High school football notebook: WPIAL playoff field filling up

By: HSSN Staff
Wednesday, October 18, 2017 | 5:36 PM

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With two weeks left in the regular season, the WPIAL playoff field is already more than 70 percent set.

In all, 46 of the 64 postseason spots are claimed entering Friday night.

Class 3A is the most undecided, with just four of the eight playoff positions claimed. Only Aliquippa, Quaker Valley, Seton LaSalle and Elizabeth Forward are certain they'll play beyond Week 9.

Class 5A is almost finished with seven of eight already qualified. Either Fox Chapel or North Hills will claim the final spot there.

The top four teams from each conference qualify in Class 6A, 5A and 4A. The top five qualify in Class A and 2A. But in Class 3A, only the top two from each conference and two wild cards qualify.

That means in the Class 3A Allegheny Conference, either Keystone Oaks (4-1), Freeport (4-1) or Shady Side Academy (4-2) is guaranteed to miss the playoffs.

In the Beaver Valley, Central Valley (3-2), Beaver (3-2) or both will be left home. In the Interstate, Derry (4-1), South Park (4-1) and McGuffey (4-2) are jockeying for the one or maybe two positions behind conference-leader Elizabeth Forward.

After the six automatic qualifiers are set, the WPIAL will use tiebreaker rules (head-to-head, Gardner Points, WPIAL points system) to determine the two wild cards. The two must come from different conferences.

A few games Friday could narrow the Class 3A field: Keystone Oaks visits Freeport, South Park is at Elizabeth Forward and Central Valley heads to Aliquippa.

The four largest classifications have eight-team playoff fields while Class 2A and A use 16-team brackets.

In Class 6A, Peters Township (3-2), Norwin (2-3) and Canon-McMillan (2-3) are vying for two open spots in the Southeastern. Peters Township visits Canon-McMillan on Friday. Norwin holds a head-to-head tie breaker over Canon-McMillan.

In Class 5A, Fox Chapel (4-3) has a one-game lead over North Hills (3-4) and could clinch by defeating Chartiers Valley on Friday. But North Hills owns the head-to-head tiebreaker with the Foxes.

In Class 4A, three spots are unclaimed. Mars (4-2), Highlands (3-3) and Knoch (2-4) are chasing the last spot in the Northwest Nine. Mars has the inside track with a one-game lead and a head-to-head tiebreaker against Highlands. The Big 9 has two spots for West Mifflin (4-2), Trinity (3-3), Greensburg Salem (3-3), Ringgold (2-3) and Laurel Highlands (2-4).

In Class 2A, Avonworth (2-3) visits South Allegheny (1-4) as one of those two teams tries to claim the final automatic spot in the Three Rivers. Bentworth (2-4), Frazier (1-4) and Charleroi (1-4) will try to do the same in the Century.

In Class A, 11 teams are contending for the final five spots. Class 2A and A each will have one wild card team.

Ahead of schedule

Charleroi quarterback Geno Pellegrini and wideout Dakota Romantino are only juniors, but they're already rewriting the school's record book.

Pellegrini and Romantino each set career records in last week's 37-14 victory over Burgettstown. Pellegrini leads with 3,571 career passing yards and 31 touchdowns. Romantino has 1,279 receiving yards.

Combined, they have Charleroi headed to the WPIAL playoffs for the first time since 2003.

Playoff streaks

West Greene (4-2), which sits fourth in the Tri-County South standings, has qualified for the WPIAL playoffs for the first time since 1993.

Aliquippa and Thomas Jefferson each have qualified 23 consecutive years.

Bethel Park is playoff bound for the 17th year in a row.

Upper St. Clair qualified for the 35th time in last 36 years, missing only in 1999.

TV timeout

TribLive will stream online the Interstate matchup between South Park and Elizabeth Forward at 7 p.m. WPNT-22 will broadcast live Woodland Hills vs. West Allegheny at 7 p.m., while AT&T Sportsnet will televise McKeesport at Gateway tape-delayed after the Penguins game.

Xfinity customers can watch Belle Vernon at West Mifflin tape-delayed through Comcast's on-demand service.

Chris Harlan is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at charlan@tribweb.com or via Twitter @CHarlan_Trib.

Tags: Aliquippa, Bethel Park, Central Valley, Charleroi, Elizabeth Forward, Freeport, Keystone Oaks, South Park, Thomas Jefferson, Upper St. Clair