George Guido: A-K Valley playoff streak continues

By: HSSN Staff
Tuesday, October 30, 2018 | 11:27 PM

Two Alle-Kiski Valley teams qualified for the WPIAL playoffs.

Freeport clinched a Class 3A berth on Oct. 19, and Kiski Area slid in as the wild card from Class 5A, despite a loss to Armstrong.

There has been at least one local school in the playoffs each year since 1960, when the late Don Earley took his Washington Township team to the old Class B title game, knocking off Frazier.

Freeport, in the playoffs for an A-K record 28th time, will play Aliquippa at 7:30 p.m. Friday.

The game was moved from Aliquippa to Ambridge’s Mo Rubenstein Stadium because of poor conditions at the Quips’ Carl Aschman Stadium.

Popularly known as “The Pit,” Aliquippa’s field was selected by Trib Total Media as the toughest stadium to play in.

Aliquippa, in the playoffs for a record 42nd time, defeated Freeport, 36-14, in the 2015 Class 2A semifinals at Seneca Valley’s NexTier Stadium.

Kiski Area has an equally difficult task at Gateway in the 5A opener. The Cavaliers are in the playoffs for the 20th time and are looking for their first playoff win since 1990, when they defeated Armstrong Central.

Kiski Area lost to Gateway, 22-13, in the 1972 semifinals at Three Rivers Stadium.

There will be one game Friday night in the Alle-Kiski Valley.

Central Catholic will “host” Seneca Valley at 7:30 p.m. at Fox Chapel.

Leechburg breaks even

If there’s a feel-good story in this season of A-K blowouts, it’s the Leechburg Blue Devils finishing 5-5.

Leechburg defeated Springdale, 44-21, on Friday to earn five victories in a season for the first time since 1991.

Some figure hitting .500 isn’t much, but the Blue Devils have been under .500 each year from 1992 until now.

Leechburg won three of its final four games to hit the break-even mark.

Friday also marked the first time since 2000 the Blue Devils won three road games.

Four of the five teams Leechburg lost to are in the playoffs: Jeannette, Imani Christian, Clairton and Rochester.

After all that

West Greene survived a fourth coin flip Monday morning to break a three-way tie in the Class A Tri-County South Conference and earn home field for the first round of the playoffs.

But the Pioneers still won’t be able to play at home.

For the first time since 2002, the WPIAL needed to employ a coin flip to break a three-way stalemate.

All three teams — West Greene, Monessen and California — flipped “heads” on the first flip. The next two flips produced three “tails.” On the fourth flip, California was the odd team out.

Under WPIAL rules, the remaining two-way tie between West Greene and Monessen then reverted to head-to-head results. West Greene defeated Monessen, 24-6, in Week 4.

But after all that, West Greene had to give up home field because its natural grass field is in poor condition, particularly after the youth leagues used the field Saturday.

West Greene’s game with Rochester will be played Friday at Waynesburg High School.

Benedict semi-retires

After 54 seasons, Jack Benedict of WDAD radio in Indiana is retiring from high school sports broadcasting.

His last game was Friday as Indiana was blanked by Greensburg Salem, 17-0.

Benedict, however, will still be doing Indiana (Pa.) football games.

He got his radio start in Connellsville and has made his way to iconic status in Indiana County.

Benedict was honored with a ceremony and plaque at halftime of Friday’s game.

It was somewhat bittersweet since Benedict hoped to continue on at least one more week if Indiana had defeated Greensburg Salem and qualified for the WPIAL playoffs.

Six-classification sports can take its toll on teams, fans and broadcasters.

Recently, Benedict did an Indiana High School game at Laurel Highlands, outside of Uniontown, on a Friday night and had to be in Erie for an IUP game the following afternoon.

George Guido is a Valley News Dispatch scholastic sports correspondent. His column appears Wednesdays.