***UPDATE*** Class A, AA, AAA, AAAA Brackets complete.
P.I.A.A. Class A Final Clairton Bears vs Riverside Vikings Friday, December 17 @2pm
P.I.A.A. Class AAA Final Bishop McDevitt Crusaders vs Allentown Central Catholic Vikings Friday, December 17 @ 7pm
P.I.A.A. Class AA Final South Fayette Lions vs West Catholic Burrs Saturday, December 18 @ 12pm
P.I.A.A. Class AAAA Final North Allegheny Tigers vs LaSalle Explorers Saturday, December 18 @ 5pm
Note: The following teams will be on the HOME side of HersheyPark Stadium: Clairton, West Catholic, Allentown Central Catholic, North Allegheny
Note: The following teams will be on the AWAY side of HersheyPark Stadium: Riverside, South Fayette, Bishop McDevitt, LaSalle
Stadium Aerial Links have been added for each game. Click on each blue Stadium Aerial for a photo of the host stadium. A special thank you goes out to everyone that has helped with this project. Good luck to all teams in their quest for a PIAA State Championship. Any questions, comments or corrections please email Jeremy
Here are the direct links to each bracket.
480 Responses
letsss gooo central catholic leads abington heights 40-0 thats right fourty to zero. this is our year bring on wood
WH, why so angry? I for one never said that a catholic education was better than a public education. You get what you want out of your education no matter if it is private or public. What I wrote was it was my son’s and his parent’s choice. Why did we pick a “catholic” education? Our son wanted his faith to be part of his high school education experience and it was his opinion that La Salle would be the right place for him.
WH, you keep saying you KNOW everything; you really know very little.
I’m done with this; if I’d known you were wet behind the ears, I wouldn’t have wasted my time!
Lose that chip; it’s unattractive.
WHspirit18 – 4.3 GPA probably means you have no common sense as a Catholic school kid would not make excuses like “if we did not have those 6 or 7 key injuries we would have won the state championship and whipped La Salle”. Why not round it to 10 key injuries as it sounds like more to cry about as 6 or 7 key injuries is nothing to whine about. Also Your WH school I never heard of as it does not appear on the state champions list…ever! If you ever played any eastern teams I am sure you never won at least anything that meant anything. Also the PIAA executive director Brad Cashman when asked by a Penna State Representative about if the playing field was level between Catholic and Public Schools he answered with the following:
Catholic or Private schools make up 18.45% of all PIAA member schools and their winning percentage since 1971 is 18.2%. This figure includes all sports and I am sure they are stronger in some and weaker in others. Catholic schools have won about 13% of all the football championships since 1988.
First off spirit check out the violence in philly public schools as oppossed to catholic. Now let’s check standardized test scores. OK now that that is settled we can move onto the maniacs that fill 90% of the public school population. Suburban public schools i would send my kid to all day long, Philly? I think not. This is why my son is going to continue to go to a Catholic or Private school to continue his education. Just curious spirit, how many Princeton grads came out of Simon Gratz? Does that answer your question?
All right, JB. I have a great appreciation for education actually. I work very hard and i have a 4.3 GPA, currently. I take 3 AP classes and the others are advanced. So, I wouldn’t say that if I were you. If WH gets passed NA, we will show you eastern pa teams that we’re much better. We like to be under the radar. I’m sooooo right about recruiting!!!! I know tons of kids that have been recruited and they admit it! Can you tell me how and why the Catholic education is so much better?
WHspirit18; I’m sorry to say this but you really just don’t understand what you talking about. First, it appears you have NO appreciation for education; guess what? Others do.
You seem to have a chip on your shoulder the size of Woodland Hills! Fact is, State College went to the AAAA and all we heard was how they would hand LaSalle their head! Hmmm, SC couldn’t even play with LaSalle.
You’re wrong about recruiting; you’re wrong about looking down your nose at education but that is your choice. I’m glad I chose differently.
Hahahah you guys are all completely blind to what goes on, I guess. Catholic schools (at least in western PA) recruit their butt off!!!! I assume they do in eastern PA, as well. There is not much of a difference between a “Catholic” education and a good public school education. Please, somebody tell me what’s so great about the Catholic school education. I’m Catholic and chose to go to public school and I’m getting a great education.
Frank, well said. Kids go to La Salle for the academics not for the athletics. That’s why you see a great deal of our players playing for Ivy League (or academically similar) teams when they move to the college ranks.
Saw the game versus Northeast. It’s a very different team than the one I played for. We waggled right and left non-stop and threw in the run when needed. Glad to see La Salle making the PCL proud.
Also surprised someone hasn’t brought up the public schools in Pennsylvania and New Jersey that recruit on a yearly basis, because there are plenty.
The Public school vs. Catholic school argument is pretty one-sided on here. Few things, I don’t know about the rest of the state, but I know of a few PCL teams that literally have as little as one or two scholarship players and that is due to financial aid. They weren’t “recruited”. On one team neither start and it’s an excellent team.
As for someone bringing up that at “Penn State you get a scholarship, but at Pennsylvania you don’t”, that’s semantically right, but incredibly wrong.
I deal with recruiting for a living. I have several players at Ivy League schools and they’re all there on financial aid.
Surprisingly, they also happen to be excellent at football which is what attracted the school to them in the first place. So, when one of my old players pays literally $2,100 per year to go to Harvard instead of $51,000 per year, was he on “scholarship” and “recruited” like Penn State would do or is he like a public school that can’t help themselves?
Harvard for $2,100 per year sounds great to me. Sounds like recruiting to me. Sounds like a scholarship too. Of course, it’s called aid, grants, whatever.
My response is aimed at some people on here getting pretty out of hand and ridiculous with specific examples, so there you go, specific examples.
Justin Hymes, OT Yale – Pays under $3,000 tuition
Eric Shrive, OT Penn State – Free Tuition
Justin is getting three times the money to play that Eric is.
Just some facts on it.
But yes, if we’re getting into semantics, it’s technically not a “scholarship” offer. It’s an invitation to join the school and then money to pay your tuition.
I find this banter on public vs catholic/private schools interesting. First off, let me say upfront, that my son goes to La Salle, and starts on the football team and baseball team. Second, he is not getting a dime in athletic scholarship money. Third, he goes to La Salle because he and his parents wanted a catholic education. Are there some athletes at La Salle getting financial aid? Sure there are some, but whatever aid they are getting doesn’t come close to the $17.5K it costs on an annual basis. In Fact, I would be comfortable stating that many of these athletes who are getting limited aid are getting the aid due to their academic standings and not their athletic talents. On a football note I can tell you all that La Salle is a solid team that has a bunch of good athletes who are extremely coachable. And this is where the real difference is, COACHING, plain and simple. This coaching staff is comparable to some Division 2 and 3 college programs. Guess what? None of these coaches teach at La Salle as they all have “outside” jobs and they are lucky to be making the minimum wage for their coaching duties when one adds up all the hours they put in. Don’t be surprised if La Salle does in fact repeat. If they do it will be in large part due to the coaching and the coachability of the boys.
Golden Knights – Why don’t you complain about schools like North Penn that has over 1500 boys from 10th -12th grade and whos school district is 42 square miles (All of Philly is like 135 square miles) or even Rustin’s opponent tomorrow that accepts non-resident tuition students/players and I can send you the link where it states that if you want. You say that say La Salle has an endless supply of kids like there is an endless supply of tuition money. They have to field there team with kids first off that don’t live too far away they do have to go to school everyday), can pass an entrance exam and be able to pay the tuition and hopefully wants to play football. A public school gets to take every talented player regardless of their intellectual prowess. Again the numbers out in the west since 1989 don’t reflect any Catholic school advantage. And if it is how you say that Catholic school will dominate maybe that will bring a more competitive brand of football overall to the east because the west and District 7 have been kicking but over the long haul.
High school kids don’t go to a school and have their family sacrifice so much just to play football they go for the Catholic education…Period.
JB- It’s not about education, I promise you that. It’s all about athletics. You think all those kids that Catholic and Private schools recruit pay full tuition??? You’re crazy if you think that. At least I know that over here in Western PA, Pgh Central Catholic recruits like crazy and takes care of the tuition for those kids. Catholic and Private schools have a clear advantage and the reason your stats about how many championships they’ve won is stupid is because we only have a 1 or 2 Catholic and Private schools in WPIAL Quad A. Now, there are a few more in the other classes, but not enough to make a difference. Len- you are partially right, then. District 7 just plays better football. If WH wouldn’t have had those 7 key injuries last year, they would’ve taken the state championship. So, I really think that whoever wins in the Woodland Hills vs. North Allegheny game will at least go to the championship and should bring the heat to ANY Eastern PA school. I don’t know why you all think LaSalle is going to walk away with the championship!
Golden Knights, how many parents pay 15K to 18K to send a son to HS?
It’s about the education; you think they pay that so their kid can play sports? The kid can play sports anywhere for nothing!
OK, so Lasalle and Prep do get kids from N.J. Which means the territory that kids can come from is approx 50 miles more than the average Public school… Folks , I understand everyone’s allegiance to their school.. but this is a Math Problem… It’s not the first 11-15 kids on a team that make the difference between a Private school and Public school…it’s the next 20 kids… So, if a Public school is limited by the District boundries, there is a limited amount of kids compared to an unlimited amount of kids (LaSalle/Prep )to choose from.
Again, a few more years of a disapportianate number of Catholic schools in the District Semi’s and Finals, and the PIAA will go to a N.J. type of format.
also…
Male Enrollement:
N.Penn = 1538
LaSalle = 821
Rustin = 512
Is North Penn still only 3 grades 10th thru 12th? I know La Sale is 4 grades (9th thru 12th) and the prep is even smaller. if that’s the case North Penn is huge. That’s an advantage of over 900 boys enrolled. With the usual good coaching and that many boys no wonder they are always tough to beat.
CR, you’re absolutely right; these people don’t understand the financial sacrifice that every family makes to send a son to LaSalle and many other private schools. Fact is, if you’re only interested in playing ball, you’ll be out after 1 semester freshman year.
Male Enrollment
North Penn – 1538
La Salle – 821
Buddy, well said. If North Penn and La Salle do play again it will be an awesome game. Still think La Salle is going to have a very tough time getting past the next game. I know I am repeating myself but I really wish La Salle had played Wood and O’Hara this year. They were way more prepared for the competition of the state playoffs last year after their PCL schedule. Really weren’t challenged much the last two months.
@CR et al: I agree. Huge majority of students at these PCL schools are from Philly and surrounding suburbs. So let’s stop trying to find excuses when we lose to them, they just have good & well coached teams. Realize this also, they have very substancial male student body, which helps to assemble a talented team. As a North penn fan, we were just out- played on the occasions we have lost to them. We also have a large male student body, so no excuses. I’m hoping to see NP/LaSalle in the Eastern final. Should be a helluva game.
As an alumni of La Salle (also member of the football team) I can tell you that people from NJ do go to the school and there are athletic scholarships that are handed out. However, these scholarships or grants are tiny compared to the costs of the school and they still have to pass an entrance exam. The academic rigors of the school are enough to force out anyone who is there to just play a sport so please stop with this non-sense that La Salle is a football factory. When I was there I believe 70% of my team was in the National Honor Society and we still won championships. And I’m sure the same can be said about SJP.
@JB: you are right about the D1 playoff games, the one I discribe above was a regular season game. maybe they never did playoff games.
@ JB: yeah they did, several years ago they had St. Joes at North Penn on a Friday nite ( live of course). It was a 20 second delay, but it worked ( got it on their website). They may not do that anymore. It’s ashame. They used to pick a marquee game every week.
Sorry I got in on this late. First off, glad to see Ridley lose early, they were way over-rated and cocky as usual. Secondly, NP looed awesome last week. Their offense has so many weapons, they should be unstoppable. LaSalle will be facing a much different team if they should meet again. Needhammer recently broke the NP career TD mark, and he looks as fast as ever. If Mercer can come back, it’s all over. Go Knights!