Steel City Blitz
The WPIAL 3A semifinals will be played on Friday night at neutral sites (North Allegheny and Montour). The 3A champion will be crowned at Acrisure Stadium on November 22 and enter the State brackets the following week in the semifinals. The WPIAL Champion will face either the District 10 Champion or the winner of Brockway-Penn Cambria. The Western Hills Conference (and its predecessors by name) have been the dominant conference in 3A. Since the move to six classifications in 2016, the conference has accounted for 13 of the 18 WPIAL finalists. Three teams from the Western Hills Conference reached the semifinals this year. The WPIAL has dominated the 3A class at the state level as well, winning 7 of the 9 state titles and coming close to winning the other two (Central Valley lost by 7 to Wyoming Area and Avonworth lost in overtime to Northwestern Lehigh last year).
Check out this week’s edition of the WPIAL Blitz Show where we interviewed North Catholic head coach Chris Rizzo and broke down all of the playoff matchups!
Avonworth is the defending WPIAL Champions and has reached the finals in three straight seasons. This is a matchup of two of the four highest-scoring teams in 3A with North Catholic averaging 45.9 points per game and Avonworth just behind at 41.2 per game. This is a rematch of the Week 8 conference showdown which Avonworth won 42-10 thanks to a dominant defensive performance. The Antelopes have rolled through the regular season, outscoring opponents by an average of 33 points per game. Their balanced offense has been keyed by the play of QB Carson Bellinger (1768 yards, 25 TDs) and RB Dimitri Velisaris (1324 yards, 21 TDs). In their quarterfinal blowout of Freeport, Velisaris ran for 111 yards and 4 TDs. Dynamic slot back Luca Neal is the team’s leading receiver (760 yards), second-leading rusher (320 yards), and second-leading scorer (16 total TDs). Sophomore WR Jaden Jones (539 yards, 7 TDs) has had a number of D1 visits lately including Ohio State and Florida State. North Catholic QB Joey Felitsky (3128 yards, 44 TDs) won the WPIAL passing title for the second straight season. In the playoffs, Felitsky has just three incompletions in two games. His playoff stat line through two weeks is 36 for 39 for 696 yards and 11 TDs. Felitsky has spread the ball around to 4 different receivers who all had over 300 yards. Leading receiver Preston Simko (973 yards, 18 TDs) had over 150 yards and a touchdown in the opening round. Will Waskiewicz (744 yards, 12 TDs), Ryker Kennedy (687 yards, 7 TDs), and Tom Arth (391 yards, 9 TDs) also found the postseason. Kennedy was the key to the Trojans revenge victory over Elizabeth Foward, racking up 101 yards and 3 TDs. North Catholic does have the ability to be multiple with Logan Schade (1014 yards, 20 TDs) averaging over 10 yards per carry to...
