Times' high school notebook: Beaver juniors take recruiting trip to Army

Time will tell if either Brady Mayo or Amari Jackson ever play college football for the Army Black Knights. But they’ll always remember their weekend trip to the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y.

Mayo and Jackson, who recently finished their junior seasons at Beaver High School, were invited by Army for an unofficial recruiting visit on Saturday. They were among high school recruits whom Army hosted for its game against Coastal Carolina.        

On a gorgeous fall day on the banks of the Hudson River, Army (5-6) pulled off an upset of Coastal Carolina (7-4) with a 28-21 victory at Michie Stadium.

Consider what Mel Kiper Jr., an ESPN football analyst, once said about Army’s 99-year-old home field: "There is nothing like being at Michie Stadium on the banks of the Hudson River with the leaves changing during the third weekend in October. The scenery is incredible. And how about the inspiration drawn from being at such a historic landmark? You see the statues of MacArthur, Patton and Eisenhower. Then on game day morning, you have the pleasure of witnessing the Cadet Parade. And how about when the cadets sing 'On Brave Old Army Team?' That is an unbelievable moment."

Mayo and Jackson, who are both wide receivers/defensive backs, got to witness all that Saturday.

“It was a good game, super crazy,” Mayo said. “I didn’t expect all of that.”

So how did Mayo and Jackson get invited to an Army game?

Well, they each put together their personal highlight films and sent them to Patriot League programs and as well as other college football programs. Two of those programs reached out to Mayo and Jackson with invitations to visit their campuses for a game.

Last week, Mayo and Jackson visited Lafayette, which is located in Easton, Pa.During their trip to Army, Mayo and Jackson joined other recruits for breakfast Saturday morning, a campus tour and then the game. They were allowed on the field for pre-game festivities and then got to go inside the Black Knights’ locker room after the game.

Mayo said he hasn’t scheduled any more recruiting trips for the time being because basketball season has already started. Both Mayo and Jackson played on the Bobcats’ 17-5 squad last year that qualified for the WPIAL playoffs.This season in football, Mayo and Jackson starred on Beaver’s 8-4 football team that advanced to the WPIAL Class 3A quarterfinals.

During the regular season, the versatile Mayo caught 28 passes for 292 yards and five touchdowns, carried the ball for 257 yards and six TDs, and even took some snaps at quarterback, completing 4 of 5 passes for 71 yards.Jackson caught 26 passes for 608 yards – that’s an average of 23.4 yards per catch – and six TDs. He also had 120 rushing yards and two TDs.

Defensively, Mayo led the team with five interceptions, including two returned for TDs, while Jackson had three interceptions including one pick-6.

WPIAL Football finals will be televised

Thanks to the Pittsburgh Steelers, four WPIAL football championship games scheduled for Friday at Acrisure Stadium will be televised.

The Class 1A, 2A, 3A and 4A finals can be seen on KDKA+, which was previously known as Pittsburgh’s CW.Since 2018, KDKA had been televising championship games on Pittsburgh’s CW.

Three of the four WPIAL championship games on Friday feature teams from Beaver County.

1A, 11 a.m.: top-seeded South Side (13-0) vs. No. 2 seed Fort Cherry (13-0) in a battle of unbeatens.

2A, 2 p.m.: 10th-seeded Beaver Falls (8-5) vs. top-seeded Steel Valley (10-1).

4A, 8 p.m.: top-seeded Aliquippa (11-0) vs. No. 2 seed McKeesport (11-1).

In the 3A game that starts at 5 p.m., it will be top-seeded Belle Vernon (10-1) vs. No. 2 seed Avonworth (12-0).

“We are excited to bring the WPIAL Championships that will be played at Acrisure Stadium back to television,” Dan Rooney, the Steelers’ director of business development and strategy, said in a statement. “This provides another platform to spotlight and celebrate the young athletes who play the game of football in Western Pennsylvania. We’d like to thank our partners who helped make this possible.”

The partners Rooney mentioned are 84 Lumber, Giant Eagle supermarkets and Acrisure, a financial technology and insurance company that has naming rights at the Steelers’ North Shore home field.

The WPIAL’s 6A and 5A finals that were held Saturday at Norwin High School were not televised. In those games, North Allegheny won the 6A title with a thrilling 44-41 win over Central Catholic, while Peters Township routed Pine-Richland, 43-17.

Aliquippa football will remain in Class 4A

Even if Aliquippa wins another WPIAL Class 4A championship on Friday, it will not be bumped up to Class 5A next year.

Because of the PIAA’s often confusing “competition classification formula” which went into effect in 2018, football teams across the state can get bumped up one class if two things happen: 1. They advance deep in postseason play two years in a row and they have three student/athlete transfers over that two-year period.

Mike White, the long-time high school sports reporter for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, cleared up many of the misconceptions about Aliquippa’s status in a recent story.

Because of its success in recent years – the Quips won the last two WPIAL 4A titles and went 1-1 in state championship games the past two years – it was assumed Aliquippa would be moved up to 5A for the next two-year cycle.

But that will not be the case.

Remember, Aliquippa’s boys enrollment would place them in Class 1A. But they have always decided to play “up” in classification in order to play against better competition.

Starting in 1991, they won eight WPIAL titles in Class 2, the last in 2015. In 2016, they voluntarily moved up to Class 3A.

But in 2021, the PIAA bumped up Aliquippa from 3A to 4A because of the “competition classification formula.” The Quips have been 4A ever since although the PIAA tried to move them to 5A two years ago. Aliquippa appealed and won that appeal.

In White’s story in the Post-Gazette, PIAA executive director Bob Lombardi said “Aliquippa is considered a 4A school because that’s where they played the past four years. They will be no less than 4A for the next two-year cycle.”

State 3-peat for Moon Girls Soccer Team

For the third straight season, the Moon girls are the best Class 3A soccer team in the state.

The Tigers won their third straight PIAA title on Saturday with a 3-1 win over previously undefeated Abington Heights, 3-1.

Abington Heights, the District 2 champs, entered the game with a 23-0 record.

In a game played at Eagle View Middle School in Mechanicsburg, sophomore Anna Palm gave Moon a 1-0 lead in the 45th minute of the second half.

After Abington Heights tied the score at 1-1, Tigers responded minutes later when Palm scored again. Then in the 65th minute, senior Gabriella Larson scored to make it 3-1.

Moon (19-2-2) may have lost to South Fayette in the WPIAL championship, but they won four matches in the state tournament. Before beating Abington Heights, they recorded shutout wins over Bradford, Northern York and Mars.And now the Moon girls have six state titles in their proud program’s history.

Among the Moon seniors capping their high school careers was goalkeeper Serayah Leech. An Indiana University of Pennsylvania recruit, she finished her career with 55 shutouts, a WPIAL record.

Leech will play for the East team in the 11th annual Girls’ Soccer High School All-American Game on Dec. 9 in Charleston, S.C.

One of the East’s coaches will be Moon’s Bil Pfeifer.

This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Times' high school notebook: Beaver juniors take recruiting trip to Army