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. The 3A Championship Game is scheduled for 5:00pm but logistically will start about a half hour after the 2A game ends. Avonworth is the defending champions and playing in the Championship Game for the for the fourth straight season. On the other side, Imani Christian is in the title game for just the second time in school history. This is the second playoff meeting in two years for these teams after Avonworth beat Imani in the semis last year.
Check out this week’s edition of the WPIAL Blitz Show where we previewed all of this week’s Championship Games!
Both of these teams dominated the competition this season. Avonworth is the defending WPIAL Champions and lived up to that this season. In non-conference play, they topped eventual 4A Champion Aliquippa and the defending 4A Champions Thomas Jefferson. No team to score more than 10 points against the Lopes first-team defense this season. Quaker Valley and North Catholic got beyond 10 by scoring in the 4th quarter against the Lopes backups and Thomas Jefferson’s opening touchdown came on a kickoff return. Aliquippa was the only team to hold Avonworth’s offense under 34 points.
Imani Christian was the top seed in last year’s playoffs and went unbeaten in the regular season for the second straight year. The Saints have the top offense (48.5 points per game) and defense (7.2 points against per game) in 3A. Imani pitched 4 shutouts, including in last week’s semifinal against Central Valley. Their closest game was a Week 0 slugfest against 1A finalist Clairton that the Saints won 19-12. Before last week’s 48-0 victory over Central Valley where Imani ran for over 400 yards, the Saints had scored 53+ points in 5 straight games.
Imani was the top seed in last year’s playoffs but was upset by Avonworth in the semifinals. The Lopes defense carried them in that meeting to a 14-6 victory. That victory catapulted Avonworth on to the WPIAL title and a run to the State Championship Game where they fell in overtime. Last year’s semifinal is the only playoff meeting between these two teams.
Interestingly, these two teams had six common opponents this season. Imani beat Beaver 41-3, North Catholic 36-16, Burrell 53-7, Freeport 53-7, Hopewell 59-21, and Central Valley 48-0. Against those teams, Avonworth beat Beaver 49-7, North Catholic 42-10 and 44-24 (in the semifinals last week), Burrell 35-7, Freeport 56-7, Hopewell 48-6, and Central Valley 34-6.
Avonworth has been a district on the rise, both from a football standpoint and a population standpoint. The Lopes had been a Single-A team in the four class era and in 2014 made their first Championship Game appearance since 1959. They lost that game to Clairton and were placed in 2A at the...
