Are you ready for some football?
Welcome to the official forum on high school football for the 2025 season.
During the off-season let’s talk about players, recruiting news, teams, and everything about high school football.
During the season each week let’s talk about match-ups and how teams did. Let us know what player(s) stood out each week.
1,528 Responses
Wow, SL man handled TV up front and I’ve read a lot about how good TV’s line was. Steckert is a dude but Sams played a great game at QB as well, WR’s made plays. The game could have been worse than what it actually was too. TV struggled to open up holes for their 2 solid backs but their passing game was almost non existent outside of that long td where SL was running the wrong coverage for 2 minutes left in the half. TV had a solid first couple of drives where they were mixing it uo well but after that SL figured them out and not much ado. SL’s balance was great and with the coverage TV was playing, SL could have ran swing or bubbles all game with success if they wanted but why when Steckert was eating.
I know many are thinking Avonworth won’t lose, not here necessarily but on a couple FB groups. Northwestern was up by 22 over SL in the 4th quarter and won by 8. I can say I feel much more confident in Northwesterns chances Saturday after watching this game. Nothing is a given, but I think NW is more battle tested than some think.
Congrats to Clairton on their fifth state title, tying the Quips and TJ for most in WPIAL history. They have a lot returning next year including sophomore stud Brandon Murphy and I expect they will be preseason #1. PCC can add their fifth on Saturday if they manage to upset heavily favored LaSalle.
Clairton is overwhelming BG with their team speed, especially on defense, I think it’s safe to say BG has not faced a team all year with anywhere close to the team speed of Clairton. This game shows how good Laurel was this year, only losing 8-6 in the WPIAL final.
Goodbye wally, goodbye wally, goodbye wally go back to Shendo.
Flyers Cup posted their classes on Instagram. Classes A and AA are public school divisions separated by enrollment, and Class AAA is private schools only. Food for thought…
Independence = freedom and choice.
OK, I get it, bad timing on my part posting about high school basketball on the first day of the football championships, but I don’t make the PIAA board’s schedule meeting agenda. Yesterday the PIAA finally approved a shot clock for basketball to take effect for the 2028-29 season.
Back to football……..
Would love to hear their explanation for why it takes 4 years to go into effect, makes no sense to me.
Some of the things that I heard during this debate is that it will require additional referee recruitment and training, cost issues in obtaining and installing shot clocks (mostly small budget smaller rural school districts), and starting next year too soon (2026-27 season) to implement, and don’t want to start in the middle of a two year cycle (2027-28 season). Please don’t shoot the messenger.
Time to make some picks for the state finals. A lot of “wait, you again!?” matchups. Hopefully this is different next year, because it’s good to see new teams make it every year. Outside of 6A last year, it seemed like the majority were ones looking for their first title. But we do get a bit of nostalgia with some of the matchups.
I’ll separate the picks so it’s not long.
1A: We get a rematch of BG & Clairton. Last time these two met was 2016. BG has won both of the meetings. This year, Clairton seems to be on another level. They’ve looked really good & are the top dog in 1A. I’ll say they continue that & say “third time’s the charm!”. Da Bears win 30-21 over BG.
4A: Finally a matchup that’s different & what a few fans like myself are looking for: New blood, no private schools. Twin Valley is legit. They’ve impressed me this year & they’re looking to go to 5A next season by ending it with a bang. As is Solehi. The only loss for them? A Northwestern Lehigh matchup in Week 10. Would it be crazy that I predict that we’ll see another 28-24 final? I’ll go with Twin Valley over Solehi.
I think both games today will be very competitive and could go either way, appear to be pretty evenly matched teams for both contests. After their heartbreaking loss last year in the WPIAL final to Ft Cherry, and with all the starters they had returning I picked Clairton before the season to win the state title this year. I’m not going to change my mind now, although it would not surprise anyone if BG wins, they have a big advantage in the kicking game and that could prove to be the difference like it was in their 2014 game that ended with a 19-18 BG win, but I’ll take Clairton 26-20.
I agree really nice to see 2 public schools who have never made the state final before in 4A, I think this game is a tossup. I lean toward Twin Valley, but Aliquippa’s defense totally shut them down in the 2nd half last week and held them to 9 total yards of offense as they survived the Quips furious comeback attempt. So. Lehigh had way too many turnovers last week and gave up 24 unanswered points to O’Hara before rallying for a 28-24 victory. I think TV may have an edge on the O-Line and with their rushing attack so I’ll take TV 35-27.
District 11 says goodbye to a great one today. Thank you for everything Wally Hall. Penn State is still vacant…?? Did Patty Kraft make the call?
Must be alot of fun being a high school coach in the coal regions sure are alot of legends in their own minds up in the stands,of course thats true all over.
The Penn St job isnt the great one many of their fans think it is
I’m not sure any college head coaching job is great, other than the money, in this day and age.
In recruiting news Ft Cherry’s Matt Sieg flipped his commitment from Penn State to WVU, as Rich Rod and the coaching staff promised him the chance to play both ways, he’ll start at safety, but may also see some time on offense, perhaps out of the wildcat formation. Pitt was also one of his final choices, as was Va Tech after they named James Franklin head coach, but ultimately the opportunity to play both ways swayed him to WVU. Also saw Harrisburg 4 star lineman Kevin Brown flipped his commitment to WVU from Penn State, so the poaching of PSU’s recruiting class continues.
Jc, I just saw you got an early Xmas present with Wally Hall stepping down as NS coach. Any idea who is going to take over?
Rick geist
Hall was 115-38 over 13 years with no losing seasons. I think MCA only beat NS twice during that time. Did Geist have a better record in his previous stint as HC?