Nov 8, 2025 By Rob Burchianti 4 min read

The quarterfinals of the WPIAL football playoffs take place tonight with one area team remaining in the field.

Frazier was an unlikely candidate to be in this position when the season began but here the Commodores are under first-year coach Tony Battaglini, preparing for a Class A quarterfinal game while sporting a 7-4 record that includes a 27-12 first-round upset win at California.

That’s five wins more than Frazier had a year ago when it finished 2-8.

The Commodores were 4-2 in the Eastern Conference which was good enough for fourth place and a No. 11 seed in the playoffs.

Frazier will take on third-seeded Bishop Canevin with a 7 p.m. kickoff tonight at AHN Field at Big Mac Stadium in Canonsburg.

The Crusaders (8-3) finished second in the Black Hills Conference behind top-seeded Fort Cherry with a 5-1 mark.

The Commodores got three touchdown passes from Brady Secrest to Chase Fulmer of 6, 33 and 64 yards along with 118 rushing yards and a 3-yard TD run by Derek Diamond in their victory at Trojan Stadium. Secrest completed 7 of 11 passes for 136 yards, one touchdown and one interception. Fulmer had five receptions for 124 yards.

Secrest is now 87 for 163 passing for 1,264 yards and 16 touchdowns. Fulmer, who was fifth in the regular season in receptions, upped his totals for the season to 53 catches for 713 yards.

Diamond, the WPIAL’s third-leading rusher during the regular season, now has 1,775 yards with 17 touchdowns and five two-point conversions for 112 points.

Battaglini lauded his feisty offensive line for playing a key role in the Commodores’ success.

“Our O-line does a fantastic job,” Battaglini said. “We might now have these big guys that bully people around but we do have guys that are fast and athletic and create holes for us, and when you have a guy like Derek you only need a small gap and he’ll get through there.

“They do their job and they’ve been fantastic all year. They give Brady the time he needs and you can’t run for 1,700 yards without having a great O-line so they deserve a bunch of credit, too.”

The Crusaders (8-3) rallied in the second half to defeat No. 14 Greensburg Central Catholic, 50-35, at Dormont Stadium in their first-round game. The Centurions led 22-15 at halftime and 29-28 after three quarters before Bishop Canevin pulled away by out-scoring GCC 22-6 in the fourth.

Myontae Mott’s 23-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter put the Crusaders ahead to stay. It was Mott’s 15th TD of the season. Quarterback Damar Olds had touchdown runs of 13, 14 and 8 yards while also throwing scoring passes of 66 and 69 yards to Justin Melvini. Neuval Bone accounted for Bishop Canevin’s other TD with a 6-yard run.

The Commodores and Crusaders have one common opponent, that being the Centurions. Frazier won at GCC, 35-33, on Oct. 17.

Both teams come in on hot streaks. The Crusaders have won eight of their last nine while Frazier has a four-game winning streak and has won five of its last six. Bishop Canevin averages 35.2 points per game while allowing 20. The Commodores score at a 28.7 clip while giving up 31.7 per game.

Bishop Canevin’s losses were to Clarkson North of Canada at York High School, 35-28, vs. Class 2A’s top-seeded Seton LaSalle, 22-7, and at Fort Cherry, 56-19.

Frazier’s defeats were at Mapletown, 22-21, vs. Jeannette, 61-19, at Clairton, 72-0, and at Leechburg, 48-14.

Battaglini feels his defense has improved as the season has gone, as has his entire team, leading up to the upset victory at California.

“That’s just a great win for them,” Battaglini said of defeating the Trojans. “It’s amazing to see in this game how you get out of it what you put into it. It’s a testament to all the work that they’ve done since January when I got here leading up to this.

“They’ve gotten better every single week, you could just see it, going all the way back to Week Zero, then Mapletown. We’re a completely different football team now than then.”

This is Frazier’s first appearance in the quarterfinals since 2015 when the 11-1 Commodores earned a spot in the semifinals with wins over South Side, 33-32 in overtime, and Shenango, 14-13 after falling behind 13-0. Frazier fell to Clairton in the semifinals, 56-15.

The winner of tonight’s game will play the winner between second-seeded Clairton and 10th-seeded Jeannette in next week’s semifinals.