Steel City Blitz
Welcome to WPIAL Championship weekend! The title games kick off with the 1A Championship at 11:00am on Saturday, November 22 at Heinz FieldAcrisure Stadium. Clairton is back in the Championship Game for the second straight season while Laurel has not been this deep in the playoffs since 1989. This is the third meeting between Clairton and Laurel in a Championship Game.
Check out this week’s edition of the WPIAL Blitz Show where we talked with James Dotson of the Lawrence County Sports Network for his insights on Laurel and a preview of this game!
Both of these teams had an early setback in non-conference play and bounced back thanks to dominant defenses. Clairton lost to 3A finalist Imani Christian in a hard-fought Week 0 game. From there, Clairton’s defense had one of the most dominant seasons in WPIAL history, shutting out 9 straight opponents through the first round of the playoffs. Clairton’s defense scored 5 touchdowns this year, meaning the Bears defense scored more points in the regular season than they allowed. The Bears got all they could handle in a rematch with conference rivals Jeannette in the quarterfinals. Clairton prevailed in a back-and-forth game 38-33. For the second straight year, Clairton topped Bishop Canevin in the semifinals, a 42-22 result.
Laurel started the season with three wins over 2A foes from Lawrence County, beating Ellwood City, Mohawk, and Riverside. All three of those wound up being playoff teams from the Midwestern Conference. Their only loss game in Week 3 against Bishop Canevin. The Spartans defense would take over from there, shutting out 4 of their next 7 opponents through the first round of the playoffs. The 46 points they allowed to Bishop Canevin was more than they allowed in the entire rest of the regular season (42 total over 9 other games). Only Canevin and Chartiers-Houston put up more than two scores against Laurel. Last week, Laurel’s defense and ground game led the Spartans to an upset of two-time defending WPIAL Champions Fort Cherry to send them to their first Championship Game since 1989.
This is the fifth playoff meeting between Clairton and Laurel. Both of Laurel’s previous Championship Games were against Clairton – a loss to the Bears in 1989 and a victory in 1980 that was the only title in school history. Laurel also holds the distinction as being the only team to beat the “Killer T’s” Clairton squad of Tyler Boyd, Titus Howard, and Terrish Webb. Clairton lost to Laurel in the season-opener of 2009 (the Killer T’s freshman year) then went on to win their next 63 games – including 4 straight WPIAL and State titles. Clairton got revenge on Laurel in 2009, meeting them again in the semifinals. Clairton also knocked out Laurel in the first round in 2023. That 2009 trip to the semis was the last time Laurel made it that deep in the WPIAL playoffs...
