WPIAL Class 6A final notebook: Pine-Richland has won titles in 4 classifications

By: HSSN Staff
Sunday, November 18, 2018 | 12:33 AM

Saturday marked the sixth WPIAL title for Pine-Richland, the only school to win titles in four different classifications.

The Rams, who defeated Seneca Valley, 34-7, won back-to-back titles in 1969 and ’70 in Class 2A, took Class 3A in 2003, 4A in 2014 and 6A last season.

Pine-Richland is now 27-12 all-time in WPIAL playoff games.

Drought continues

It was another tough day for Butler County teams with the Seneca Valley loss.

The Raiders’ loss Saturday means that no Butler County school has won a WPIAL football title since Knoch in 1978.

It was also the third time Seneca Valley has made the WPIAL finals.

The Raiders lost to Aliquippa in 1989 and to Central Catholic two years ago.

The school was formed by way of a merger between Evans City and Zelienople high schools in 1964.

The former Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic High School won the 2013 title, the last year the school was located in Pittsburgh’s Troy Hill section.

Spencer stars

Rams quarterback Cole Spencer ran for a pair of touchdowns and threw for two more.

The sophomore now has 1,342 passing yards on the season and 13 touchdowns.

Attendance up slightly

WPIAL executive director Tim O’Malley estimated the crowd to be around 12,000 for Saturday’s four games. That’s slightly up from last year.

All four games were on live television.

Coming up

Pine-Richland will be in action either next Friday or Saturday in the PIAA quarterfinals.

The Rams will play the winner of Sunday afternoon’s game in Danville between State College and Delaware Valley. Last year, State College defeated Delaware Valley, a school located in the Pike County area in PIAA District 2.

The game is tentatively scheduled for the Altoona area.

Scoring summary

Pine-Richland 34, Seneca Valley 7

Score by quarters

Pine-Richland 0-7-20-7 34

Seneca Valley 0-0-0-7 7

How they scored

P-R: Luke Miller 29 pass from Cole Spencer (Mason Pruhs kick)

P-R: Spencer 16 run (Zach Waryanka kick)

P-R: Spencer 3 run (Waryanka kick)

P-R: Shane Cafardi 50 pass from Spencer (kick failed)

SV: Luke Smith 7 pass from Gabe Lawson (Seth Winters kick)

P-R: Caden Schweiger 56 interception return (Waryanka kick)

Team statistics

Pine-Richland Seneca Valley

First downs 18 8

Rushes-Yards 42-233 31-48

Passing yards 158 162

Passing Att-Comp-Int 18-11-0 24-9-3

Total offense Plays-yards 60-391 55-210

Punts (number-avg.) 4-38.5 5-24.2

Fumbles-lost 2-1 2-2

Penalties-yards 6-49 6-47

Possession time 23:18 24:42

Individual statistics

Rushing: P-R: Luke Meckler 13-115, Cole Spencer 22-95, Anthony Cerminara 4-21, Connor Kirby 3-2; SV: Jake Mineweaser 15-38, Matt Stanger 5-31, Evan Smith 2-5, Matthew Hughes 1-minus 2, Gabe Lawson 8-minus 24

Passing: P-R: Spencer 11-18-158-0INT-2TD; SV: Lawson 9-24-162-3INT-1TD

Receiving: P-R: Shane Cafardi 3-62, Luke Miller 3-52, Eli Jochem 3-21, Cerminara 1-4, Meckler 1-9; SV: Mineweaser 3-66, Jake Stebbins 3-39, Luke Smith 2-8, Josh McLean 1-49.

George Guido is a freelance writer.

Tags: Pine-Richland, Seneca Valley