Steel City Blitz
The 2025 WPIAL Playoffs will open on Halloween night in Western Pennsylvania. In 3A, 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 3A bracket received first round byes. Defending Champion Avonworth is the top seed after their undefeated season. Imani Christian, last year’s top seed, also went unbeaten this year and received the #2 seed. The slight surprise in the bracket was Central Valley, the second place team out of the Western Hills conference, receiving the #3 seed over Interstate Conference Champion Elizabeth Forward. The Committee clearly rewarded Central Valley’s more difficult non-conference schedule with a better seed, though Elizabeth Forward had a better overall record. Here is a look at the four opening round games in the 3A playoffs.
You can also check out this week’s edition of the WPIAL Blitz Show where we broke down the playoff qualifiers in all six classifications!
Both of these teams lost in the quarterfinals last year with Freeport falling to Central Valley and Beaver losing to Avonworth for the third straight season. Freeport lost to Highlands in overtime earlier this year when their extra point was blocked. Beaver lost to North Catholic in overtime after beating Hopewell by stopping a two-point conversion in the final minute. Both teams are coming off blowout losses to their respective conference champions. Freeport has a dynamic tandem in dual-threat QB Drew Ross and RB Amos Glenn who scored the third-most touchdowns in the WPIAL this season with 28. Glenn compiled 1087 rushing yards, 161 receiving yards and had four return touchdowns. Ross played through injury this year and was still able to put up 606 passing yards and 9 TDs along with 209 rushing yards and 6 more TDs. Beaver has a balanced offensive attack that can light up the scoreboard. The Bobcats were led by a trio of seniors at their offensive skill positions. Quarterback Travis Clear threw for 1653 yards and 11 TDs while his backfield counterpart Jonah Justice ran for 1051 yards and 11 TDs. On the outside, Philip Marino Jr (833 yards, 6 TDs) finished in the Top 5 in the WPIAL in receiving yards.
North Catholic had one of the highest-scoring offenses in 3A this year, averaging over 44 points per game. North won shootouts against Beaver and Hopewell over the last three weeks to secure themselves as the third place team in the Western Hills Conference. Burrell won a number of close games this season to get into the playoffs. The Bucs beat Mt. Pleasant in a non-conference game which was the deciding result in getting the final playoff spot. In conference play, Burrell beat East Allegheny by 1 and Deer Lakes by 7 in a Week 9 shootout. For the second...
