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Friday, November 7, 2025 | 7:00 AM
Christopher Horner | TribLive
McKeesport’s Avont Hudson grabs the facemask of Thomas Jefferson’s Tyler Eber during their Sept. 5 game at McKeesport.
Pine-Richland coach Jon LeDonne is already familiar with the Rams’ next opponent and not just because he spent three seasons as Shaler’s coach.
The two teams played one another only two weeks ago in the regular-season finale. This time, they’ll meet in a WPIAL Class 5A quarterfinal at 7 p.m. Friday at Pine-Richland. Shaler played Kiski Area last week in its playoff opener. But for Pine-Richland, which had a first-round bye, this will be back-to-back games vs. Shaler.
It’s an odd quirk, but the Rams had no complaints about how the WPIAL paired the bracket.
“I think they got it right,” LeDonne said.
Besides, Pine-Richland and Shaler aren’t unique this week. Seven of the eight playoff games in Class 4A, 5A and 6A are rematches from the regular season.
Two other games are also Week 9 rematches.
In Class 6A, Central Catholic faces Canon-McMillan for the second time in three weeks, while Class 5A teams Bethel Park and Peters Township will replay their regular-season finale.
Elsewhere in Class 5A, Penn-Trafford hosts Moon in a rematch from Week 2. In the 6A semifinals, North Allegheny and Norwin last met in Week 4. Class 4A semifinalists New Castle and Aliquippa played in Week 5, while Thomas Jefferson and McKeesport faced off in Week 2.
Four of the matchups were close the first time around as North Allegheny won 20-17; Penn-Trafford won 25-24; Thomas Jefferson won 16-7; and New Castle won 18-12. In the others, Central Catholic won 45-10; Peters Township won 35-0; and Pine-Richland won 49-17.
Eighth-seeded Shaler (4-7) earned its rematch against No. 1 Pine-Richland (9-1) by winning a playoff game for the first time since 2009. The Titans under ninth-year coach Jim Ryan defeated Kiski Area, 28-8, in last week’s first round.
Ryan was hired as Shaler’s coach in 2017 to replace LeDonne, who’d left for Penn Hills.
Shaler went 2-27 under LeDonne, but the coach said he still holds an appreciation for the program that’ll be on the sideline opposite Pine-Richland on Friday.
“A lot of these kids playing (varsity football) now were in youth ball when I was there, so I had some engagement with them,” LeDonne said. “I have great relationships with the families.”
In fact, his former quarterback at Shaler, Justin Aversa, is now an assistant on his Pine-Richland coaching staff. And Justin Aversa’s younger brother Aaron is Shaler’s current QB.
“Shaler gave me my high school coaching start,” said LeDonne, who since won three WPIAL titles and two state championships. “That was a tough three years, but we like to think we accomplished a lot there. The year we left we had numerous baseball players and other athletes coming out for football, which we didn’t have the first few years. I think we helped take some steps in the right direction.”
Showdown on the scoreboard
Elizabeth Forward and North Catholic combined for 87 points when they met in a quarterfinal a year ago.
Maybe they’ll score 90 this season?
That’s a possible since they have two of the highest-scoring offenses in WPIAL Class 3A. North Catholic averages 45 points per game while Elizabeth Forward is averaging only slightly less at 44.7.
Each offense is led this year by a quarterback who ranks among the WPIAL’s top 10 passers. North Catholic’s Joey Felitsky has a WPIAL-best 2,870 yards while EF’s Ryan Messina has thrown for 1,951 yards. Felitsky has 39 passing touchdowns. Messina has rushed or passed for 33 TDs.
No. 4 Elizabeth Forward (9-1) hosts No. 5 North Catholic (8-3) at 7 p.m. Friday. A year ago, Elizabeth Forward won this matchup, 45-42.
The only WPIAL Class 3A offense averaging more points per game is Imani Christian (47.6).
Semisweet semifinals
Thomas Jefferson is certainly no stranger to the WPIAL semifinals.
Since Bill Cherpak was hired as TJ’s coach in 1995, the team qualified for the playoffs all 31 years and reached at least the semifinals 27 times. The Jaguars got there again this season and will play McKeesport at 7 p.m. Friday at Chartiers Valley.
Cherpak’s career record in semifinals is 13-14. That includes a win last season over Aliquippa when Thomas Jefferson snapped the Quips’ record 16-year streak of reaching the WPIAL finals with a 38-21 semifinal victory.
The four times TJ fell short of reaching the semifinals were after a first-round loss in 1995 and quarterfinal losses in 1997, 2011 and ‘23.
Playoff teams prefer to pass
WPIAL tradition says teams with a strong running game are built for winning in the playoffs, but maybe that isn’t quite as absolute nowadays.
Only five teams with a rusher ranked among the top 10 in yards remain alive in the playoffs: Frazier (Derek Diamond), Thomas Jefferson (Tyler Eber), Highlands (Tevin Owen-Cratsenberg), Steel Valley (Da’Ron Barksdale) and Bethel Park (David Dennison).
Meanwhile, eight of the top 10 passers are on teams that are still playing Friday night.
The top quarterbacks list includes North Catholic’s Joey Felitsky, Upper St. Clair’s Ethan Hellmann, Peters Township’s Nolan DiLucia, Hopewell’s James Armstrong, Bethel Park’s Evan Devine, Pine-Richland Aaron “Oobi” Strader and Elizabeth Forward’s Ryan Messina.
More historic matchups
The WPIAL playoff schedule includes a couple of matchups with teams that know how to win.
Four of the five programs with the most victories in league history — all with more than 700 victories — are paired off in two games Friday.
That includes a Class 4A semifinal pitting WPIAL wins leader Aliquippa (797) against New Castle (769), the team with the third-most victories in league history. But also Jeannette (794), with the second-most wins, has a Class A quarterfinal against Clairton (748), which ranks fifth all-time.
Combined, the four programs also have won 55 WPIAL titles.
Chris Harlan is a TribLive reporter covering sports. He joined the Trib in 2009 after seven years as a reporter at the Beaver County Times. He can be reached at charlan@triblive.com.
Tags: Aliquippa, Bethel Park, Canon-McMillan, Central Catholic, Clairton, Elizabeth Forward, Frazier, Highlands, Hopewell, Jeannette, McKeesport, Moon, New Castle, North Allegheny, North Catholic, Norwin, Penn-Trafford, Peters Township, Pine-Richland, Shaler, Steel Valley, Thomas Jefferson, Upper St. Clair
