Steel City Blitz
As hard to believe, the 2025 WPIAL season has reached the midway point. This weekend will be the fifth of ten regular season games. Last week, conference play kicked off in nearly every section throughout the WPIAL. This week continues the trend with only a few conferences waiting until next week to start conference play.
On this week’s edition of the WPIAL Blitz Show, we were fortunate enough to interview Avonworth Head Coach Duke Johncour coming off the Lopes back to back wins over Aliquippa and Thomas Jefferson. We also recapped all of the Week 3 action, discussed our Rankings and previewed Week 4. Our WPIAL Blitz Show Player of the Week from Week 3 was Hopewell QB James Armstrong. In a game where the Vikings came up just short against Beaver, Armstrong set a WPIAL record for total yardage. He had an incredible stat line of 346 passing yards, 4 passing TDs, 263 rushing yards, and 2 rushing TDs. Check out his highlights on Hudl. We’ll be back on Monday night at 9:30 this week for another great show! Tune in on the SSP Network on YouTube.
As playoff races start to heat up, be sure to check my WPIAL Standings Page here on the site, which I’ll keep updated with all of the tiebreakers. Without further ado, here are the Week 4 Games of the Week!
Both teams started conference play with a bang. North Allegheny ran through an undefeated Hempfield team while Norwin got a big victory over Seneca Valley. Norwin is a questionable call at the goal line against their rivals Penn-Trafford away from being 4-0 this year. Both teams are averaging over 40 points per game so this should present a good test for both defenses. Norwin has not made the playoffs since 2017 and a win over North Allegheny would be a program-defining statement victory for the Knights. Norwin’s offense is led by dual-threat QB Tristyn Tavares who has thrown for 469 yards and 7 TDs and run for 404 yards and 8 scores. Tavares accounted for 5 TDs in last week’s win over Seneca Valley. His favorite targets have been Potter Brozeski (224 yards, 3 TDs) and Jake Knight (108 yards, 1 TD). Joining Tavares in the backfield is Giovanni Rothrauff (491 yards, 4 TDs) who is averaging over 6 yards per carry. North Allegheny’s offense is built around their ground game and workhorse back Luke Rohan who leads the team in three offensive categories (350 rushing yards, 187 receiving yards, 9 total TDs). When Rohan isn’t running the ball, dual-threat QB Brady Brinkley has been efficient, throwing for 576 yards and 7 TDs and also running for 4 scores. North A has strength in the trenches with Pitt-commit Lincoln Hoke (son of former Steeler Chris Hoke). On the outside, Korry Pitts who is a Monmouth-commit at corner but will also play wide receiver where he has 119...
