Welcome to WPIAL Championship weekend! The title games kick off with the 1A Championship at 11:00am on Saturday, November 22 at Heinz FieldAcrisure Stadium. The 3A Championship Game is scheduled for 5:00pm but logistically will start about a half hour after the 2A game ends. Avonworth is the defending champions and playing in the Championship Game for the for the fourth straight season. On the other side, Imani Christian is in the title game for just the second time in school history. This is the second playoff meeting in two years for these teams after Avonworth beat Imani in the semis last year.
Check out this week’s edition of the WPIAL Blitz Show where we previewed all of this week’s Championship Games!
1. Avonworth (12-0) vs 2. Imani Christian (12-0)
How They Got Here
Both of these teams dominated the competition this season. Avonworth is the defending WPIAL Champions and lived up to that this season. In non-conference play, they topped eventual 4A Champion Aliquippa and the defending 4A Champions Thomas Jefferson. No team to score more than 10 points against the Lopes first-team defense this season. Quaker Valley and North Catholic got beyond 10 by scoring in the 4th quarter against the Lopes backups and Thomas Jefferson’s opening touchdown came on a kickoff return. Aliquippa was the only team to hold Avonworth’s offense under 34 points.
Imani Christian was the top seed in last year’s playoffs and went unbeaten in the regular season for the second straight year. The Saints have the top offense (48.5 points per game) and defense (7.2 points against per game) in 3A. Imani pitched 4 shutouts, including in last week’s semifinal against Central Valley. Their closest game was a Week 0 slugfest against 1A finalist Clairton that the Saints won 19-12. Before last week’s 48-0 victory over Central Valley where Imani ran for over 400 yards, the Saints had scored 53+ points in 5 straight games.
Recent History
Imani was the top seed in last year’s playoffs but was upset by Avonworth in the semifinals. The Lopes defense carried them in that meeting to a 14-6 victory. That victory catapulted Avonworth on to the WPIAL title and a run to the State Championship Game where they fell in overtime. Last year’s semifinal is the only playoff meeting between these two teams.
Interestingly, these two teams had six common opponents this season. Imani beat Beaver 41-3, North Catholic 36-16, Burrell 53-7, Freeport 53-7, Hopewell 59-21, and Central Valley 48-0. Against those teams, Avonworth beat Beaver 49-7, North Catholic 42-10 and 44-24 (in the semifinals last week), Burrell 35-7, Freeport 56-7, Hopewell 48-6, and Central Valley 34-6.
Championship Pedigree
Avonworth has been a district on the rise, both from a football standpoint and a population standpoint. The Lopes had been a Single-A team in the four class era and in 2014 made their first Championship Game appearance since 1959. They lost that game to Clairton and were placed in 2A at the outset of the six class era. Avonworth won the 2019 WPIAL title, defeating Washington, and reached the State finals before falling to Southern Columbia. Avonworth’s growing population moved them up to 3A the following year. This is their fourth straight trip to Heinz Field. The Lopes fell to eventual State Champions Belle Vernon in both 2022 and 2023. Last year, they defeated conference rivals Central Valley to win the third Championship in school history.
Imani Christian is making their second Championship Game appearance in school history. Imani opened in 1993 and has only 152 total students in the whole K-12 school. They first formed a football team in 2012 but were not able to field a team in the next few seasons before returning to the field in 2016. Imani made the playoffs for the first time in school history that season and made it to the 1A Championship Game (where they fell to Jeannette) in 2017). Imani opted to play up in 3A this cycle after spending the last few years in 2A.
Dramatis Personae
Avonworth’s balanced offense has been keyed by the play of QB Carson Bellinger (1934 yards, 25 TDs). In the playoffs, leading rusher RB Dimitri Velisaris (1449 yards, 24 TDs) has shouldered the load and kept the offense on schedule. In their quarterfinal blowout of Freeport, Velisaris ran for 111 yards and 4 TDs. He followed that up with a 125-yard 3 TD performance against North Catholic in the semifinals. Dynamic slot back Luca Neal is the team’s leading receiver (788 yards), third-leading rusher (413 yards), and second-leading scorer (18 total TDs). Neal found the end zone twice against North Catholic in the semifinals. Two underclassmen have emerged late in the season as key contributors for the Lopes offense. Sophomore WR Jaden Jones (672 yards, 8 TDs) has had a number of D1 visits lately including Ohio State and Florida State and had over 100 yards and a touchdown in the semifinals. Jones also leads the Lopes secondary with 4 INTs and 5 Passes Defended. Freshman RB Logan Krul (465 yards, 4 TDs) has averaged over 11 yards per carry. In the trenches, two-way lineman Peter Bonnet is a Navy-commit. On the defensive side of the ball, junior Bryce Metz (76 tackles, 9 TFLs) is Avonworth’s leader in the middle and will be key to slowing down Imani’s rushing attack. When the Saints take to the air, EDGE rushers Romello Harris-Blanchard (12 TFLs, 9 sacks) and Evan Loutzenhiser (11 TFLs, 7 sacks) will need to get pressure quickly.
For Imani, two former Penn State-commits who have re-opened their recruitment lead the way offensively. Junior QB Gabe Jenkins joined the 1000/1000 club this year with 1357 passing yards and 28 TDs plus 1357 rushing yards and 12 TDs. Jenkins’ backfield counterpart David Davis has 511 receiving yards, 659 rushing yards, and 15 total TDs. Davis committed last week to North Carolina and went out in the semifinals and ran for 243 yards and 3 TDs. Imani has a strong rushing attack between Jenkins, Davis, and the duo of freshman Tyvon Sewell (481 yards, 7 TDs) and Anthony Portis (481 yards, 7 TDs). On the outside, Robert Torres-Johnson (414 yards, 6 TDs) and sophomore Daniel Stevens (404 receiving yards, 275 rushing yards, 10 total TDs) have presented matchup problems for opposing secondaries. The Saints defense is loaded with D1 recruits including their dynamic duo of pass rushers – Youngstown State-commit Will Gorman (8.5 sacks, 12.5 TFLs) and junior Da’Juan Craighead (3 sacks, 6 TFLs, 2 INTs). Junior LB Maurice Williams led the team in tackles (100 tackles, 25 TFLs) and the aforementioned Torres-Johnson leads the Saints in INTs (5) while Davis has four. Junior Linebacker Maurice Williams is the Saints leading tackler (106 tackles, 27 TFLs). Craighead and Williams also have several D1 offers.
