A loss in the final regular-season game deprived Montour of an outright Parkway Conference championship, but the Spartans have their sights set on a bigger prize – a WPIAL Class 4A football title.
Montour entered last week’s matchup with West Allegheny 8-0 and 4-0 in the conference – and riding high after edging perennial power Aliquippa the previous week.
But the Indians knocked the host Spartans down a peg and into a three-way tie for the championship with a 13-7 overtime victory.
That’s in the past; Montour and West Allegheny both earned berths in the WPIAL playoffs – as did Aliquippa – and both will be opening their playoff runs Friday night.
Montour, the No. 2 seed, will host Mars at Thomas J. Birko Memorial Stadium while West Allegheny – the No. 8 seed – travels to meet top-seeded Thomas Jefferson. Both games will start at 7 p.m., as will the Trinity-Aliquippa game at Aliquippa High School.
In Friday’s other WPIAL playoff matchups involving West Hills area schools, 10th-seeded Moon will visit No. 7 Penn Hills in a Class 5A game, Our Lady of the Sacred Heart battles Riverside at Moon High School in a Class 2A game, and in a pair of Class A matchups, No. 3 Bishop Canevin hosts No. 14 Bentworth at Dormont Stadium while No. 9 Cornell travels to meet No. 8 Leechburg. All games start at 7 p.m.
In another Class 2A game scheduled for 1 p.m. Saturday, No. 12 seed Carlynton travels to Western Beaver take on the fifth-seeded Golden Beavers.
This will mark the second time Montour and Mars will square off this season. The Spartans won the first matchup, 31-14, on Sept 20 in their fourth game of the season.
Montour is led by quarterback Trey Hopper, who has completed 60% of his passes for 2,047 yards and 22 touchdowns against just four interceptions.
But Hopper was held in check in last week’s loss to West Allegheny, as he completed just 5 of 9 passes for 123 yards and a touchdown. Montour managed just six first downs and only 62 yards rushing on 29 attempts.
Mars, which finished 5-5 overall but 4-1 in the Greater Allegheny Conference – tied for second with McKeesport – played well in the latter half of the season. The Fightin’ Planets lost four of their first five games but rallied to win four of the last five. The only loss during that stretch was a 28-7 setback to McKeesport on Oct. 11.
In Class 5A, Moon brings an overall record of 5-4 into its game with Penn Hills. The Tigers went 2-3 in the Allegheny Six Conference, good for fourth place, and were the antithesis of a streaky team, never winning or losing more than two games in succession.
Penn Hills is 6-4 overall and went 4-1 in the Northeast Conference behind conference champ Pine-Richland.
In Class 2A, OLSH is the No. 8 seed and will take on No. 9 Riverside. The Chargers, led by Vann Kavals, are 5-4 overall and went 3-3 in the Allegheny Conference, good for fourth place. Kavals threw for 1,200 yards and nine touchdowns.
OLSH’s opponent Friday night also finished fourth in its conference – the Midwestern – at 4-3 and is 5-5 overall.
In Saturday’s game, Carlynton – back in the playoffs after a drought of more than two decades – will bring a 6-4 overall record into its game with Western Beaver. The Cougars finished fourth in the Century Conference at 3-3 while the Golden Beavers were second in the Midwestern Conference with a 6-1 record and are 7-2 overall.
Carlynton got off to a fast start, winning three of its first four, then dropped three in a row before rolling off three straight victories to end the regular season.
Quarterback Devonte Dean threw for 1,383 yards and 15 touchdowns during the regular season and rushed for 858 yards and 12 more scores. Running back John Sciulli led the ground attack with 924 yards and 11 touchdowns.
In Class A, Bishop Canevin enters play at 7-2 overall and went 5-1 in Black Hills Conference play, good for a second-place finish behind unbeaten Fort Cherry.
Quarterback Kole Olszewski passed for 1,941 yards and 22 touchdowns and was intercepted just four times. Damar Olds caught 34 of those passes for 648 yards and nine touchdowns while Myontae Mott paced the ground game with 757 yards rushing – and a 10.2 yard average – to go with 10 touchdowns.
Bentworth enters the game 6-4 overall and finished in a tie for third place in the Tri-County South Conference at 4-3.
Another explosive runner will be on display in the Cornell-Leechburg game, as the Raiders’ Khylil Johnson piled up 734 yards on just 67 carries – nearly 11 yards per carry – and racked up 14 touchdowns on the ground. He also caught 25 passes for 394 yards and five more touchdowns.
Walter Clarit, meanwhile, totaled 1,050 yards rushing with a 10.5-yard per carry average to go with 13 touchdowns for the Raiders.
Cornell is 8-2 overall and went 4-2 in the Black Hills Conference while Leechburg also is 8-2 overall and went 5-2 in the Eastern Conference. Both teams finished third in their respective conferences.
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