Laurel Highlands seeded 16th, Uniontown 12th
GREEN TREE – Laurel Highlands begins acquiring playoff experience, while Uniontown hopes to make the most of the experience it got last season. Meanwhile, Belle Vernon and Carmichaels earned home games and Waynesbug Central, California and Frazier join LH and Uniontown on the road when the WPIAL football playoffs get underway this weekend.
Laurel Highlands doesn’t have as far to go as most 16 seeds, but the Mustangs have a tough assignment when they visit Thomas Jefferson, Class AAA’s top-seeded team at 7:30 p.m. Friday. Uniontown was seeded 12th in Class AAA and travels to No. 5 Knoch, also at 7:30 p.m. Friday. Belle Vernon, Keystone Conference champion, was seeded fifth and plays host to Moon at 7:30 p.m. Friday.
In Class AA, Waynesburg Central was seeded 11th and travels to Shenango for a 7:30 p.m. Saturday game. The Raiders will play in one of only two Saturday WPIAL playoff games.
Carmichaels drew Class A’s fourth seed and will host Canevin at 7:30 p.m. Friday, while fellow Tri-County South Conference members California and Frazier head for Beaver County. The 16th-seeded Commodores drew top-seeded Rochester, while California was seeded 15th and visits Monaca to open the playoffs for the second consecutive season. Both of those games are at 7:30 p.m. Friday.
No one seemed surprised with their matchups, with the possible exception of Carmichaels coach John Menhart, who was somewhat pleasantly surprised.
“I honestly thought we’d draw Clairton,” Menhart said. “Canevin never really crossed my mind. We’ll have to look at the film; we don’t know much about them. But we’ll be ready to play, I’ll guarantee you that.”
Despite being one of only six WPIAL teams entering the playoffs undefeated, the Mikes were seeded below three Class A teams with a loss (Rochester, Monaca and Duquesne). But that didn’t surprise Menhart.
“Until we win a playoff game, we’ll get what we deserve,” he said.
Laurel Highlands coach Scott Knee feels much the same, but from the opposite perspective. The 4-5 Mustangs were seeded 16th, even though Kittanning is in the playoffs with a 3-6 overall record.
“It’s what we expected,” said Knee, in his first season as Mustangs coach. “A lot of factors go into it and one of them is playoff experience. We haven’t been in the playoffs since 1989 and I’m sure that was a factor.”
At least LH’s game is close enough for plenty of fans to make the trip up Route 51. “it will be good for our fans to come down and see what playoff football is all about,” Knee said. “We’re going to play hard and we’re going to play our game. We’ll spread them out and try to control the ball with short passing.”
Uniontown coach John Fortugna is looking for playoff experience to lift his Red Raiders against a tough Knoch team. Uniontown was top-seeded last year, but suffered an opening-round loss to Hampton.
“We thought they were a team we could beat,” Fortugna said, looking back to last season. “Maybe we were overconfident, maybe I was outcoached, but I think we learned from it. Sooner or later, you have to play the best, so it doesn’t really matter where they put you in the bracket.”
Speaking of Knoch, Fortugna said, “They are a good football team. They only have one loss and that was against (No. 2 seed) Pine Richland. They beat Greensburg Salem early on. We knew we were a third-place team and we’d get a second-place team.”
Frazier’s Larry Wilson brings his commodores into the playoffs not only as a 16th seed, but also must go against defending PIAA champion Rochester.
“What better test can there be than going against the defending state champion?” Wilson said. “I see them twice a year, once in the WPIAL championship and again in the PIAA championship.
“This is what we expected, but we’re not just happy to be in the playoffs. We’re looking to improve as a football team, like we showed improvement in the second half of the season. We’ve gotten better this season and we want to keep that going.”
Waynesburg Central coach Dave Sarra didn’t know what to make of his Raiders being seeded 12th, but he isn’t about to waste much time dwelling on it, either.
“You never know what to expect out of the brackets,” he said. “All I know is you have to play well to win in the playoffs. We can’t do anything about who we’re playing or when we’re playing, so we’ll just give it our best shot.”
WPIAL championship games will be played in all four classifications on Friday, Nov. 22, at Heinz Field.
NOTES:The top four seeds in each classification are as follows:Quad-A, Woodland Hills (9-0); Class AAA, Thomas Jefferson (9-0); Class AA, Jeannette (9-0); Class A, Rochester (7-2). … Eleven out of 64 WPIAL Playoff teams have losing records: Baldwin, Franklin Regional, Latrobe, Laurel Highlands, Moon, West Mifflin, Peters Township, Laurel, Kittanning, California and Frazier.