Steel City Blitz
The 2025 WPIAL playoffs began last week with first round games in 1A through 5A. In 5A, 12 teams made the playoffs with the top four earning byes. The champion will be crowned at Acrisure Stadium on November 22 and enter the State brackets the following week in the semifinals. The top four teams in the 5A bracket received first round byes. The Allegheny Six Conference, which has put a team in the WPIAL finals in seven straight years, dominated the opening round going 3-0. Shaler scored a historic victory in the first round, winning their first playoff game since 2009. Three of the quarterfinal matchups are rematches of regular season games.
Check out this week’s edition of the WPIAL Blitz Show where we broke down all of the playoff matchups!
Pine-Richland is the defending 5A Champions and has appeared in three straight WPIAL finals. A win would put the Rams through to the semifinals for the 12th straight season. Meanwhile, Shaler has never reached the semifinals. The Titans earned their first playoff victory since 2009 by beating Kiski 28-8 in the opening round. This is a rematch of the Week 9 game that decided the conference title where Pine-Richland won 49-17. The Rams highest-scoring offense in 5A (49.6 points per game) is led by dual-threat quarterback Aaron “Oobi” Strader who has thrown for 1996 yards and 27 TDs and run for 497 yards and 9 scores. He has a trio of talented receivers on the outside featuring Florida State-commit Jay Timmons (549 yards, 10 TDs), four-star junior Khalil Taylor (476 yards, 18 total TDs) and slot receiver Jalen Neals (470 yards, 5 TDs). Maclane Miller has been the workhorse out of the backfield, running for 838 yards and 12 TDs. Shaler’s offense relies heavily on their dual-threat QB Aaron Aversa (1018 passing yards, 10 TDs; 817 rushing yards 7 TDs) who accounted for three total touchdowns in the win over Kiski. Complementing Aversa out of the backfield is Avery Kinter who has run for 465 yards and 3 TDs. Aversa’s top receivers are Braedyn Witkowski (328 yards, 4 TDs) and Zach London (269 yards, 3 TDs).
This quarterfinal is a rematch of the Week 2 game where Penn-Trafford came from behind in the fourth quarter to top Moon 25-24. That one-point victory ultimately earned Penn-Trafford a first round bye so the rematch is on their turf. The only previous playoff meeting between these schools came in the 2021 WPIAL Championship Game where Moon missed a game-tying field goal at the end of regulation. That was Penn-Trafford’s first WPIAL title in school history and the Warriors went all the way to the State Championship to claim the PIAA crown. That 2021 season was the last time Penn-Trafford made it to the semifinals whereas Moon made it to the penultimate round in 2023. Penn-Trafford has a balanced offensive attack behind a strong offensive line. Senior...
