5 things to watch in Week 1 of high school football

By: Chris Harlan
Friday, August 29, 2025 | 7:45 AM

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Three-time state champion Mike Warfield is back coaching Aliquippa after a one-year hiatus and ready for his first game in 20 months following a surprising decision last summer to step away.

What brought him back?

“I missed it,” Warfield said after a preseason practice at the school’s Heinz Field. “Not the wins, the losses, the championships. I missed the preparation. Trying to figure out how we can put these kids in the best position to win and be successful. That’s what I missed most.”

Aliquippa opens its season at 7 p.m. Friday with a nonconference game at Belle Vernon. The Quips are one of only seven WPIAL teams that didn’t play a Week Zero game.

The coaching staff Warfield won a state title with in 2023 remains largely intact, including longtime Aliquippa assistant Vashawn Patrick, who served as interim head coach last season.

Patrick is associate head coach as Warfield’s right-hand man.

“It’s like Batman and Robin,” Patrick said. “The dynamic duo is back together, things are running smoothly, and the kids are working hard.”

Warfield, a 1987 Aliquippa graduate and retired State Trooper, has had a terrific run at his alma mater. His record is 74-6 with four WPIAL titles and three state championships.

“It’s great being around the guys and being around the coaches,” Warfield said.

Senior quarterback Marques Council Jr. said Warfield’s return was a welcome lift for the team but said preseason practice still ran much the same as it did last summer.

“I wouldn’t say it’s different because coach Patrick is a great coach,” said Council, a Yale recruit. “But it’s his presence. You can definitely tell it was missed.”

Senior Qa’lil Goode agreed.

“It’s just his presence,” Goode said. “I feel we’re going to be way more disciplined than we were last year.”

Aliquippa’s record streak of consecutive appearances in the WPIAL finals ended at 16 years in a row last season. The Quips went 7-3 and lost to Thomas Jefferson in the WPIAL semifinals.

Warfield has stressed that the team falling short of the finals isn’t what brought him back this season. He also complimented Patrick’s performance last year as coach.

“He’s A-plus,” Warfield said. “He’s what the program needs for the future. He is the future of the program. There’s no doubt about that in my mind. We’ve got mutual respect for one another. The kids love him. I love what he does for the kids.”

Since returning, Warfield said he hasn’t talked with the team about winning another championship this year. In fact, he said since his staff took over in 2018, that’s never been an ultimatum or outspoken mission.

The Quips have won 20 WPIAL titles, the most in league history.

“All that I require is that we come every day and don’t waste a day,” Warfield said. “If we do that, things will take care of themselves. If they don’t, we can look back and say we gave it our best shot.”

Light up night

Saturday afternoon games are an old tradition at Western Beaver, but the Golden Beavers will start staying up late on Friday nights.

That’s because the school has added lights to Rich Niedbala Field.

Western Beaver will launch its inaugural season of night games Friday with a 7 p.m. kickoff against South Side. The school also planned a 6:30 p.m. ceremony featuring invited guests.

The field in Industry has served as the football team’s home for 63 years. It’s named after the late Niedbala, a longtime coach who won WPIAL titles in 1976, ’83 and ’94.

The school said the project was funded by a grant from the Pa. Department of Community & Economic Development.

Strader brothers’ big night

The Strader brothers, Oobi and Raion, both have football games on Friday night but they’re about 1,100 miles apart.

Aaron “Oobi” Strader will quarterback Pine-Richland against Central Catholic starting at 7:30 p.m. Older brother Raion will be playing cornerback for Auburn at Baylor in an 8 p.m. season opener.

“I’m sure wherever their dad ends up, he’s going to have the other game streaming,” Pine-Richland coach Jon LeDonne said.

Raion Strader played three seasons for LeDonne at Penn Hills. He later spent two years at Miami (Ohio), was named the 2024 MAC cornerback of the year and transferred to Auburn in December.

“He said, ‘I’m going to play at the level that wants me and show them what I can do early on,’” LeDonne said. “That’s the right way to use the portal.”

Younger brother Oobi is a junior quarterback with college offers from Akron, Central Michigan, Hampton, Kent State, Miami (Ohio), Sacramento State and Syracuse.

Fantastic four

Might the WPIAL’s four most-talented teams be playing one another on Friday night?

The biggest game on the schedule pairs Class 6A No. 1 Central Catholic and Class 5A No. 1 Pine-Richland. Their talented rosters are arguably the two best in the WPIAL entering Week 1.

The defending WPIAL champions play at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Carnegie Mellon.

But somewhat overshadowed might be a star-filled matchup between Class 5A No. 2 Peters Township and McKeesport, the top-ranked team in Class 4A. They meet at 7 p.m. Friday at McKeesport.

Both teams have Division I talent and both won big last week.

Peters Township quarterback Nolan DiLucia surpassed 6,000 career yards last week and now ranks 20th all-time among WPIAL passers. The Indians defeated Canon-McMillan, 42-14.

DiLucia is a Villanova commit, and Peters Township linebackers/tight ends Reston Lehman (Pitt) and Lucas Shanafelt (Stanford) are both Power 4 recruits.

McKeesport running back Kemon Spell, a Penn State-bound junior, scored five touchdowns including a 98-yard kickoff return in a 51-23 win over Delaware Valley. The Tigers also got two TDs from wide receiver Javien Robinson, a junior with Pitt and West Virginia among his college offers.

Winning streaks

The WPIAL’s longest active winning streak is only three games and belongs to Carmichaels.

No team from the WPIAL won a state football title last year — the first time that happened since 1992 — so every playoff qualifier ended the season with a loss. That gives the longest streak to the Mighty Mikes, who won their final three regular season games last year, tied for third in the Tri-County South but weren’t rewarded with a playoff spot.

They’ll try to extend their streak to four while hosting Sto-Rox in their season opener Friday.

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.