The 2023 WPIAL football season is nearly upon us! Over the next few weeks we will be previewing all 17 conferences in preparation for kickoff on August 25. We are also thrilled to announce that the WPIAL Blitz Show will be back on the YouTube airwaves this season. Subscribe to the Sports Stream Premium channel with new shows dropping each Tuesday during the season!
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This will be the second season with an extremely tight playoff race in 5A. Due to the fact that the WPIAL 5A Champion enters the state bracket in the quarterfinals, only 8 WPIAL teams qualify for the playoffs. Only the top two teams in each conference are guaranteed a playoff spot with two of the three third place teams qualifying via a wild card. Last year, Franklin Regional won the conference after an early-season win over Gateway. The Gators qualified for the playoffs and defending State Champions Penn-Trafford also qualified, saving their season with a Week 9 win over Franklin Regional. Unfortunately, all three Big East teams were knocked out in the opening round of the playoffs. This is a deep conference that returns a lot of talent and strong contenders this season.
The five remaining teams in 6A were the five that reached the postseason last year, which should make for a tight race this year. One playoff spot has been eliminated as the top four teams will qualify for the postseason. The WPIAL Champion will enter the PIAA playoffs at the quarterfinal stage. Be sure to keep tabs on our WPIAL Standings Page throughout the season and follow our WPIAL Twitter account @WPIAL_Blitz. Teams are listed in their predicted order of finish.
Gateway
The Gators entered last season with high hopes but never quite reached those expectations. A regular season loss to Franklin Regional cost them the outright conference title and they fell to Upper St Clair in the opening round of the playoffs on a touchdown pass in the final moments of the game. Senior QB Brad Birch was one of the top passers in the WPIAL last season, throwing for 2018 yards and 19 TDs. He has had an offer from Oregon since after taking Jeannette to the State Championship Game as a freshman (before transferring to Gateway). Birch’s top two receivers graduated but he will have some familiarity in the backfield with leading rusher Jaquon Reyonlds (666 rushing yards, 262 receiving yards, 9 total TDs). Reynolds has a handful of offers from MAC schools. On the defensive side of the ball, LB Remy Bose and DB Steve Jenkins have offers from MAC and FCS schools. If Gateway can build a reliable receiving corps around Brad Birch, they certainly have the talent and pedigree at quarterback to contend for a title.
Penn-Trafford
A year after winning their first WPIAL and PIAA titles in school history, Penn-Trafford found themselves on the ropes. They needed a victory over conference champions Franklin Regional in the final week of the season just to make the playoffs. They eked out a hard-fought win in overtime but fell to eventual WPIAL Champions Pine-Richland in the playoffs. The Warriors graduated a ton of seniors and will look to a group of rising juniors to take the helm. Jonny Lovre attempted a handful of passes in backup duty and will likely take over the quarterback role. Third-leading receiver Carmen Metcalfe (248 yards, 3 TDs) and third-leading rusher Tasso Whipple (386 yards, 4 TDs) will both see much larger roles this season. Two-way lineman Zach Tomosovich has continued the strong Penn-Trafford tradition in the trenches and has committed to Army. There will likely be a learning curve for the juniors setpping in early in the season, but as we saw last year you should never count out John Ruane’s teams.
Plum
The Mustangs got off to a strong 3-1 start in 2022 but stumbled a bit mid-season before closing strong for a 5-5 finish. While Plum missed the playoffs for the first time in three years, they weren’t that far off from contention. They lost to conference champion Franklin Regional by 3 points and second-place Gateway by just two. While Plum was a run-heavy outfit last season, they may open up the offense more this season under the leadership of senior QB Sean Franzi. Last year Franzi presented a dual-threat option, throwing for 687 yards and 6 TDs and running for 268 yards and 3 scores. Joining Franzi in the backfield will be Nick Odom (336 yards, 7 TDs) who averaged 6.7 yards per carry as a backup last season. Leading receiver Darian Nelson (326 receiving yards, 163 rushing yards, 3 total TDs) and Jerome Brazell (150 yards, 2 TDs) also return to give Franzi reliable threats through the air. All in all, don’t be surprised if Plum is in the mix for a playoff spot again this season with the stretch between mid-September to mid-October deciding their fate.
Franklin Regional
The defending conference champs stumbled to the finish last year, losing the season finale to Penn-Trafford then being bounced by Woodland Hills in the opening round of the playoffs. The Panthers will need to break in a new quarterback this season, and the duty may fall to Chase Lemke who saw a handful of snaps as a backup last year. Leading receiver Ayden Hudock (957 yards, 15 TDs) returns to bolster the passing game. On the ground the top returning rusher is Kyle Dupill (164 yards, 2 TDs). Franklin Regional averaged 34 points per game last season and will need to keep up the offensive production to stay competitive in the conference.
Hempfield
The Spartans jumped out of the gate to a fast start and looked to be huge beneficiaries of the move down from 6A to 5A. They started the year with 5 straight wins, scoring 48 or 49 in the first four then topping defending State Champs Penn-Trafford. But as the calendar flipped to October, Hempfield lost their momentum and dropped four in a row. Their loss to Plum serving as the nail in the coffin for their playoff hopes. While their offense had looked unstoppable during their winning streak, Hempfield did not surpass 21 points in their losing skid and gave up 34+ in every outing. Most of their offensive starters graduated so the Spartans will be working in a new group of skill position players. Keiran Lippman saw a few snaps as the backup quarterback last season and threw one touchdown pass while also being used at receiver. He will take the helm of the offense this season. Look for Ethan Zontek and Aidan Stinebiser to be the key backs in the ground game. Zontek averaged about 6 yards per carry in limited work last season. Michael Bitar is the top returning receiver after finding the end zone once last year. With the way the 5A schedule is backloaded with conference games, Hempfield will need to carry their momentum from non-conference play into the meat of their schedule when they face Big East competition in October.
Norwin
The Knights are coming off a 1-win season where they averaged just 8 points per game, the lowest mark in 5A. Norwin had hoped that the move down from 6A to 5A could help them be more competitive but that did not come to fruition. This season the Knights will rely on dynamic receiver Jackson Pons (348 yards, 4 TDs), a Miami Ohio-commit, to help change the tide. Pons is certainly the star of the team and has the athleticism to score any time he touches the ball. Norwin will need to get better around him, starting with the play of sophomore QB Tristyn Tavares who threw for 463 yards and 4 TDs last season as a freshman. Leading rusher Luke Denny, who also scored 4 times last season, returns for his senior campaign. Norwin enters the year on a 7-game losing streak with all of the defeats coming by at least 25 points.
