WPIAL championship game scouting reports Rams, Tigers and Quips want to bring home WPIAL gold
From the first day of training camp way back in early August, the high school football teams from South Side, Beaver Falls and Aliquippa believed they had what it takes to play for a WPIAL championship.
They believed they had the talent and determination needed to make it Acrisure Stadium.
As it turns out, the Rams, Tigers and Quips will be playing for WPIAL gold on Friday on Pittsburgh’s North Shore.
In Class A, at 11 a.m., it will be top-seeded South Side (13-0) vs. No. 2 seed Fort Cherry (13-0) in a battle of unbeatens.
In Class 2A at 2 p.m., it will be Beaver Falls (8-5), the bracket-busting 10th seed, taking on top-seeded Steel Valley (10-1).
In Class 4A at 8 p.m., top-seeded Aliquippa (11-0) will make its 16th straight appearance in a WPIAL final when it plays No. 2 seed McKeesport (11-1).
Following are scouting reports of those championship games:
South Side vs. Fort Cherry
It’s rare when two undefeated teams meet in a WPIAL championship game, but such will be the case in the 1A final.
Historically speaking, South Side will be making its first appearance in a WPIAL championship game since 2018 when it lost to Steel Valley in Class 2A. The Rams will be trying to win their second WPIAL title. In 1999 with coach Glenn McDougal and star quarterback/defensive back Sean McCune leading the way, South Side won WPIAL and PIAA 1A titles and finished with a perfect 15-0 record. McDougal, by the way, is an assistant on the current staff of head coach Luke Travelpiece.
Fort Cherry has never won a WPIAL title and is playing in a championship game for the first time since 2001.
For South Side to win Friday, it will have to limit big plays routinely produced by Fort Cherry quarterback Matt Sieg. He’s only a sophomore but already has major-college scholarship offers from Penn State, Pitt, West Virginia, Nebraska and Syracuse. One Pittsburgh-area sports reporter even recently called Sieg a “superhero.”
Well, last week when Fort Cherry rallied for a 33-21 semifinal win over Bishop Canevin, Sieg proved to be such a hero. He ran for all five of the Rangers’ touchdowns, including three in the fourth quarter. In that game, he rushed for 157 yards and threw for 111.
Sieg has now rushed for 1,776 yards and 33 TDs this season and also passed for 1,337 yards and 18 TDs. He’s only thrown three interceptions.
South Side might not have a “superhero” type player like Sieg, who also plays basketball and baseball as well as runs track. But it does have a cast of all-star caliber athletes, many of whom have been regulars the past two years on teams that have gone 24-2. That cast includes senior quarterback/defensive Brody Almashy and senior running back/linebacker Ryan Navarra.
Last week when South Side beat Clairton, 28-12, Almashy threw touchdown passes of 36, 11 and 53 yards. The first TD pass went to Navarra with sophomore RB A.C. Corfield hauling in the last two. Corfield also rushed for 131 yards and a TD.
With its trademark Wing-T offense, South Side has a 1,000-yard passer in Almashy and two 1,000-yard rushers in Navarra and Corfield.
Navarra, the Big 7 Conference Defensive Player of the Year honors last year, has rushed for 1,359 yards and scored 26 TDs. Corfield has rushed for 1,204 yards and scored 16 TDs. Almashy has rushed for 674 yards and 18 TDs while passing for 1,080 yards and 14 TDs.
Beaver Falls vs. Steel Valley
Obviously, as a No. 10 seed, Beaver Falls is the Cinderella story of the WPIAL playoffs this season. The Tigers may have finished fourth in the Midwestern Conference, but here they are in the WPIAL championship game for the fourth straight year. To get there, they had to upset seventh-seed Keystone Oaks, No. 2 Neshannock and No. 3 Washington.
Now they get top-seeded Steel Valley, which beat Beaver Falls in last year’s 2A final, 34-14.
The Tigers’ improbable run included last week’s 28-26 semifinal win over Washington in which the Little Prexies scored three defensive touchdowns, including interception returns of 100 and 70 yards, respectively.
But in this turnover-filled game – each team committed five turnovers – Beaver Falls took the lead for good after recovering a fumbled punt on Washington’s 4-yard line. BF running back Da’Talian Beauford scored on a 4-yard run to make it 26-26. Beauford then ran for the two-point conversion to account for the final score.
After the game, BF coach Nick Nardone told a sports reporter “You want to give a definition of never quit? Talk about the 2023 Beaver Falls Tigers because of everything that went wrong tonight. They could’ve quit and turned on each other. They never quit. They kept fighting.”
Now, Beaver Falls must take their never-say-die mindset into a game against a Steel Valley program that has won three WPIAL titles in the last seven years.
While the Tigers were beating Washington last week, the Ironman beat No. 5 seed Mohawk, 34-21.
In that game, running back Donald Barksdale, a sophomore, moved to quarterback in place of his brother Da’ron who was sidelined with an injury. Donald had a hand in four of Steel Valley’s five touchdowns.
He rushed for 266 rushing yards and two TDs on runs of 44 and 77 yards. He threw a 70-yard TD pass. And he returned an interception 44 yards for a touchdown.
Barksdale now leads the WPIAL in rushing yards with 1,976 yards. He also leads the WPIAL with 37 TDs scored. That 70-yard TD pass he threw against Mohawk was the first of his career.
Da’ron Barksdale, a junior, is a major college prospect as a defensive back. He has offers from Pitt, West Virginia, Akron, Syracuse, Temple and UNLV.
One of the keys to the game will be Beaver Falls’ ability to slow down Steel Valley’s running game. Remember, last year when Steel Valley beat BF in the championship game, the Ironmen rushed for 274 yards and only threw two passes which were both incomplete.
Both Beaver Falls and Steel Valley have won multiple WPIAL titles over the years. The Tigers have won five, most recently in 2020. The Ironmen have already won six WPIAL titles, most recently in 2016, 2018 and 2022.
Aliquippa vs. McKeesport
“We’re going home.”
That’s what Aliquippa coach Mike Warfield told his team last week after the Quips earned another trip to a WPIAL championship game with a 47-24 victory against Mars in the semifinal.
It will be the Quips’ 16th consecutive appearance in a WPIAL final. The last time Aliquippa didn’t advance to the WPIAL championship game was in 2007.
On Friday when the Quips try to win their third straight 4A title, they will be challenged by a formidable McKeesport squad that beat Montour, 28-14 last week.
The Tigers were led by Keith Spell, a 6-foot-2, 245-pound bruiser who plays running back and defensive end.
Offensively in McKeesport’s flexbone triple-option offense, Spell carried the ball 31 times for 171 yards and three touchdowns. Defensively, he sacked Montour dual-threat quarterback Jake Wolfe five times.
To put the defensive effort by Snell and his teammates in perspective, consider that Wolfe entered the game with 2,478 passing yards, an average of 225 a game. Consider that when Montour routed Thomas Jefferson, 51-21 in the quarterfinals, Wolfe threw five TD passes, all to wide receiver A.J. Alston.
But against McKeesport, Wolfe only threw for 185 and one TD. And was sacked six times in all.
Offensively, running back Anthony Boyd leads the Tigers with 1,313 rushing yards while Keith Spell now has 659. Also, Keith Spell’s younger brother, Kemon, who’s a freshman, rushed for 123 yards against Montour and scored on a 57-yard reserve.
Meanwhile, Aliquippa advanced with a 47-24 win over Mars in typical Quip fashion. It had three scoring plays of 73 yards or more and another on a 48-yard run.
Running back Tikey Hayes, a junior who’s a Penn State recruit, ran for 206 yards and scored on runs of 48 and 73 yards. Running back John Tracy caught a short pass and took it 78 yards for a TD. Arison Walker returned a kickoff 84 yards for a touchdown.
Hayes now ranks 17th on the WPIAL all-time rushing list with 5,371 yards. He needs 103 vs. McKeesport to set the school record of 5,474 set by 2014 grad Dravon Henry.
Aliquippa holds the WPIAL record for most football championships won with 19. McKeesport has won four WPIAL titles, the most recent in 2005.
Aliquippa’s record over the past three years is 37-2.
This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: WPIAL championship game scouting reports Rams, Tigers and Quips want to bring home WPIAL gold
