North Hills, Peters Township hope to out-perform their seeds in ‘wide open’ 5A

By: Chris Harlan
Thursday, November 4, 2021 | 11:24 PM

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The No. 11 is listed next to Peters Township’s name on the WPIAL football brackets, but the Indians sure don’t feel like a double-digit seed.

“If you look at the No. 1 seed, we went toe to toe with them,” coach T.J. Plack said. “And the No. 2 seed, we beat. I’m pretty sure we can play with anybody. And I’m pretty sure most teams in 5A can play with anybody. If you’re a betting person, you’d probably lose money on this bracket because you just don’t know who’s going to win on any given Friday.”

That might include Peters Township’s first-round matchup with No. 6 North Hills (7-3), which was seeded lower than some had expected as a tri-champion in the Northeast Conference. Peters Township (6-4) was seeded 11th after finishing fourth in the Allegheny Six, but the team was the WPIAL runner-up just last year.

The battle of Indians starts at 7 p.m. Friday at North Hills’ Martorelli Stadium.

“This bracket could really produce a winner almost from the 11 seed up. I really do think that,” said WPIAL football committee co-chairman Mike Burrell, when the WPIAL released the brackets. “There are some great teams. North Hills is a great team. Peters is a great team. … This tournament in 5A is wide open.”

North Hills wasn’t surprised to draw Peters Township, but coach Pat Carey said his team was surprised by how the WPIAL went about breaking the first-place tie in their conference. The football committee used its opinions rather than any tiebreaker formulas to seed Pine-Richland third, Penn Hills fifth and North Hills sixth.

“We assumed the tiebreaker system the WPIAL set out would break that tie,” Carey said.

If used, the WPIAL’s mathematical formulas would’ve made Penn Hills the highest seed from the conference based on margin of victory, followed by North Hills and Pine-Richland. But the WPIAL used its tiebreaker formulas only when needed to determine playoff qualifiers and left order of finish to the committee to decide.

“We weren’t exactly pleased with the whole way the thing went down as far as the seeding,” Carey said. “But we also realistically thought Peters Township was one of the teams we had prepared to get.”

North Hills has reached the WPIAL playoffs for the third time in four years, yet the Indians are seeking their first postseason win since 2010.

The team is 0-7 in first-round games since then, but this will be just the second played at home in that span. North Hills earned home-field advantage by winning its final three games, including a 13-7 victory over Pine-Richland in Week 7.

“Playing at Martorelli is a big deal,” Carey said. “It’s a community event. The band is tremendous, our student section, our cheerleaders. We always feel that playing at home is an advantage of ours, so our kids are really excited to have a home game in the playoffs and a chance to advance in this tournament.”

North Hills has relied on quarterback John Green, running back Liam Tracey and a defense that holds opponents to 15 points per game. Green has passed for more than 1,000 yards and Tracey has more than 700 rushing. To win Friday, Carey said, the team must be strong on the line.

“We’ve been pretty good up front on the offensive line and the defensive line,” he said. “A lot of those battles are being won — not only the physical part, but the mental part of it.”

Graduation and early injuries hurt Peters Township, which lost its first three conference games. But the team’s resume includes a 28-14 nonconference win over No. 2 seed Penn-Trafford in Week 3 and a narrow 29-26 loss to No. 1 Moon in Week 6.

The offense is led by quarterback Sam Miller, a 1,600-yard passer with 16 touchdowns. Three of his receivers have at least 24 catches including Jacob Mascosko, who leads with 42 for 626 yards and eight scores.

Peters Township finished the regular season with conference wins over West Allegheny, 30-7, and South Fayette, 35-7.

“We didn’t really catch any consistency or gain an identity (early in the season), so it took a little bit longer,” Plack said. “I thought it would take four or five weeks to be ready for league play, but it took seven, eight, nine weeks. We finally found some things we’re good at, and we’re hitting at the right time.”

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.

Tags: North Hills, Peters Township