Belle Vernon highest seeded among local football teams
Rob Burchianti | Herald-Standard
Belle Vernon, fresh off its remarkable 29-28 comeback win at Elizabeth Forward, was the highest seeded among six local teams when the WPIAL committee released its football playoff pairings on Saturday.
The Leopards are the No. 4 team in Class 3A with Waynesburg Central slotted at No. 10. Mount Pleasant, receiving a wild-card bid, was seeded 14th, giving the area a trio of Class 3A teams from the Interstate Conference in the postseason.
Three local teams are also in the Class A field out of the Tri-County South Conference, with champion California seeded sixth, Beth-Center at No. 8 and Frazier, receiving a wild-card invite, at No. 16.
All first-round games are set for Friday with 7 p.m. kickoffs.
The Leopards host No. 13 Shady Side Academy with the potential of facing the Warriors again in the quarterfinals. Elizabeth Forward was seeded fifth and hosts No. 12 Highlands.
“We kind of expected to be in that four seed, maybe a third,” Belle Vernon coach Scott Bryer said. “I’m not surprised by it.
“I think when you look at all the brackets, one of the potential second-round games most people probably want to see would be us and EF again. But we’ve got to get there. Our focus right now is on Shady Side. We certainly are not going to look past them.”
Waynesburg travels to No. 7 Aliquippa.
“We thought we would either be nine or 10,” Raiders coach Joe Kuhns said. “We also thought it would be Freeport or Aliquippa. Once we lost to Belle Vernon (in Week 9), we knew that first opponent was going to be a tough one.”
Kuhns said he’s urging his team not to be intimidated by Aliquippa’s tradition.
“We’re not playing the name on the shirt,” Kuhns said. “They need to know it’s more about you than them. Obviously, Aliquippa is a pretty prestigious school as far as accomplishments on the football field. We’re going to have to get our players to not pay attention to that, just take care of ourselves and see what happens.”
Mount Pleasant travels to No. 3 Hopewell for its playoff opener.
The Trojans and Bulldogs will both open the postseason at home. California hosts No. 11 Northgate and Beth-Center hosts No. 9 Burgettstown.
Coach Ed Woods Trojans claimed a 22-20 win at Beth-Center on Friday night to secure first place and had the Bulldogs their first loss of the season.
Frazier could’ve sewn up a spot in the postseason on Friday night but fell at home to Avella, 48-20. The committee put them in and the Commodores are on the road at top-seeded Washington.
“It’s not a good situation where you put it in the hands of someone else,” Commodores coach Tony Battaglini said after the loss to the Eagles. “You’d like to think your body of work throughout the course of the year gets you that seat at the table and the extra game. Now we just sit and wait and hope we’ve done enough so far.”
Frazier did enough to get in, according to the committee, and will be in the postseason for the second year in a row under Battaglini.