Steel City Blitz
The 2025 WPIAL season is now in the final third with just three games to go before the playoffs. Only 8 teams remain undefeated heading into Week 7 after Freeport lost to Highlands in overtime. On the flip side, Ligonier Valley and Franklin Regional earned their first wins of the season in Week 6, leaving just 9 winless teams. Pine-Richland became the first WPIAL team to clinch a playoff spot with their dominant victory over Penn Hills.
On this week’s edition of the WPIAL Blitz Show, we interviewed Norwin senior captain Josh Lenart to discuss the Knights win over Westmoreland County rivals Hempfield and how their program has turned around over the last few seasons. We also recapped all of the Week 6 action, ran through all of the conference standings and discussed this week’s WPIAL Blitz Statewide Rankings. Our WPIAL Blitz Show Player of the Week from Week 6 was New Castle QB Marino Graham. In the Red Hurricanes victory over conference foe Montour, Graham accounted for five total touchdowns (1 through the air and 4 on the ground) and had 165 passing yards and 107 rushing yards. 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 Playoff Scenarios breakdown and WPIAL Standings Page. Without further ado, here are the Week 7 Games of the Week!
Central Catholic and North Allegheny have set themselves apart in the 6A playoff race, leaving the final two spots to be decided amongst five teams. Norwin got a big win over Hempfield last week and has put themselves in position to make the playoffs for the first time since 2017. Norwin’s offense is led by dual-threat QB Trystan Tavares who has thrown for 674 yards and 10 TDs and run for 546 yards and 9 scores. Tavares has just three receivers with over 100 yards, led by Potter Brozeski (227 yards, 3 TDs) and Jake Knight (159 yards, 3 TDs). Giovanni Rothrauff (986 yards, 8 TDs) has been the workhorse for the Knights offense. In last week’s win over Hempfield, Rothrauff ran for 175 yards and 2 TDs. Central Catholic’s offense has rounded into form this season on the backs of running backs Roman Thompson (513 yards, 16 TDs) and Jayden Alexander (326 yards, 4 TDs). Sophomore QB Owen Herrick (1164 yards, 8 TDs) has had success throwing to WRs Aiden Nasiadka (276 yards, 3 TDs) and Navy-commit Maceo Watkins (196 yards, 4 TDs). Defensively, the Vikings are loaded with Western Michigan-commit Angelo Pugliano up front and linebackers Ashton Blatt (a UNC-commit) and Colsen Gatten (a Duke-commit).
Other Games to Watch: Seneca Valley (0-3) takes on Hempfield (1-3) in a battle of teams on the outside of the playoff race looking in. The winner will stay in contention for a playoff spot....
