WPIAL Football Championship Saturday Factoids

By: HSSN Staff
Tuesday, November 22, 2011 | 4:25 PM

The North Allegheny Tigers – The Upper St. Clair Panthers – The Montour Spartans – The Knoch Knights – The Aliquippa Quips – The Jeannette Jayhawks – The Clairton Bears – The Sto-Rox Vikings. Eight teams that have navigated their way quite nicely to a game at Heinz Field. Eight teams that have been so impressive during the first 12 weeks of the 2011 high school football season. Eight teams that play for WPIAL Gold on Saturday.  Thanks to MSA Sports Bob Orkwis and Jonathan Whaley, here are some of the numbers put together by these eight teams in something we call – Championship Saturday Factoids. 

WPIAL CLASS AAAA Finals: #1 North Allegheny Tigers (12-0) vs. #3 Upper St. Clair Panthers (11-1)

WPIAL Titles: 
• North Allegheny (2) (1990/2010)  
• Upper St. Clair (5) (1988/1989/1992/1997/2006)

Coaches:
• North Allegheny – Art Walker (7th Season) – 67 Wins at NA.
• The Tigers have qualified for the playoffs every season under Coach Walker.
• Including his last two seasons at Central Catholic, his teams have made the post season 9 straight years.
• This is the second time in his career that Art Walker has made back-to-back WPIAL Quad-A title games. Central Catholic won consecutive WPIAL championships in 2003 & 2004.

• Upper St. Clair – Jim Render (32nd Season) – 354 Wins.
• The last time the Panthers did not qualify for the playoffs was 1999 – a stretch of 12 years.

Notables:
• North Allegheny has won 19 straight games – Upper St. Clair has won 9 straight games.
• These two schools met in Week 3 of the regular season, a 28-21 North Allegheny win and the last Upper St. Clair loss. The Panthers led that game 14-0 at halftime but committed four turnovers (3 fumbles – 1 interception) in the second half. Vinnie Congedo’s second touchdown run of the game with (2:39) left was the winning score. NA QB Mack Leftwich totaled 261-yards of offense (209 passing & 52 rushing) for the Tigers. His counterpart Dakota Conwell for USC threw for 144-yards and ran for another 93. Conwell also intercepted a pass on defense for the Panthers.
• The championship game will mark the 9th time Art Walker and Jim Render have gone head-to-head as coaches.  Jim Render owns a (5-3) advantage over Art Walker. The head coaches have met 3 times in the playoffs. Central Catholic defeated USC 21-12 in the 2004 semifinals and bested the Panthers 42-10 to win the WPIAL title in 2003. Upper St. Clair defeated North Allegheny 24-3 in the 2006 semifinals on their way to the state championship.
• North Allegheny is averaging 310-yards rushing in the playoffs. Upper St. Clair has allowed an average of 204.7-yards of total offense per game in 3 post season wins.
• North Allegheny has registered one shutout so far in 2011 and their finals opponent Upper St. Clair has shutout six opponents.

WPIAL CLASS AAA Finals: #5 Montour Spartans (10-2) vs. #3 Knoch Knights (12-0)

WPIAL Titles: 
• Montour (4) (1957/1958/1963/1964)
• Knoch (1) (1978)

Coaches:
• Montour – Lou Cerro (7th Season) (49-32)
• The Spartans will be playing at Heinz Field for the 3rd time in 5 years. Montour finished as the runner-up to Thomas Jefferson in 2007 and to Central Valley last season.

• Knoch – Mike King (14th Season) (63-76)
• The Knights have qualified for the WPIAL playoffs three straight years and 7 of the last 9 seasons. 
• Knoch is (21-2) over the last two seasons.

Notables:
• This is the first meeting between these two schools since the 2007 Class AAA semifinals. Montour won that game 32-6 to move on to face TJ in the championship game.
• The 12 wins in 2011 are the most ever in a season for a Knoch football team.
• The Knights undefeated regular season was the school’s first ever.
• Dating back to the regular season finale, Knoch QB Ky Kenyon has been involved in every Knights touchdown. The senior signal caller has thrown 8 TD passes and also has rushed for 4 scores.
• During the playoffs, Kenyon has 16 pass completions and six of those have gone for touchdowns.
• Montour is one of the rare teams that features a 2,000-yard passer, a 1,000-yard rusher and two 600-plus-yard receivers. QB Dillon Buechel has thrown for 2,130-yards. TB Julian Durden has run for 1,711-yards. Wide-receivers Darren Massey and Devin Wilson have 857 and 658-yards receiving respectively.
• This is the third straight year a 6,000-yard passer will play for a championship at Heinz Field. Buechel has (6,242) career passing yards. Last year South Fayette’s Christian Brumbaugh won the Class-AA title. Brumbaugh is the all-time leader passer in WPIAL history with (7,162) yards. In 2009, Gateway’s Rob Kalkstein competed for the Quad-A championship. Kalkstein ended his career with (6,591) passing yards.
• Montour’s appearance in the title match-up marks the 6th consecutive season a team from the Parkway Conference has competed at Heinz Field for the WPIAL AAA championship.
• Montour is playing in their third WPIAL Class AAA Championship game in the last five years
• Montour has shutout one opponent so far this season and their finals opponent Knoch has put up two shutouts
• This is the Knoch Knights first WPIAL finals appearance since 1992.
• The last time the Knights won a WPIAL Championship was in 1978.

WPIAL CLASS AA Finals:  #1 Aliquippa Quips (12-0) vs. #2 Jeannette Jayhawks (12-0)

WPIAL Titles: 
• Aliquippa (13) – (1952/1955/1964/1984/1985/1987/1988/1989/1991/1996/2000/2003/2008)
• Jeannette (7) – (1939/1956/1971/1981/1983/2006/2007)

Coaches:
• Aliquippa – Mike Zmijanac (15th Season) – (157-26)
• Coach Zmijanac’s teams have never missed the playoffs – posting a (34-11) record since 1997. He has won 3 WPIAL Class AA titles and finished as the runner-up on 3 other seasons.

• Jeannette – Roy Hall (3rd Season) – (24-7)
• The 3 playoff wins this season were the first ever for Roy Hall as a head coach.

Notables:
• Under Mike Zmijanac, Aliquippa has faced Jeannette 5 times in the post season. In his first playoff game as head coach in 1997, Zmijanac’s Quips lost to Jeannette (17-0) in a first round AA match-up. All told under coach Zmijanac, Aliquippa has faced the Jayhawks 5 times in the playoffs, with Jeannette winning 3 times, including the last two matchups in the 2007 semifinals and the 2006 quarterfinals. Aliquippa’s last playoff win over Jeannette came in the 2003 championship game (18-4) at Heinz Field.
• This past regular season –the Quips finished undefeated for the 12th time. That places Aliquippa second behind Jeannette for the most ever undefeated regular seasons in WPIAL history.
• Both schools made their 35th post season WPIAL playoff appearance which is tied for the most ever. This year’s appearance for Aliquippa was the 17th straight year they have qualified for the playoffs. That streak is tied with Thomas Jefferson as the most current consecutive trips to the post season.
• This is the 4th consecutive trip to Heinz Field for Aliquippa. The Quips lost to South Fayette last year and to Greensburg Central Catholic in 2009. Aliquippa defeated Beaver Falls in 2008 for the Class AA title.
• This is the centennial season for Aliquippa and the Quips are making their 22nd championship game appearance. Aliquippa’s 13 championships is a WPIAL record.
• Senior Mikal Hall will make his 39th start at quarterback Saturday against Jeannette. Hall’s record in the past 38 starts is (35-3).
• Aliquippa has outscored opponents 471-96 this season. The closest margin of victory was 9 points in a 21-12 win over Beaver on October 14th. They have won 10 games by 26 or more points and have outscored their opponents (115-20) in 3 playoff games.
• Jeannette has also been impressive in running the table so far in 2011. The Jayhawks have scored 471 points while allowing 150. Their closest game was a 13-10 victory in the season finale to clinch the Interstate conference championship over GCC. 
• Jeannette has scored 121 points in 3 playoff games, which is tied with Sto-Rox for second most. The Jayhawks average margin of victory in 2011 stands at 26.6 points.
• Jeannette has rushed for 701-yards in its 3 playoff games.
• Aliquippa has allowed only 11 first downs in 3 playoff wins and given up only 213-yards of offense.
• Jeannette’s Demetrious Coz has accounted for 1,720-yards of offense in 2001. The senior QB has rushed for 1,091-yards and passed for 629-yards and 8 touchdowns. Cox has scored 18 times.
• Aliquippa has shutout four of their foes this season and Jeannette has not recorded a shutout so far this season.
 

WPIAL CLASS A Finals:  #1 Clairton Bears (12-0) vs. #2 Sto-Rox Vikings (12-0)

WPIAL Titles: 
• Clairton (8) – (1929/1931/1954/1898/2006/2008/2009/2010)
• Sto-Rox (2) – (1966/1987)

Coaches:
• Clairton – Tom Nola (10th Season) – (111-19)
• Coach Nola has won 4 WPIAL Titles & finished as the runner up once. He is (26-4) in the WPIAL Playoffs.
• Clairton has won at least 10 wins in 7 of Coach Nola’s 10 seasons.

• Sto-Rox – Ron Butschle 2nd Year of his 2nd Stint (19-3)
• Coach Butschle’s first tenure was from 2000-2004. His overall record at the school is (46-20). The Vikings are (7-3) in the WPIAL playoffs under Butschle and were the Class A runner up in 2003.

Notables:
• Clairton has won 43rd consecutive games. They have 15 straight WPIAL playoff victories. The Bears are closing in on the all-time WPIAL winning streak of 46 games set by Braddock High in the 1950’s.
• Clairton’s last loss was in the 2009 season opener. The Bears were upset by Laurel 15-8 on September 9, 2009. That loss followed Clairton’s loss in the state championship game in 2008. Steelton-Highspire beat the bears 35-16 in the PIAA Class A title game.
• During the winning streak, Clairton has averaged 44.6 points per game while allowing only 3.3. The Bears have posted 27 shutouts in the 43 wins.
• This is Clairton’s 4th straight appearance at Heinz Field. The Bears have won the last 3 WPIAL Class A titles. If the Bears win a fourth consecutive championship, that would mark the longest such streak since Braddock won 5 straight WPIAL Class AA championships from 1955-1959.
• Clairton has appeared in 5 of the last 6 WPIAL Class championship games, winning the championship in 2006 and the past three titles.
• The Bears (46.2) PPG and Vikings (42.6) PPG are the two top scoring teams in the WPIAL.
• Both teams can play defense as well. Clairton’s average of (3.8) points allowed is tops in the WPIAL. Sto-Rox allows just (8.8) points per game on average, that ranks ninth.
• Senior’s Trenton Coles and Capri Thompson both saw game action in the 2009 & 2010 title wins over Rochester.
• Speaking of seniors, Clairton’s Carvan Thompson will set quite a mark this Saturday, when the lineman makes his 61st start of his career.  That will set state record for most starts in a career. Southern Columbia’s Josh Marks and Strath Haven’s Dan Connor both started 60 games. If Clairton makes the PIAA title game, Thompson could finish his career with 64 starts. Thompson has started at Heinz Field all four years of his high school career. Thomspon started the first game of his freshman year in 2008. During that span, the Bears are (58-2).
• Clairton’s junior RB Tyler Boyd has scored 246 points so far in 2011. That is more points than 80 WPIAL teams.
• Sto-Rox scored just 12 points in its semifinal win over Bishop Canevin. That was the lowest output of season for the Vikings. Prior to that contest, their season low was 29 points in a regular season ending shutout of Cornell. It was also the lowest point total posted by Sto-Rox since a (10-8) loss to North Catholic in last year’s opening round of the playoffs.
• QB Lenny Williams for Sto-Rox has passed for (2,051) yards and 30 touchdowns this season. His tow year numbers are quite impressive, 3,268-yards and 39 career TD passes.
• This is Sto-Rox High School's first appearance in the WPIAL Final since 2003.
• The Sto-Rox Vikings have scored (72) touchdowns this season.
• Clairton has recorded eight shutouts so far this season while Sto-Rox has registered five blank jobs.
• Of the (8) teams that advanced to the 2011 WPIAL Championship games this year, Clairton averages the most points scored per game with (46.2) and also yields the fewest points per game with (3.8). Their fellow finals opponent Sto-Rox is second in points scored per game with (42.6) and Class AA finalist Aliquippa is second in fewest points allowed per game with (8.0).
• Sto-Rox features (3) seniors who are Division One recruits, Marzett Geter (Pittsburgh), Dontez Ford (Syracuse) and Deaysean Rippy (undecided).  They also have a pair of future Division One prospects in sophomore, quarterback, Lenny Williams and junior, running back, Joshua Beverly. 

Tags: Aliquippa, Clairton, Jeannette, Knoch, Upper St. Clair