Steel City Blitz
Fort Cherry clinched first conference title of the season
Trinity can win first conference title since 1986
We have reached the penultimate week of the 2025 WPIAL season. Last week Fort Cherry became the first team to clinch a playoff spot. I continued my Tour of the WPIAL with a trip to see the Rangers beat Bishop Canevin. Only 6 teams remain undefeated heading into Week 8 after Western Beaver and Jefferson-Morgan both lost. On the flip side, Sto-Rox ended a 17-game losing streak with a win over Carlynton and Northgate got their first win of the year. Only 14 teams have clinched playoff spots so far, but several more will get locked up this week. Check out my WPIAL Playoff Scenarios breakdown for all the details.
On this week’s edition of the WPIAL Blitz Show, we interviewed Southmoreland head coach Dustin Shoaf, a former WPIAL leading rusher and the youngest head coach in the WPIAL. He has the Scotties off to an 8-0 start with a big showdown coming against Elizabeth Forward this week (more on that below). We also recapped all of the Week 7 action, ran through all of the conference standings and discussed this week’s WPIAL Blitz Statewide Rankings. Our WPIAL Blitz Show Player of the Week from Week 7 was Fort Cherry QB Matt Sieg. In the Rangers conference-clinchign victory over Bishop Canevin, Sieg ran for 285 yards and scored 5 times (3 rushing, a punt return, and a pick-six). On the first play from scrimmage (a 70-yard touchdown run) he surpassed Sto-Rox’s Lenny Williams for the most total yards in a career. We’ll be back on Monday night at 9:30 this week for another great show! Tune in on the SSP Network on YouTube.
As playoff races wind down, keep an eye on my WPIAL Standings Page. Without further ado, here are the Week 8 Games of the Week!
This non-conference showdown between northern rivals pits two of the top teams in the WPIAL against each other. Both teams have been to their respective championship games for three straight seasons. Their only losses this year both came to 6A frontrunner Central Catholic. North Allegheny is battle-tested with several close games over the last month. The Tigers had a 3-point win over Norwin, a 9-point win over Mt. Lebanon, and an 8-point win over Canon-Mac. Meanwhile Pine-Richland has been blowing the doors off of everyone, scoring at least 42 points in 6 straight games since losing to Central Catholic. North Allegheny’s offense runs through junior QB Brady Brinkley (1226 passing yards, 12 TDs) who has spread the ball around to 4 receivers with over 200 yards. Luke Rohan (720 yards, 12 TDs) leads the Tigers rushing attack and is capable of single-handedly taking over games. On the outside, Brinkley’s top target is Monmouth-commit Korry Pitts (270 yards, 5 TDs) who is one of the top Cornerbacks in the WPIAL. Mason Brown (254 yards,...
