Westmoreland H.S. notebook: Football tiebreaker tweaked in Class 5A

By: Bill Beckner Jr.
Sunday, August 11, 2019 | 8:16 PM

There is a change in the WPIAL Class 5A football tiebreaker for the playoffs. With Albert Gallatin departing the league, 5A has 23 teams competing for 16 playoff spots.

The top five teams in each of three conferences qualify, along with one wild-card team.

The tiebreaker also will determine which two third-place teams get home games in the first round. The top two teams in each conference will play at home in the opening round.

Tiebreakers will be based on seven conference games in two of the conferences.

Overall record is the first criteria, followed by Gardner Points, point differential and a nonconference games played against another 5A team.

The fifth step is a coin flip.

The difference this year lies in the Big East Conference, whose teams had to fill in a game to replace Albert Gallatin. In that conference, the tiebreaker will be based on six conference games, plus a nonconference game against a 5A team. Plum, however, will have to count its nonsection game against 6A Hempfield as its seventh game.

Plum’s other nonconference game is against 4A Belle Vernon.

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Scrimmage moved

Norwin and Franklin Regional will meet in a football scrimmage Saturday, but the venue has changed. Instead of Panthers Stadium in Murrysville, the event will be at 10 a.m. at Norwin Knights Stadium.

The move is because of ongoing renovations at Franklin Regional. The track will be resurfaced in the coming weeks.

Both stadiums recently had new artificial turf installed.

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Dietz to UPJ

Norwin’s Megan Dietz announced she has committed to play soccer at Pitt-Johnstown. Dietz is a rising senior midfielder for the Knights.

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Fall ahead

High school football camp opens in the WPIAL on Monday, but official practice also begins for a number of other fall sports. They include boys and girls soccer, boys and girls cross country, boys and girls golf, girls volleyball, girls tennis and field hockey.

Bill Beckner Jr. is a TribLive reporter covering local sports in Westmoreland County. He can be reached at bbeckner@triblive.com.

Tags: Franklin Regional, Hempfield, Norwin, Plum