Steel City Blitz
The 2025 WPIAL season is off to a roaring start and already a third of the way in the books. With football starting in mid-August this year, we have teams playing their fourth games in early September. This week, conference play kicks off in nearly every section throughout the WPIAL. The headliner matchup is a non-conference showdown between two defending WPIAL Champions, the second of its kind we’ve had this season after 6A Champions Central Catholic played 5A Champions Pine-Richland in Week 1. Last week’s slate featured a number of thrilling finishes with 8 games being decided in the final minute. This week starts the march to the playoffs as conference standings determine the teams who get guaranteed playoff spots.
On this week’s edition of the WPIAL Blitz Show, we recapped all of the Week 2 action, discussed our first set of Rankings and previewed Week 3. Our WPIAL Blitz Show Player of the Week from Week 2 was Upper St Clair QB Ethan Hellmann who threw for over 300 yards and 5 TDs in the first half of their win over Franklin Regional. Check out his highlights on Hudl. Also, we discussed some teams who were off to slow starts and whether or not they should hit the panic button or were on thin ice. We’ll be back on Monday night at 9:30 this week for another great show! Tune in on the SSP Network on YouTube.
I had to do some back end re-coding of my WPIAL Standings Page here on the site, so be sure to bookmark the NEW LINK for the page, which replaced the one I had published previously. Without further ado, here are the Week 3 Games of the Week!
The Defending 4A WPIAL Champions take on the Defending 3A WPIAL Champions in a blockbuster matchup. Both Thomas Jefferson and Avonworth returned a majority of starters from their title-winning squads and are off to strong starts this season. TJ is coming off a hard-fought win in a Championship Game rematch with McKeesport where the Jaguars scored two touchdowns in the final minute to prevail. Avonworth scored an impressive victory, traveling to Heinz Field and beating Aliquippa on their home turf. TJ’s offensive attack is built around their running game and junior workhorse Tyler Eber (348 yards, 8 TDs). The Jags are strong in the trenches and will present a formidable matchup for the Lopes line. Harrison Kolling (213 yards, 2 TDs) has averaged just 9 pass attempts per game thanks to TJ’s strong ground game. Avonworth has a balanced offensive attack with QB Carson Bellinger (556 yards, 6 TDs) at the helm. With a fully healthy roster, the Lopes have moved Luca Neal to a receiving role where he has excelled with 364 yards and 5 TDs. Out of the backfield, Dimitri Velisaris (454 yards, 7 TDs) has averaged 6.8 yards per carry as the primary ballcarrier.
6A Game of the Week -----------------------...
