We kick-off the “Highway To Heinz” with four dandy match-ups here in “Big Game Hunting”. The playoffs get under way this Friday night all around the WPIAL and each bracket still has highly seeded defending champion with hopes of repeating their run from last year. No defending champs on the docket for week one here in “Big Game Hunting”, but we do think all four will still be around for the quarter finals next Friday. Now without further ado, please join me on the first on-ramp to, “The Highway to Heinz”.

WPIAL Class AAAA
(#9) Penn Hills Indians (4-5) @ (#8) Upper Saint Clair Panthers (7-2)
Friday, November 6th @ 7:30 pm
Broadcast on 1320 WJAS AM and msasports.net by Paul Paterra and Steve Nagler

In his second year at the helm of the Penn Hills Indians, Ron Graham dealt with a very similar situation as in his first. The Indians were a highly touted club in the pre season but fell victim to those high expectations as well as a very difficult schedule, and were forced to rally late in the season winning two of their final three games to pick up the third playoff spot out of the Big East Conference.

The Upper Saint Clair Panthers get the second spot out of the Great Southern, thanks to a week nine win over the Mount Lebanon Blue Devils. Jim Render’s team has had an “up and down” season with solid wins over north Allegheny and Mount Lebanon, but a bad loss to Baldwin.

The Indians have some outstanding talent, in wide receivers Brandon Ifill and Cullen Christian. Tight end Myles Davis is a special player on both sides of the ball. In the trenches the Indians have a dominant player in University of Pittsburgh recruit Aaron Donald.

In the backfield the Indians have a sophomore quarterback in Chaz Whittaker who has continued to improve throughout the season. Their running game is anchored by senior Kei Pasch’l, who has shown an ability to break it from anywhere on the gridiron. The Indians strong secondary will likely be put to the test by Upper Saint Clair’s Alex Park.

Upper Saint Clair has solid balance when they are on their offensive game. Senior quarterback Alex Park is one of the top passers in the WPIAL and has thrown for over a thousand yards. He can also hurt you with his feet. One of his favorite targets is wide receiver Tim Kikta who is averaging over 18 yards per catch on the year.

The Panthers also have a very strong running attack led by a pair of juniors in Jake Siwicki and Conner Scott. The Radzukinas brothers Jake and Mike, along with MSA Sports Kennywood all-star Joe Laukatis up front do a solid job opening holes for the run and protecting Park, who likes to throw while on the move quite a bit.

Look for the battle at the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball to be the difference in this game. The winner of this contest moves on most likely to face the top seed in AAAA the Gateway Gators.

WPIAL Class AAA
(#5) New Castle Red Hurricane (7-2) @ (#8) Greensburg Salem Golden Lions (8-1)
Friday, November 6th @ 7:30 pm
Broadcast on WGSM-FM 107.1 and msasports.net by Mike Mallory and Dan Flickinger
Also Broadcast on WKST-AM 1200 and msasports.net by Ken Hlebovy and Stan Roberts

The Red Hurricane come into the contest as the third place team out of the very tough Parkway conference and received the twelfth seed from the playoff pairings committee. Greensburg Salem, wins the championship of the Keystone conference and gets the home game her in round one, along with the fifth seed from the playoff committee.

The Hurricane have gotten a splendid season from sophomore quarterback Johnny Matarazzo who completed a very impressive 64% of his passes, hitting on 102 of 159 for 1625 yards and 14 touchdowns. Sophomore running back Justin Fleo and senior wide receiver Jayjaun Jay were two of Matarazzo’s favorite targets all season long.

New Castle also has a very nice running attack led by senior running back Keith Keene who rushed for 768 yards on the season. Keene also scored 11 touchdowns on the year. Justin Fleo ran for over 700 yards as well for New Castle, he also posted nine touchdowns. Marcus Carter caught 21 passes and amassed a very impressive 18.10 yards per catch average on the year for the Hurricane.

The New Castle defense was led by 6’1’’ 207 pound senior John Fields who was involved in a team high 85 tackles on the season, junior Randy Gillette led the team in sacks with three.

The Golden Lions of Greensburg were led by a staunch defense that allowed a Keystone conference low 10.8 points per game including a pair of shutouts and six games in which they held opponents to seven or fewer points.

The Golden Lions also enter the contest on the proverbial role having won eight games in a row, their only loss of the year came back in week one of the season at Hempfield.

Senior quarterback Nate Sphon can hurt you with his feet or by throwing the ball to some quick and rangy wide receivers.

The story of the Golden Lions offense though for the most part has been the outstanding year for 5’11’’ 175 pound senior tailback Matt Adams who concluded the regular season with well over 800 yards rushing, including a pair of big touchdown runs in a week nine come from behind win over Derry.

Winner of this game gets the winner of the West Allegheny versus Knoch game taking place in Imperial, Pennsylvania Friday night.

WPIAL Class AA
(#9) Greensburg Central Catholic Centurions (7-2) @ (#10) Freeport Yellowjackets (8-1)
Friday November 6th @ 7:30 pm
Broadcast on the MSA Sports Network at www.msasports.net by Greg Kuntz and Matt Steinhiser

The Greensburg Central Catholic Centurions come rolling into the post season off of a week nine thumping of their long time rival the Jeannette Jayhawks in week nine 49-18. With the win the Centurions secured the third playoff spot in a very tough Interstate conference at (7-2). The committee gave the Centurions the eleventh seed in the AA bracket.

Seniors David Miller and Trent Hurley are the emotional and statistical heart of the Centurions. Miller went over a thousand yards for the season with a 344 – yard, five touchdown night in the win over Jeannette. Miller, the WPIAL leading scorer from a year ago is near the top in that race again this year as well with an astounding 27 touchdowns scored for the Centurions.

Trent Hurley is having a great year at quarterback as well for Greensburg Central Catholic, having passed for well over 1200 yards on the season. The Centurions bring the top scoring offense in AA to the party scoring just a shade under 36 points per contest.

Greensburg Central is very hot having won five games in a row heading into post-season play. The Centurions defense has been a strong point all season as well, including posting four shut-outs on the year.

The Freeport Yellowjackets enter the playoffs as the Co-champions of the Allegheny conference, and get the sixth seed from the playoff committee after an (8-1) regular season.

The Yellowjackets only loss of the season came back in week two in a home game against the Shady Side Academy Indians where the fell 20-14. Since that loss, Freeport has rattled off seven straight wins including a five game stretch where their defense has not allowed more than seven points in a game. During the win streak the Yellowjackets have outscored their opponents by a 229 – 50 margin.

Freeport has been hit hard by the injury bug late in the regular season, two weeks ago senior running back Mitch Shaw was lost for the season with a broken leg, and last week during the week nine win over Summit Academy junior wide receiver Derek Durand was hurt late in the contest and did not return. Durand is a tremendous contributor on both sides of the ball for the Yellowjackets and his availability will have a big effect on the outcome of this game.

If Shaw and Durand are both out that means even more of the offensive load will fall squarely onto the shoulders of senior quarterback Alex Isenberg, who is one of the leading scorers in the WPIAL on the season. Head coach John Gaillot will need some other younger guys to step up for Freeport if they hope to bounce Greensburg Central Catholic from these AA playoffs.

Winner of this game gets the winner of the Wash High at Center contest. That contest has the Center Trojans as the third seed in the tournament hosting the fourteenth seeded Little Prexies.

WPIAL Class A
(#12) Springdale Dynamos (7-2) @ (#5) Monessen Greyhounds (7-2)
Friday, November 6th @ 7:30 pm
Broadcast on the MSA Sports Network at www.msasports.net by Greg Warnock and Montel Staples

Chuck Wagner’s 45th year as a football head coach results in yet another playoff appearance for the Springdale Dynamos who garner the fourth spot out of single A’s Eastern conference. Springdale is given the twelfth seed from the committee and will hit the road to face the fifth seeded Monessen Greyhounds.

The Dynamos are on a run heading into the playoffs having won five of their final six games on the year, in fact, Springdale’s only losses on the season were to conference champion North Catholic by six points in week three, and a 12-7 loss at Brentwood in week seven.

Senior Brian Shemenski is doing solid work at quarterback for the Dynamos as a returning starter, he occasionally gives way to junior Bill Arch in a version of the “wildcat”. Arch ran for 142 yards in a week nine playoff clinching road win for Springdale against rival Riverview 40-0. Other big time playmakers in the backfield for Springdale include Chris Liberto and Sean Dugan.

The Dynamos have the fifth leading scoring defense in single A, allowing only 7.6 points per game on the season. Up front that defense is led by a three big, outstanding seniors in Joe Ober (6’3’’, 250), Tony Hamorsky (6’2’’, 225) and Corey Kaczor (5’11’’, 270), Kaczor was a Kennywood all-star pick by the MSA Sports network in the preseason.

The Monessen Greyhounds meanwhile rebounded nicely from a pair of losses to start the 2009 campaign and have rattled off seven straight victories to win the the Tri-County South conference championship and nab the fifth seed from the WPIAL playoff committee at (7-2).

Junior quarterback Terence Stepoli is having a solid year for the ‘Hounds both running and passing the ball, Stepoli can hurt you from anywhere on the field with his arm or his legs. One of his favorite targets is junior wide out Nick Bolias, another junior, Jeff Francia can alos hurt you with a big play from the wide receiver spot for Monessen.

The Greyhounds are loaded with outstanding individual athletes including Sheldon Miller at tight end, and a pair of fabulous running backs in juniors Trae Cook and Brett Crenshaw, eith of whom is capable of breaking the big, game changing play any time they get their hands on the ball.

The winner of this contest moves on in the single A bracket to face the winner of the game between the fourth seed, the North Catholic Trojans and the thirteen seed, the Jefferson Morgan Rockets.