Familiar championship foes North Allegheny, Central Catholic won’t look beyond Friday

By: Chris Harlan
Friday, September 27, 2024 | 9:59 AM

Purchase Photo Options

Central Catholic and North Allegheny seem likely to meet twice this season, maybe with a rematch in the WPIAL finals.

They’ve met there the past two years.

So, does that potential rematch shape game plans for their regular-season game, leading teams to hide their best for later? Both coaches say no.

“We’re not really focused on anything but Friday and the next opportunity we get to play them,” Central Catholic coach Ryan Lehmeier said. “A big part of our program is staying focused on the process and not the outcomes. That would be out of character for what we preach to look any farther than Friday.”

North Allegheny coach Art Walker agreed. He said going away from your strengths, even for one week, can be counterproductive.

“You can overthink yourself and outsmart yourself and put your kids in a bad situation,” Walker said. “We’re at the midpoint of the season. We’ve got to continue to work to get better. Right now is about winning a conference game and improving.”

There is no trophy on the line but when No. 1 North Allegheny (5-0, 2-0) and No. 2 Central Catholic (3-2, 2-0) meet at 7 p.m. Friday at Baldwin, the top teams in WPIAL Class 6A say they’ll play like there is.

Their series has been evenly matched. In 14 games over the past decade, they’ve gone 7-7.

North Allegheny has won three of the last four games and the past two WPIAL finals over Central Catholic. But their lineups have changed in the past 10 months, including new starting quarterbacks for each team.

“There are definitely a lot of familiar faces that are gone,” Walker said. “That’s how it is in high school football. Your team is very different, year in and year out.”

A year ago, Central Catholic won 50-22 in the regular season and North Allegheny won 44-41 in the WPIAL finals.

“It’s a new year,” Lehmeier said. “Both teams lost guys. We’re a different team and so are they.”

North Allegheny is coming off a 36-14 conference win over Norwin last week. Sophomore quarterback Brady Brinkley rushed for a 53-yard touchdown and threw a 12-yarder to James Donaldson in the conference win.

The Tigers have used two quarterbacks this season, with junior Jackson Failla also taking snaps. Brinkley, who was featured more last week, has completed 27 of 46 passes for 352 yards and two touchdowns while adding 252 rushing yards and four scores. Failla has 255 yards on 16 of 36 passing and three touchdowns.

“It’s not really set in stone,” Walker said of their usage. “It’s one of those things we continue to work with. We know we have two guys if someone is struggling.”

North Allegheny running backs Luke Rohan and Liam Flaherty also rushed for touchdowns in last week’s win. Eight different players have scored at least once.

“We’re playing a lot of different guys at a lot of different spots,” Walker said. “I think we have more contributing than we did last season.”

Central Catholic is coming off a 42-0 win over Hempfield last week. Penn State-bound senior Xxavier Thomas scored three times, on passes of 28 and 53 yards and an 83-yard punt return. Nittany Lions coach James Franklin was on the sideline to watch Thomas, who plays wide receiver, defensive back and kick returner.

“He’s a pretty electric guy,” Lehmeier said. “He does a lot of things really well. We’re going to put him in the best positions that we can to have success on all three ends of the ball.”

First-year starting quarterback Jy’Aire Walls passed for 156 yards and three touchdowns in last week’s win. The senior has thrown for nine touchdowns and rushed for five more.

The Vikings have won three in a row since starting 0-2.

“There was a lot of experience that walked out of our locker room last year,” Lehmeier said. “The only way for the young guys to grow is to go through some adversity. They’ve been challenged every week.”

If Central Catholic and North Allegheny do rematch later in the season, recent history strangely favors the team that loses Friday. Four times they’ve rematched since 2014, and three times the team that lost in the regular season won in the playoffs.

“I’m sure that whoever wins this one,” Walker said, “would like to change that statistic.”

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: Central Catholic, North Allegheny