Oct 24, 2002 By Jim Kriek For The 4 min read

Carmichaels is keeping pretty exclusive football company these days. Going into the final week of regular season competition, the Mikes have already clinched a spot in the WPIAL-A playoffs, and they need only to defeat Frazier on Friday night to have exclusive possession of the Tri-County South Conference title.

But the Big Bad Mikes are also in an exclusive position among the WPIAL’s offensive giants, standing third in total offense, trailing only Pine-Richland and Thomas Jefferson, but standing ahead of Quad-A powers Penn Hills and Woodland Hills.

Carmichaels defeated conference opponent Geibel Catholic 41-8 last week, and now stands third in WPIAL scoring with 330 points, an average of 41.3 per game. A week ago, Penn Hills and Pine-Richland were tied for first place on offense, with the Mikes second, followed by Thomas Jefferson and Knoch.

Pine-Richland took the offensive lead with a WPIAL-high of 336 points (42.0 per game) after a 44-0 collaring of Kittanning, while Penn Hills dropped to fourth with 319-39.9 after edging Pittsburgh Central Catholic 27-21. Thomas Jefferson blanked McGuffey, 49-0, and moved into second place (334-41.8), followed by Carmichaels, Penn Hills, and Knoch (292-36.5), a 21-7 winner over Highlands.

Rounding out the top 10 are Ford City (265, 33.1), Aliquippa (265, 33.1), Jeannette (262, 32.8), Keystone Oaks (258, 32.3) and Woodland Hills (234, 29.3).

Defensively, Knoch and Thomas Jefferson switched places from a week ago. After blanking McGuffey, TJ has allowed only 38 points in eight games, an average of 4.8 per game and has taken over the defensive lead from Knoch (41, 5.1).

Then come Hopewell (46, 5.8), Seton-LaSalle (47, 5.9), Upper St. Clair (50, 6.3), Pine-Richland (54, 6.8), Woodland Hills (58, 7.3), Penn Hills (63, 7.9), North Hills (64, 8.0) and Rochester (64, 8.0),

The undefeated ranks were cut to 10 teams after New Castle lost to Blackhawk, 41-24, only the second game this year the Hawks have played that hasn’t been a shutout (4 by, 2 against).

The loss leaves only Thomas Jefferson, Knoch and Penn-Richland unbeaten in the 3-A lineup, and at least one of them will go by the wayside this week with Knoch and Penn-Richland colliding on Friday.

The Quad-A lineup will also decrease by at least one when Penn Hills and Woodland Hills meet. Upper St. Clair is the third unbeaten in the division.

Double-A perfectos are Jeannette, Seton-LaSalle and Aliquippa, while Carmichaels stands all by themselves in the perfect “A” lineup.

Nine teams are still winless, and will have their last chance to break that stigma on Friday. Two teams got their first win last week when Plum nailed Latrobe, 32-13, and Shadyside Academy stopped Freeport, 21-14.

Five teams have been shutout four times so far, and two of them play Friday night when Connellsville (1-7) goes to Hempfield (0-8). CAHS has been blanked three times in its last four games, and the Spartans have been zeroed their last three games in a row. Ringgold and Ellwood City also have three successive blankings (4 all season), and McGuffey has four.

On the other side of the coin, Baldwin and Mohawk have been shutout winners the last three times out.

Six teams were shutout for the first time.

The list includes North Hills (7-0, Woodland Hills), Canon-McMillan (21-0 Upper Sr. Clair), Ambridge (48-0 Hopewell), Moon (42-0 West Allegheny), North Catholic (47-0 Mars) and Neshannock (45-0 Mohawk).

Some top WPIAL efforts last weekend included:

Scoring – 30, Ryan Mendel (5 TD), Brentwood, vs. Serra; 30, Brad Mueller, Mars (5 TD) vs. North Catholic.

TD passes – 5, Dan Krchmar, Keystone Oaks, vs. Peters Twp.

TD Run – 87 yards Mueller; 85, Earl Buford, McKeesport, vs. Ringgold.

Pass interception for TD – 100 yards, Mueller.

Punt Return for TD – 84 yards, Justin Yeckley, Brentwood, vs. Serra Catholic; 77, Tim Morris, Pine-Richland, vs. Kittanning.

Kickoff return for TD — 85 yards, Bob Koglin, Hampton, vs. Valley; 80 yards, Desmond Patrick, Aliquippa, vs. New Brighton; 80, John Kukuruda, Western Beaver, vs. Cornell.

Field goals – 35, Jesse Sunquist, Hampton, vs. Valley; 32, Jeff Oravec, Penn-Trafford, vs. Indiana.

Passing TD – 87 yards, Dan France to Dave Marks, Chartiers-Houston, vs. Beth-Center.