Steel City Blitz
The 2025 WPIAL playoffs began last week with first round games in 1A through 5A. 1A is the only classification where 16 teams qualify for the playoffs and there is a full playoff bracket. The champion will be crowned at Acrisure Stadium on November 22 and enter the State brackets the following week in the semifinals. Fort Cherry is the two-time defending WPIAL Champions and once again tops the bracket after an unbeaten season. Interestingly, while the top 4 seeds all won their first round games, the teams seeded 5th through 8th all lost. That included Chartiers-Houston winning a playoff game for the first time since 2000 and Frazier winning a playoff game for the first time since 2015.
Check out this week’s edition of the WPIAL Blitz Show where we broke down all of the playoff matchups!
Fort Cherry is the two-time defending WPIAL Champions and have won 38 straight games against WPIAL opponents. Fort Cherry is led by senior QB Matt Sieg, who earlier in his career was the first freshman member of the 1000/1000 club then just the second player to reach the threshold twice. This season he played through an injury so Fort Cherry did not ask him to throw as much as he did in past years. Sieg still finished the season with 403 passing yards and 8 TDs along with 1481 rushing yards and 26 TDs, breaking the WPIAL career total yardage record. Last week he broke Mike Vernillo’s school rushing record to elevate Sieg to second on the WPIAL’s all-time rushing list. With Sieg playing through injury, Fort Cherry almost exclusively ran the ball over the second half of the season. In addition to Sieg, there were plenty of opportunities for juniors Eli Salvini (700 yards, 17 TDs) and Ryan Huey (599 yards, 12 TDs). Salvini scored 3 touchdowns in the Rangers opening round win over Avella. Neshannock’s offense ran through dual-threat QB Jino Mozzocio who threw for 1077 yards and 11 TDs and ran for 465 yards and 12 TDs. Mozzocio was joined in the Lancers backfield by the tandem of Anthony Eakin (833 yards, 14 TDs) and Justin Edworthy (364 yards, 6 total TDs). In their first round win over Leechburg, Mozzoccio ran for two scores and threw for another.
The winner of this game will secure a historic result for their team. Chartiers-Houston has already made history, winning their first playoff game since 2000 with a first round upset of South Side Beaver. They have not been to the semifinals since 1981. Laurel, on the other hand, last appeared in the semifinals in 2009. Laurel started the season with three wins over 2A playoff teams from the Midwestern Conference. The Spartans only loss came against Bishop Canevin and they rolled through Big Seven Conference play. Laurel has traditionally been a run-heavy team but opened up the offense with...
