Steel City Blitz
The WPIAL Playoff Brackets will be revealed on Saturday afternoon on KDKA Radio. Tune in to the bracket reveal show starting at 1pm. Here’s a quick look at my best guesses for how the WPIAL will seed the brackets.
6A is straightforward as only four teams make the playoffs and they are seeded in order of finish in the standings.
1. Central Catholic (6-0, 9-1) – The defending champions rolled through 6A play once again
2. North Allegheny (4-2, 7-3) – The Tigers enter the playoffs reeling from losses to Pine-Richland and Seneca Valley
3. Norwin (4-2, 7-3) – First playoff appearance since 2017 for the Knights
4. Canon-McMillan (2-4, 4-6) – The Big Macs got in thanks to head-to-head wins over Mt. Lebanon and Seneca Valley
1. Pine-Richland (5-0, 9-1) – The defending WPIAL Champs only loss this year was to Central Catholic
2. Peters Twp (5-0, 10-0) – Peters won the Allegheny Six Conference. They have faced Pine-Richland in the last two title games, will this year make it three?
3. Woodland Hills (6-0, 8-2) – The Wolverines dominated the Big East Conference and will get a first round bye.
4. Penn-Trafford (5-1, 9-1) – The last bye came down to either Penn-Trafford or Moon. The Warriors won a head-to-head matchup earlier in the year, making this choice easier.
5. Moon (4-1, 7-3) – With five teams out of the Allegheny Six, they get seeded in standings order for all of the first round matchups.
6. Upper St. Clair (3-2, 8-2) – The Panthers finished 3rd in the Allegheny Six after narrow losses to Peters Twp and Moon.
7. Bethel Park (2-3, 6-4) – The first wild card team gets a home playoff game due to a winning record
8. Kiski (3-3, 4-6) – I opted to give Kiski as a 3rd place team a home playoff game over South Fayette, who was 5th in their conference and a Wild Card but the WPIAL could easily flip these two.
9. South Fayette (1-4, 5-5) – The Lions get slotted in here to avoid any conference rematches.
10. Shaler (3-2, 3-7) – The Titans made the playoffs for the first time since 2019, finishing 2nd with a head-to-head win over North Hills
11. North Hills (3-2, 3-7) – North Hills was the third place team out of the Northeast Conference
12. Plum (2-3, 5-5) – The Mustangs beat Penn Hills on the final play of the game and also have head-to-head wins over Gateway and Kiski to give them the edge over Armstrong for the final playoff spot.
1. McKeesport (5-0, 7-3) – The Tigers losses all came in games where Kemon Spell did not play a full game and are easily the top team in 4A right now.
2. New Castle (4-1, 8-2) – The Red Hurricanes won their first conference title since 2008.
3. Trinity (5-0, 6-4) – Trinity won their first...
