Chris Harlan stories, Page 86
North Allegheny, Central Catholic doubted if anyone would celebrate WPIAL 6A title
Seven times, North Allegheny coach Art Walker has taken a football team to the WPIAL finals. Central Catholic’s Terry Totten has the Vikings in the championship game for the eighth time. Combined, they’ve won 10 titles. As their teams prepare to meet Friday night in the Class 6A championship, both...
WPIAL will start winter sports on time
With the first practices only weeks away, the WPIAL won’t make any changes to the winter sports schedule after receiving mixed feedback from schools. The WPIAL last month sent a questionnaire to schools to gauge readiness for basketball, wrestling and other practices to start next month. The answers were “all...
5 things we learned in opening round of WPIAL football playoffs
Sto-Rox’s coach LaRoi Johnson has a bundle of 2-point plays he will call in any situation, but with Friday’s game on the line, he summoned his sophomore kicker. Johnson admits even he wouldn’t have predicted that’s how his Vikings would win their WPIAL Class 2A quarterfinal. Yet, Adam Devine made...
North Allegheny, North Hills set to host WPIAL football finals
The WPIAL football finals are moving from the North Shore to the North Hills. Heinz Field wasn’t a viable option this fall under covid-19 restrictions, so the WPIAL’s six championship games are divided instead between North Allegheny’s Newman Stadium and North Hills’ Martorelli Stadium. Each stadium will host three. The...
Dominant Central Catholic defense shuts out Mt. Lebanon, returns to WPIAL finalsVideo
Like old west prospectors searching for gold, defensive lineman Bralen Henderson and his Central Catholic teammates spent this fall talking about nuggets. That’s his defense’s lingo for shutouts. They’d found none in the regular season, so questions lingered whether they were good enough to find any. That made Friday’s win...
What to watch in Week 8: Small-school Aliquippa enters 4A playoffs as top seed
The No. 1 seed in WPIAL Class 4A football is one of the smallest schools in the WPIAL. “I don’t want people to forget that,” Aliquippa coach Mike Warfield said. “Just because we won some games, it’s still not right. It’s still not fair. We’re a Single-A school.” Aliquippa hosts...
Central Catholic stands in way of Mt. Lebanon’s 1st WPIAL final since 2000
Mt. Lebanon’s motto this season is simply: Why not us? When Bob Palko was West Allegheny’s coach, he instilled in his Indians a gritty confidence that they were contenders every season, regardless of whether their opponents had more talent. Together, they won eight WPIAL titles. Now in Year 2 at...
PIAA approves covid-19 guidelines for winter, remains ‘cautiously optimistic’
PIAA basketball teams should limit the number of individuals on their bench to maintain a social distance of six feet or more when possible. If need be, add rows of chairs. The PIAA on Wednesday approved that recommendation and many other covid-19 guidelines for winter sports as executive director Bob...
Pay to play? PIAA board discusses fee for state playoff qualifiers
The PIAA might someday charge schools a fee to compete in the state playoffs, creating an alternate source of income as the coronavirus pandemic batters its budget. The PIAA board discussed that idea in general terms Wednesday but took no action during its online meeting. The PIAA is surviving financially,...
PIAA gives teams home-field advantage in state playoffs
Some WPIAL teams will have a home-field advantage in the state playoffs. The PIAA board decided Wednesday to forgo traditional neutral sites and let teams at the top of the bracket host state playoff games, a move prompted by the coronavirus pandemic. The change affects all fall team sports. Finding...
WPIAL football committee’s choices leave ‘sour taste’ for some coaches
After Avonworth’s regular-season finale was canceled because of coronavirus concerns, football coach Duke Johncour told his players to start preparing for any number of playoff scenarios. “This was obviously worst case,” Johncour said Saturday night, when the WPIAL released its playoff pairings and the Antelopes weren’t included in the Class...
5 things we learned in Week 7: Two leading QBs questionable for WPIAL playoff openers
Two of the WPIAL’s top quarterbacks are questionable to play as their teams approach the playoffs. North Catholic’s Joey Prentice and Keystone Oaks’ Logan Shrubb, both standout dual-threat quarterbacks, left their Week 7 games with injuries. KO coach Greg Perry said he expects Shrubb to play this Friday, but North...
Breaking down the 2020 WPIAL football playoffs
Here’s a class-by-class breakdown of the WPIAL football playoff brackets: Class 6A Favorite: North Allegheny was the only undefeated team in WPIAL Class 6A this season, but the Tigers did miss three conference matchups because of covid-19 shutdowns by opponents. That included a Week 1 matchup with Seneca Valley that...
WPIAL reveals 2020 football playoff brackets
The WPIAL promised its football teams weeks ago that if they canceled games for covid-19, those decisions wouldn’t hurt their qualifying chances come playoff time. The WPIAL kept it word. In playoff brackets released Saturday night, the WPIAL included a couple of teams that played only four regular-season games as...
WPIAL football rankings for Week 7
Class 6A 1. North Allegheny, 5-0, 1 2. Mt. Lebanon, 4-2, 2 3. Central Catholic, 4-2, 3 4. Seneca Valley, 4-2, 4 5. Canon-McMillan, 3-3, 5 Out: none Class 5A 1. Pine-Richland, 6-0, 1 2. Gateway, 4-0, 2 3. Peters Township, 6-0, 3 4. Penn-Trafford, 5-1, 4 5. Upper St....
WPIAL bracketology: Chris Harlan, Don Rebel make final predictions for football pairings
This was a football season unlike any other. Coaches, players, administrators and fans endured covid-19 concerns and cancellations, but for the most part, WPIAL teams successfully completed the regular season, an achievement that shouldn’t go overlooked. Now, it’s playoff time. The WPIAL will reveal its six playoff brackets at 7...
Mt. Lebanon tops Seneca Valley with blocked extra point in overtime
With its playoff hopes in jeopardy, Mt. Lebanon would’ve gone for two in overtime Friday night, sticking with coach Bob Palko’s win-or-go-home reputation. Instead, the decision was made for them. Blue Devils junior Joey Peters blocked an extra point in overtime, letting teammate Casey Sorsdal kick the game-winner a few...
Home field in playoffs likely at stake as Mt. Lebanon visits Seneca Valley
If Mt. Lebanon wins Friday’s regular-season finale at Seneca Valley, the Blue Devils will likely receive one of the top two seeds in the WPIAL Class 6A playoffs. With it comes a first-round home game. But if Seneca Valley wins, the one-loss Raiders can make an equally strong argument to...
Avonworth cancels Friday football game, Central Valley finds new opponent
Avonworth canceled Friday night’s football game over covid-related concerns, Central Valley athletic director Sam Cercone said Thursday. The matchup could have impacted the Northwest Six standings, where Central Valley (6-0, 4-0) is first and Avonworth (4-2, 3-1) is second. Avonworth announced its high school campus will be closed through Sunday....
North Allegheny’s Khalil Dinkins commits to Penn State
Video conference calls replaced many of the in-school recruiting visits and campus tours canceled during the pandemic. North Allegheny senior Khalil Dinkins, one of the WPIAL’s top football players, navigated that new normal this year and committed Wednesday to Penn State. Dinkins announced his decision on Twitter. The 6-foot-4, 220-pound...
5 things we learned in Week 6: WPIAL linemen can score touchdowns too
Could there be a quarterback controversy brewing at Pine-Richland? With a laugh, Miguel Jackson says yes. The 6-foot-2, 265-pound senior lived every lineman’s dream Friday night when he rushed for a touchdown and threw for another as undefeated Pine-Richland maintained its No. 1 ranking in WPIAL Class 5A with a...
WPIAL football rankings for Week 6
Class 6A 1. North Allegheny, 5-0, 1 2. Mt. Lebanon, 3-2, 2 3. Central Catholic, 3-2, 3 4. Seneca Valley, 4-1, 4 5. Canon-McMillan, 2-3, 5 Out: none Class 5A 1. Pine-Richland, 5-0, 1 2. Gateway, 3-0, 2 3. Peters Township, 5-0, 3 4. Penn-Trafford, 4-1, 4 5. South Fayette,...
Covid-19 shutdown forces defending champion North Allegheny girls to turn focus to playoffs
As a defending WPIAL champion, no one would’ve blamed North Allegheny’s girls soccer team for glancing ahead to the playoffs. Now, that’s their only focus. Covid-19 concerns caused the team to shut down for the final two weeks of the regular season, canceling section games with Butler, North Hills and...
Sto-Rox forces 7 turnovers, lets Josh Jenkins shine in victory over Western BeaverVideo
Sto-Rox’s Josh Jenkins is a little like Taysom Hill of the New Orleans Saints, says coach LaRoi Johnson. Or, if you want an old-school reference closer to McKees Rocks, he suggests Kordell Stewart. Either way, his point is the same: Jenkins does a little bit of everything. The sophomore quarterback/wide...
5 things to watch in Week 6: Some WPIAL conferences may crown no champion
Some WPIAL football conferences may have no champion this season. The WPIAL announced this week that no conference champion would be recognized if canceled games could have changed the outcome. In the Class 2A Allegheny for example, Apollo-Ridge and Serra Catholic are both undefeated but their head-to-head matchup was canceled...
