5 things we learned in Week 11 of the WPIAL football season: Semifinals feature new blood

By: Chris Harlan
Saturday, November 11, 2023 | 9:18 PM

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Some teams are penciled into the semifinals before the WPIAL playoffs even start. Aliquippa, after winning Friday, will make its 17th straight appearance in the final four.

But, this year, have an eraser handy for some other regulars.

A couple of teams with semifinal streaks lost Friday night in the quarterfinals, leaving Thomas Jefferson and Central Valley on the outside looking in. On the other hand, East Allegheny, Fort Cherry and Mohawk are entering unfamiliar territory after winning their games Friday.

East Allegheny hadn’t reached the semifinals since 1992, when the Wildcats won a WPIAL title. Fort Cherry last was a semifinalist in 2001. Mohawk had never been there.

“I’m super proud of where our program is,” said East Allegheny coach Dom Pecora, now in his 11th season. “Eight years in a row in the playoffs, and we’ve been in the quarterfinals in five of them. But I thought we were maybe stuck there. … Everything just broke right this year.”

Where a team is seeded in the bracket determined a lot. In each of the past three seasons, East Allegheny lost in the WPIAL quarterfinals to an opponent that eventually won the state title. This time, as the No. 4 seed, East Allegheny entered Friday as the favorite in a 28-21 victory over South Park.

More surprising is who won’t be taking part in the semifinals.

Thomas Jefferson was almost as consistent at reaching the final four as Aliquippa, but the Jaguars’ streak has ended at 11 years in a row. They had reached the semifinals or beyond in 24 of the past 25 seasons before losing to Montour, 51-21, on Friday.

Central Valley’s streak wasn’t nearly that long, but the Warriors had reached at least the semifinals four seasons in a row and 10 times in 13 years.

Central Valley lost to Mars, 24-14, in a quarterfinal Friday. The semifinal appearance is the first for Mars since 2015.

An Ironman challenge

Steel Valley’s Donald Barksdale used a heating pad, got treatment from an athletic trainer and took an ice bath. That’s how you recover a day after carrying the ball 41 times for 250 yards, like Barksdale did.

“I went up to the Duquesne University game for the conference championship and, boy, I could barely walk,” Barksdale said with a laugh.

But the junior quickly added that he gladly would have handled more carries if that’s what Steel Valley needed. His workload led the top-seeded Ironmen to a 21-18 victory over Western Beaver in a Class 2A quarterfinal.

He said he also was fighting off an illness last week. Nonetheless, the 5-foot-10, 170-pounder is closing in on a 2,000-yard season. He entered the week as the WPIAL scoring leader with 32 touchdowns and reached the end zone twice more Friday.

“I could’ve got to 60 (carries),” Barksdale said. “My body was cool all night, until this morning.”

Barksdale was expected to share carries this year with younger brother Da’Ron, who was the team’s quarterback. But Da’Ron was lost to injury early in the season, and Donald’s responsibilities grew.

Steel Valley, which is trying to win a second straight WPIAL title, has had a number of standout rushers. Cruce Brookins led last year’s team, Nijhay Burt starred in 2021 and Barksdale said he learned from both.

“I got to play with two of the greatest players in Steel Valley history,” he said. “They showed me a lot in my three years. This year I just put them all together.”

Few underdog stories

If you’re looking for a true Cinderella story in the WPIAL playoffs, Beaver Falls is maybe the only candidate. The Tigers — seeded 10th in Class 2A — were the highest seed to win Friday.

In fact, 18 of the 20 winning teams were seeded fourth or better. No. 5 Mohawk also won in 2A.

Elsewhere, it’s almost all chalk. The top four seeds remain in Class A, 3A and 4A. The Class 6A championship matches No. 1 vs. No. 2. The Class 5A final contains seeds one and three.

Beaver Falls (7-5) reached the semifinals by upsetting No. 2 Neshannock, 14-13, on Friday. They also met in the regular season, and Neshannock won in overtime.

Reviewing the rematches

Speaking of rematches, there were 10 on the schedule for Friday. The teams that won the regular-season matchup went 7-3 in the rematches.

The only teams that got revenge this week were Beaver Falls, Pine-Richland and East Allegheny.

A good bye

The question is often asked: Is a first-round bye a benefit or not?

This year, it was clearly an advantage for the teams who had a week off. The eight teams that earned a first-round bye went 7-1 on 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.