George Guido: Alle-Kiski Valley football teams could face tough road on playoffs

By: HSSN Staff
Tuesday, October 17, 2017 | 11:15 PM

Last season was the first time in 37 years no Alle-Kiski Valley football teams opened the playoffs at home.

It could happen again this season.

Freeport is the only local team that has a chance to open the playoffs on its home field. The Yellowjackets need to defeat Keystone Oaks at home Friday, then win Oct. 27 at Valley and finish the Allegheny Conference at 6-1.

And that might not be enough for Freeport to secure home field for the start of the WPIAL playoffs on Nov. 3.

To be sure, a win against Keystone Oaks clinches a playoff spot for the Yellowjackets. But a bunch of variables come into play as far as getting home field.

The way the playoffs are set up in Class 3A, only the conference winners are assured of playing at home for the first round.

The second-place team with the best record also gets to play at home.

If Freeport wins out, the Yellowjackets might be tied with Quaker Valley, 4-1 thus far in the Beaver County Conference. Derry and South Park also are 4-1, but Derry beat South Park head-to-head, the first tiebreaker.

Since Quaker Valley has only six conference games, the Quakers get to use their nonconference win against McGuffey for their seventh game, according to WPIAL criteria.

If three second-place teams are tied, the Gardner Point System comes into play. In brief, a school gets 100 points for each conference win and 10 points for each game a team it defeated wins.

If that doesn't decide home field, you go by point differential: giving a school up to 10 points for each win and minus up to 10 points for each loss.

Freeport is at plus-27, behind Quaker Valley and Derry, who are at plus-30.

Bottom line: If you're a Freeport fan, root for the Yellowjackets not only to win but also win by at least 10 points.

Using the ‘pooch'

Things spiraled out of control quickly for Blackhawk on Saturday night against Highlands.

By the time Logan Crise had intercepted a pass and gone 54 yards for a touchdown, the Golden Rams lead was 35-6 with 4 minutes, 48 seconds left in the first half.

It soon would get worse for Blackhawk.

The Highlands kickoff was pooched to the right side, beyond the up men playing at the 50.

Ryan Signorella raced to scoop up what was a free ball, and Highlands had possession at the Blackhawk 34.

Since onside kicks work only about 6 percent of the time, I always have wondered why teams don't try a pooch kick late in the game when the opposing team senses the onside kick and puts all their backs and receivers on the front line.

High school kickers rarely have the savvy to not only get an onside kick to go 10 yards, but to get the ball to bounce around and let their teammates capture it.

Also, the rules these days don't allow the kicking team to stack one side of the line in such situations.

Highlands took advantage of Signorella's alertness and scored a touchdown on the next play to give the Golden Rams a 42-6 lead.

Now, Highlands really has its work cut out, vising No. 1-ranked South Fayette on Friday.

The Golden Rams need wins against the Lions and Indiana next week and losses by Mars to Indiana and Knoch over the next two weeks.

Highlands also faces the 11th-most prolific passer in WPIAL history Friday — South Fayette's Drew Saxton.

Saxton, playing just one half Friday, threw for only 114 yards as the Lions pounded Indiana, 62-14. He has 6,337 career yards.

With Brady Walker of Gateway and Phil Jurkovec of Pine-Richland having more yardage Friday, Saxton dropped from ninth to 11th on the all-time WPIAL list.

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