagles finished the regular season 4-0 overall and 2-1 in the Allegheny, but there was no conference champion named because of the cancellations

“It was tough, but these are the same kids with the same motivation,” Regus said. “The majority of our kids were juniors last year, so they bounced back.”

The conference title would be Steel Valley’s first since 2017. The Ironmen know a little about lean years after bouncing back from a 1-5 record last fall.

Pairings meeting goes online

For the second year in a row, WPIAL coaches won’t be crowded into a hotel ballroom to see the playoff brackets revealed. The league will once again replace the annual pairings meeting with an online bracket reveal Saturday night via the TribLive HSSN.

The livestream starts at 6 p.m.

One benefit for the online approach is teams have two extra days to prepare for their playoff openers. In years past, the pairings meeting was traditionally held on a Monday night.

Rematch in City championship

The City League championship is Saturday, and this year’s matchup is the same as last year’s: Westinghouse (8-0, 4-0) and Allderdice (3-5, 2-2) meet at 2 p.m. at Cupples Stadium.

Westinghouse, the defending City champion, has won five games in a row over Allderdice despite being a small school in Class 2A. Allderdice is 6A.

PIAA numbers list a 418-boy difference in enrollment between the schools. Yet, Westinghouse won 41-12 over Allderdice earlier this season on Sept. 18. The Bulldogs celebrated a 36-20 win in last year’s championship.

Allderdice’s most-recent win against Westinghouse came in the 2018 finals.

2 vie for final 6A bye

The WPIAL won’t need Gardner Points or any other tiebreakers to decide which team gets the third and final bye in Class 6A.

North Allegheny and Seneca Valley will decide that on the field Friday night, a fitting finale in the WPIAL regular season. The teams are tied at 6-3 overall, 4-2 in conference, meaning whoever wins finishes alone in third.

Mt. Lebanon (9-0, 6-0) and Central Catholic (7-2, 5-1) already clinched the first two byes in the five-team bracket.

Whichever team loses the North Allegheny vs. Seneca Valley matchup won’t get a week off. Instead, that team must host either Canon-McMillan or Baldwin next weekend.

Entire conference in playoff hunt

There are six teams in the Allegheny Six, as the conference’s name implies, and somehow they’re all still hoping for a playoff spot. The conference is the only one in the WPIAL where nobody was eliminated entering Week 9.

Consider, South Fayette is winless in the conference, yet if the Lions defeat Peters Township on Friday and get some help, they too could be part of a three-way tie at 1-4 for the last playoff spot.

It would then come down to tiebreaker points.

Chris Harlan is a TribLive reporter covering sports. He joined the Trib in 2009 after seven years as a reporter at the Beaver County Times. He can be reached at charlan@triblive.com.