Steel City Blitz
The WPIAL 5A semifinals will be played on Friday night at neutral sites (Chartiers Valley and Canon-McMillan). The 5A 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 the Champion from District 3 (likely defending state champions Bishop McDevitt). The Allegheny Six Conference, which has put a team in the WPIAL finals for seven straight years, is guaranteed to do so again with three teams in the semifinals. Defending Champions Pine-Richland has faced Peters Twp in the last two title games and a rubber match is possible again this year.
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. This is the 12th straight season the Rams have reached the semifinals, inclusive of their time in AAA and 6A before the current run in 5A. Moon is appearing in the semifinals for the third time in five years (interestingly in all the odd-numbered years). The Tigers fell in the WPIAL Championship in 2021 to Penn-Trafford. Pine-Richland is highest-scoring offense in 5A (48.9 points per game) while Moon rode their defense (16.7 points against per game, 4th best in 5A) to this point.
The Rams are led by dual-threat quarterback Aaron “Oobi” Strader who has thrown for 2109 yards and 32 TDs and run for 505 yards and 9 scores. He has a trio of talented receivers on the outside featuring Ohio State-commit Jay Timmons (595 yards, 11 TDs), four-star junior Khalil Taylor (506 yards, 22 total TDs) and slot receiver Jalen Neals (501 yards, 5 TDs). Last week against Shaler, Taylor scored touchdowns in four different ways – a kickoff return, a receiving TD, a punt return, and a pick-six. Maclane Miller has been the workhorse out of the backfield, running for 1178 yards and 13 TDs. Moon has a balanced offensive attack with dual-threat quarterback Andrew Cross at the helm. Cross threw for 1097 yards and 14 TDs and ran for 491 yards and 6 TDs). Cross has two passing TDs in each of the Tigers first two playoff games, including the game-winner to leading receiver Sevi Vandetti (404 yards, 6 TDs). The Tigers have one of the best pass rushers in the WPIAL in Daiveon Taylor who is on pace to break the state sack record. In the regular season Moon used They will also use Taylor as a short-yardage back and their fourth quarter finisher to close out games. Taylor has featured more in the ground game in the playoffs. Also on the defensive side of the ball, watch out for DB Jayden Revis (son of Hall of Famer Darrelle Revis) who will be in must-see matchups against Taylor or Timmons.
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