WPIAL Football Plays of the Week – Week Eight

By: Bruce Markey
Tuesday, October 23, 2012 | 4:31 PM

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A defensive thriller between two of Class AAA’s best teams and big wins for two of the WPIAL’s long-suffering teams are the highlights of this week’s Plays of the Week. At the end of play Saturday, there will still 14 playoff games up for grabs heading into Week 9.

#1:  West Allegheny Indians 5 – Montour Spartans 3

West Allegheny scored a big win at Montour Friday night, causing a clog in the WPIAL AAA baseball standings. Wait, no. It’s the football standings. In a defensive battle, the Indians came up large, knocking off the top-seeded Spartans, 5-3. The deciding points were a 3-run home run… no, wait… a 22-yard field goal off the boot of Evan Pelchar with under a minute to play. The win pushes the Parkway Conference to a possible three-way tie between Central Valley, West Allegheny and Montour. More impressively was the West Allegheny defense, which held a Montour offense that came in averaging 39 points per game to a season low, three.  

#2:  Valley Vikings 20 – Kittanning Wildcats 17

In Week 1, the Valley Vikings broke a 22-game losing streak by beating Deer Lakes. They took the next step Friday night, knocking off Kittanning 20-17 and, in the process, clinching a playoff spot for the first time since 2008. In a back and forth thriller in New Kensington, the Vikings would move to 6-2 on the season. Trailing 17-14 with under a minute to play, Valley would drive down the field, with running backs Jaden Walker and Demetrius Houser leading the way. But it would be sophomore Quarterback Dan Farinelli who would make the biggest play of them all, in only the second start of his high school career. Farinelli, who replaced starter Ty Matthews (appendix), threw a game winning, 10-yard touchdown pass to Chaz Cheatham on his only passing attempt of the second half. A late field goal attempt to tie the game would fail, preserving the Valley win.

#3: Wilkinsburg Tigers 15 – Avonworth Antelopes 14

It isn’t often that Wilkinsburg football team gets love because, well, it isn’t often that they win. Wilkinsburg, who has been much improved this season, pulled off their biggest win in years, beating Avonworth 15-14 on Saturday afternoon. After Ryan Cox hit Marelle Turner for a 15-yard touchdown with just over five minutes to play, Wilkinsburg decided to go for the lead with a two-point conversion. Malik Trent would run the conversion in and the Tigers would hold on for the upset. The loss is a tough one for Avonworth, who has a big Week 9 showdown with Northgate for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. If Wilkinsburg can defeat OLSH next week, it will be their first season with at least 3 wins since 2003.

Tags: Avonworth, Kittanning, Valley, West Allegheny, Wilkinsburg