WPIAL Streaks Entering 2025

The 2024 WPIAL football season is just days away from kicking off. You can check out all of our conference previews here and WPIAL Blitz Season Preview on YouTube. While last year was the first time since 1992 that the WPIAL did not win a state championship so no teams carry an overall winning streak into this season, there are plenty of other impressive streaks still alive. The most impressive streak is Aliquippa and Thomas Jefferson who have both reached the playoffs in 30 straight years. Aliquippa’s incredible run of 16 straight championship game appearances came to an end last year when the Quips lost to Thomas Jefferson in the semifinals.

Here’s a look at the current streaks for WPIAL teams entering 2025 – both the good and the bad of wins, losses, playoff streaks, and playoff droughts. Of note, due to the COVID pandemic there were a number of games cancelled in 2020 and 2021. We are only counting games actually played towards these streaks.

Wins

We start by looking at the teams that ended the 2024 season on a high note and are carrying winning streaks into 2025. There were only two WPIAL teams that claimed State titles, so this list is rather short.

Overall Wins

1t. West Mifflin – 3
1t. Carmichaels – 3

The WPIAL did not claim any state titles last season, so none of the playoff teams carry winning streaks into this season. The only non-playoff teams to win more than one game at the end of the regular season were West Mifflin and Carmichaels, who both won their final three outings. Both missed out on the Wild Card and enter this year carrying the longest winning streaks in the WPIAL. However, if you don’t count the teams that fell in the State playoffs….

WPIAL Wins

1. Fort Cherry – 28
2. Thomas Jefferson – 13*
3. South Park – 11
4. Central Catholic – 10
5t. Pine-Richland – 4
5t. Avonworth – 4

Fort Cherry is the two-time defending WPIAL 1A Champions. The Rangers went undefeated the last two seasons, putting their winning streak over WPIAL competition at 28 games. Fort Cherry’s last loss to a WPIAL opponent was in the 2022 playoffs when they lost to Rochester in the quarterfinals. Thomas Jefferson went undefeated in their run to the WPIAL 4A title, a run which included a forfeit by Ringgold. South Park lost their Week 1 non-conference game to 3A Deer Lakes before running through the 2A competition en route to their first WPIAL title in two decades. Central Catholic lost their first two games of last season, to St. Frances Academy and Pine-Richland, then rattled off 10 straight victories to win the WPIAL title. Pine-Richland, the defending 5A Champions, lost to 6A rivals North Allegheny in Week 8 after beating Central Catholic earlier in the season. Avonworth lost to Beaver in Week 9 by 20 points which dropped the Lopes to the 5 seed in the playoffs before their run to the WPIAL title (which included a 20-point reversal of fortunes win over Beaver).

Conference Wins (Regular Season Only)

1. Neshannock – 18
2. Fort Cherry – 17
3. Clairton – 16
4. Central Catholic – 12
5t. McKeesport – 11
5t. Imani Christian – 11
7. Pine-Richland – 9
8t. Ellwood City – 8
8t. Jeffferson-Morgan – 8
10. Upper St Clair – 7
11t. Woodland Hills – 6
11t. South Park – 6
11t. Seton LaSalle – 6
14t. Thomas Jefferson – 5
14t. Elizabeth Forward – 5

The 2020 season saw South Fayette’s incredible 64-game conference winning streak come to an end in Week 3 against Peters Twp, which remains the longest conference winning streak in WPIAL history. Last year was a season of streaks being snapped. Aliquippa’s WPIAL-leading 27-game streak came to an end with a 1-point loss to Montour in Week 8. The Quips last conference loss had been in 2019 against Central Valley before the Quips were forced up to 4A. Belle Vernon and Steel Valley both lost a conference game for the first time since 2020.

Neshannock‘s moved down from 2A to 1A and now carries the longest conference winning streak with their last conference loss coming against Beaver Falls in 2022. Of the 15 conference champions that ran the table in section play, only three of them were also undefeated conference champions in 2023. The three longest conference winning streaks now all reside in 1A with Fort Cherry and Clairton joining Neshannock. Central Catholic‘s run also stretches back to 2022 while McKeesport‘s last conference loss came in Week 9 of 2022 and the Tigers have gone unbeaten the last two seasons. Outside of those five, Imani Christian‘s last conference loss came to Steel Valley in September of 2023. Impressively, the Saints were able to keep their streak rolling with the step up in class to 3A last season. Pine-Richland‘s streak also stretches back to September of 2023 when they lost the Jon LeDonne Bowl to Penn Hills.

Losses

On the flip side, there are a number of schools that are carrying lengthy losing streaks into 2024 and have not tasted victory in some time.

Total Losses

1. Baldwin – 19
2. Springdale – 16
3. Valley – 15
4. Beaver Falls – 11
5t. McGuffey – 10
5t. Sto-Rox – 10

While several long winning streaks came to an end last season, teams on the flip side also saw their lengthy droughts extinguished. New Brighton was the first to snap their streak with a Week 0 win over Shenango where the Lions scored a safety then returned the ensuing free kick for a touchdown to win 9-7. Summit Academy also tasted victory in Week 0 with a win over Frazier. Week 1 saw Fox Chapel ending a 22-game losing streak with a thrashing of Baldwin. After an overtime loss to Indiana in Week 1, Ringgold ended the longest active winning streak in the WPIAL at 27 games when they defeated Yough. Overall, the WPIAL did a good job with scheduling this cycle to give struggling teams an easier non-conference slate, providing opportunities to get off the schnide.

The longest losing streak in the WPIAL is now held by Baldwin whose last win came against City League Brashear in the Route 51 Rivalry Game in Week 0 of 2023. In fact, Baldwin’s last two victories were both over Brashear. The Highlanders last win over a WPIAL opponent was in Week 6 of 2021 when they beat Hempfield. Springdale is coming off one of the worst statistical seasons in WPIAL history where they gave up over 50 points per game and scored just 19 points the whole season. Valley‘s last win also came over a non-WPIAL opponent, a victory over independent Uniontown in Week 4 of 2023. Valley did beat Apollo-Ridge in Week 1 of that season. The biggest fall-off last season was Beaver Falls who went from winning the 2023 WPIAL title to a winless 2024 campaign. Like Beaver Falls, McGuffey was a playoff team in 2A in 2023, but the Highlanders struggled with their move up to 3A in 2024.

Conference Losses

1. Summit Academy – 24
2. Springdale – 19
3t. Baldwin – 18
3t. Fox Chapel – 18
3t. Valley – 18
6. Indiana – 14
7t. Armstrong – 9
7t. Mapletown – 9
9. Beaver Falls – 8
10t. McGuffey – 7
10t. Burgettstown – 7
12t. Norwin – 6
12t. Sto-Rox – 6
14. Derry – 5

The longest conference losing streak in the WPIAL came to an end in Week 9 last year when Ringgold defeated Chartiers Valley. The Rams had not won a conference game on the field in 43 outings, dating back to 2018 (their 2019 on-field loss to West Mifflin was retroactively changed to a forfeit victory). Summit Academy (who did not play in 2020) has not won a conference game since 2019. It is worth noting that four teams currently playing independent schedules (Uniontown, Albert Gallatin, Brownsville, and Butler) left the WPIAL with long conference losing streaks still in tact. Uniontown lost their last 26 conference games, Butler lost their last 18, Brownsville lost their last 14, and Albert Gallatin lost their last 8 games. Springdale surpassed Baldwin, Fox Chapel, and Valley in conference losses last season due to playing more conference games. Indiana has not won a conference game in over two seasons, dating back to Week 5 of 2022. Overall, 14 teams went winless in conference play in 2024.

Playoffs

The first section covered streaks relating to single games. Now, we look at the broader picture of season-by-season streaks. There are 10 teams that reached the postseason in every year of the last decade. Only four teams did not make a playoff appearance in the last decade. With the smaller playoff fields in 2020 due to the COVID-shortened season, four teams saw their decade-plus playoff streaks snapped. Bethel Park’s streak ended at 19 years, Franklin Regional at 16 years, Avonworth at 12 years, and West Mifflin at 10 years. It is worth noting that if 2020 had a normal playoff structure, Bethel Park and West Mifflin still would have seen their streaks end.

Championship Game Appearances

1. Central Catholic – 6
2t. North Allegheny, Pine-Richland, Avonworth – 3
5t. Peters Twp, McKeesport, Fort Cherry – 2
8t. Thomas Jefferson, Central Valley, South Park, Seton LaSalle, Clairton – 1

Arguably one of the most impressive streaks in WPIAL history was Aliquippa‘s run of 16 consecutive trips to Heinz Field/Acrisure Stadium. That run came to an end last season when the Quips lost to Thomas Jefferson in the semifinals. The streak was all the more impressive considering Aliquippa is a 1A-sized school that played in AA until the 2016 realignment when they opted to play in 3A, then were forced up into 4A in 2020. That was the first time Aliquippa did not appear in a WPIAL title game since 2007 when they lost in the semifinals to a Jeannette team led by Terrelle Pryor. Last year was also the first time Beaver Falls did not appear in the Championship Game since moving down to 2A in 2020.

Central Catholic has reached 6 straight WPIAL finals and broke through to claim the title after falling short the prior three seasons. This was the third straight year that Central faced off with North Allegheny in the Championship Game. Speaking of rematches, Pine-Richland and Peters Twp have faced off in the last two 5A title games.

Playoff Qualification Streaks

1t. Aliquippa – 30
1t. Thomas Jefferson – 30
3. McKeesport – 27
4. Central Catholic – 22
5. North Allegheny – 21
6. Clairton – 19
7. Belle Vernon – 16
8. Washington – 14
9. Pine-Richland– 12
10. Mt. Lebanon – 11

In 2019, Woodland Hills missed the playoffs for the first time since 1995, breaking a 23-year streak. The prior year, 1994, was the last time Aliquippa and Thomas Jefferson missed the postseason. Both of their streaks sit at an impressive 30 straight seasons entering 2025. Upper St Clair also saw a 23-year playoff streak come to an end in 2023 in controversial fashion. The Panthers went 8-2 overall but due to conference tiebreakers and a limited 5A playoff field, finished 4th in their conference. Despite having better records and tiebreaker points than third-place finishers from other sections, they were not eligible for the postseason as a 4th place finisher. The WPIAL amended their Wild Card rules heading into 2024 as a result of this, and a similar situation that happened to Beaver in 2016. McKeesport is the only other program to have made the playoffs every year this century, with their streak dating to 1998. The Wild Card proved beneficial for a few teams on this list as both Belle Vernon and Washington got into the playoffs via a wild card selection. California is the only other school (beyond those appearing on the list) that has reached the playoffs in all nine years of the six-classification alignment. East Allegheny, Gateway, and Serra Catholic all missed the playoffs for the first time in the six class era.

Postseason Appearance Droughts

Brownsville – 21*
Albert Gallatin – 13*
1. Hopewell – 12
2t. Valley – 11
2t. Yough – 11
Uniontown – 10*
Connellsville – 9*
4t. Hempfield – 8
4t. Ringgold – 8
4t. Northgate – 8
4t. Riverview – 8

The 2019 season was an historic year as Southmoreland snapped their 40-year playoff drought and qualified for the postseason for the first time since 1979. The Scotties made it back to the playoffs five times in the last six years. The 2021 season was also historic for Leechburg as the Blue Devils snapped a 32-year playoff drought that stretched back to 1988. Leechburg is now on a 4-year playoff run. Ellwood City saw their 11-year playoff drought end in 2023, along with Jefferson-Morgan‘s 10-year drought. Knoch and Waynesburg both made the playoffs for the first time since 2014. Carlynton snapped a 22-year postseason drought last year, making the playoffs for the first time since 2001. Bentworth also snapped an 8-year playoff drought, making the postseason for the first time in the six classification era.

The longest drought belongs to Brownsville who have not made the playoffs since 2000, but the Falcons moved to playing an independent schedule in 2022 and are not eligible for the WPIAL playoffs. For purposes of our records, that puts their 21-year streak on hold since they are not eligible for the playoffs. Other schools with streaks “on hold” due to playing independent schedules include Albert Gallatin (independent since 2019), Uniontown (independent since 2020), and Connellsville (who just went independent last year).

Therefore, Hopewell, whose last appearance came in 2012, tops this list. The Vikings lost a Week 9 Casket Match with North Catholic last year that likely would have earned them a Wild Card. Three active WPIAL teams have yet to make a playoff appearance during the six-classification era. In addition to the aforementioned Hopewell, Valley and Yough last qualified for the playoffs in 2013. Interestingly all three of those teams will be in 3A this cycle.

Playoff Victory Droughts

The recent years of the six classification era have been great for teams claiming historic playoff victories. In 2021 Laurel Highlands and Armstrong won their first playoff games in school history. Mapletown and Ligonier Valley crossed their names off the list in 2022 with the Maples winning for the first time in 9 tries. Ligonier Valley, which rejoined the WPIAL in 2020 after winning multiple District 6 titles, had never won a WPIAL playoff game until 2022. Last season, two of the three teams to have never won a playoff game squared off in a first round matchup. Deer Lakes defeated Southmoreland in resounding fashion 48-18 to win the first playoff game in Lancers history. That was just the fourth playoff appearance in Deer Lakes’ history.

Southmoreland has made the playoffs in 5 of the last 6 years after snapping a 40-year playoff drought but has lost all of their postseason appearances. Summit Academy, the school for adjudicated youth, is also 0-2 in the playoffs all-time.

There are 26 other schools that have not won a playoff game in over a decade. In addition to snapping their 32-year playoff drought, in 2021 Leechburg won their first playoff game since 1978, ending a 42-year drought which was the third-longest in the WPIAL. Latrobe ended the second-longest drought (53 years) with their overtime victory over Highlands in 2022 and won another playoff game last season. The 2023 playoffs saw Trinity (0-5 since 2007) and Western Beaver (0-7 since 2008) both end decade-plus skids in the postseason. Last year South Allegheny won a playoff game for the first time since 1986 (a 37-year drought). The teams that have gone at least a decade without a playoff victory are listed in the table below:

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