George Guido: Three A-K Valley football teams set for WPIAL playoffs

By: George Guido
Tuesday, October 29, 2019 | 5:43 PM

For the 60th consecutive season, the Alle-Kiski Valley will be represented in the WPIAL playoffs.

Apollo-Ridge, Kiski Area and Fox Chapel will be playing in the postseason Friday.

The last time a local team failed to make the postseason was 1959.

Strangely, Springdale had one of its better teams that season, going 10-0, but the Dynamos lacked enough Gardner Points in an era when the two undefeated, untied schools with the most Gardner Points engaged in a championship game.

Here’s a closer look at the schools and their opening round opponents:

• New Brighton at Apollo-Ridge: The Vikings are the only A-K team to host a playoff game, a good way to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Owens Field.

Apollo-Ridge is in the playoffs for the 15th time and has a 3-14 record. The Vikings’ only playoff win at home occurred in 2014, 58-40 over Beaver Falls.

Apollo-Ridge played at New Brighton in 1995, losing to the Lions, 39-12.

New Brighton is in the WPIAL playoffs for the 17th time and won titles in 1951 and ’94 after sharing the title with Canonsburg in ‘50.

• Kiski Area at Bethel Park. The Cavaliers are playoff-bound for the 21st time. Kiski Area is 6-19 all-time in the playoffs, with the last postseason win coming in 1990 at Davis Field against Armstrong Central.

The school has lost 10 straight playoff games since.

Bethel Park is in the playoffs for the 19th consecutive season, one of the WPIAL’s longest streaks.

The Black Hawks are in the playoffs for the 27th time and have a 19-25 playoff mark. Bethel Park won the Class AAAA title in 2008.

• Fox Chapel at Penn-Trafford. The Foxes are in the playoffs for the 12th time. Fox Chapel first made the playoffs in 1977. Frank Rocco Sr. was the coach, and Frank Rocco Jr. was the quarterback. The Foxes won an impressive 35-6 game over Monessen at Latrobe Memorial Stadium.

Fox Chapel will be seeking its first playoff win since 1997, when the Foxes defeated North Allegheny by that same 35-6 margin. The Foxes lost the semifinal to Penn-Trafford, 21-19.

Fox Chapel is 5-11 in the playoffs.

Penn-Trafford, the No. 1 Class 5A seed, is in the WPIAL postseason for the 28th time and the 16th time in the last 17 seasons.

The Warriors are 18-27 in playoff games.

Leechburg football

One team that isn’t in the playoffs but had a fine season is Leechburg.

The Blue Devils finished 5-5 for the second consecutive season, avoiding a below-.500 mark in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 1988-89.

What’s more, Leechburg scored 274 points and tallied 40 points or more four times, concluding with a 50-43 victory against Springdale Friday.

The 274 points are the most scored by Leechburg since the Blue Devils had 338 in 1978.

The all-time record for Leechburg points in a season is 354 in 1950. That year, the Blue Devils went 10-0, but lacked enough Gardner Points to qualify for the WPIAL title game.

As mentioned earlier in this column, New Brighton and Canonsburg played to a 12-12 stalemate that season.

Start time switch

The biggest change in this year’s football tournament is the starting times.

For many years, the WPIAL has started games at 7:30 p.m. Now, the kickoffs have been moved to 7.

Sixty-two of the WPIAL’s 119 football teams in the playoffs. Forty-eight return from last year.

The most notable of the 14 newcomers is Southmoreland, in the playoffs for the first time since 1979.

Another rarity is Cornell with a home playoff game. The Raiders will host California on Friday.

The only other time Cornell played at home was in 1983. The 10-0 Raiders lost to Riverview, 12-0.

The significance of that game was Riverview finished out of the playoff running, but Clairton had to forfeit several games because of an ineligible player. That changed Riverview’s Eastern Conference record from 4-3 to 5-2. Chuck Wagner’s team had put away its equipment, then had to hurriedly prepare for a playoff game.

Cornell is winless in its eight previous WPIAL playoff games.