In 16th straight WPIAL title game appearance, Aliquippa to meet worthy adversary in McKeesport

By: Chris Harlan
Wednesday, November 22, 2023 | 10:23 PM

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As a first-year coach, Matt Miller led McKeesport to the 2016 WPIAL finals, a rapid ascent that maybe skewed his perception of the playoffs.

“I thought it was easy,” Miller said with a laugh. “Young and dumb, right?”

After a few heartbreaking near misses in the past seven years, Miller said he can appreciate just how tough it truly is to reach the finals. That perspective also makes Aliquippa’s streak of reaching 16 consecutive championship games all the more impressive to him.

“It’s crazy, absolutely crazy,” Miller said. “You figure you’d at least have some bad luck, some injuries, an illness, something. They’ve been able to figure it out year in and year out and play great football.”

The Quips have reached the WPIAL finals every year since 2008. This time, No. 2 seed McKeesport (11-1) awaits No. 1 Aliquippa (11-0) in the Class 4A final at 8 p.m. Friday at Acrisure Stadium.

The streak itself is older than some of the players on Aliquippa’s roster. Sixth-year coach Mike Warfield has reached the finals every year and already has won three titles.

The Quips overall have the most WPIAL titles in league history with 19.

“We’re not going to take anything or anyone for granted, but we appreciate it at the same time,” Warfield said of the championship streak.

This is the third year in a row that McKeesport and Aliquippa will meet in the playoffs, joining semifinal battles from 2021 and ’22. Aliquippa won both of those, including a dramatic double-overtime game two years ago.

Aliquippa went on to win WPIAL titles both years, adding to McKeesport’s heartache. As the top two seeds, there was no surprise to see a rematch here in the finals.

“They’re always good, and we felt we had a pretty good team this year to kind of get over the hump,” Miller said, “get into the championship game and see if we can make something happen.”

McKeesport is seeking its first WPIAL title since 2005.

Both teams like to run the ball, but they have very different styles.

Aliquippa leans heavily on Penn State-bound junior Tiqwai Hayes and more traditional schemes. McKeesport runs a triple-option offense that’s built on misdirection and spreads the ball around to multiple rushers.

As a result, three McKeesport running backs have double-digit touchdown totals this season: junior Anthony Boyd (13), freshman Kemon Spell (11) and senior Keith Spell (10).

While Boyd leads the team with 1,300 yards, Keith Spell has emerged as a late-season workhorse as a 6-foot-2, 255-pound fullback. The older of the Spell brothers had 190 yards and three touchdown in last week’s 28-14 win over Montour.

“They’re all good players who, if you blink, they can take it to the house,” Warfield said. “We’ve got to read our keys. Our kids have got to be disciplined to defend against this style of offense.”

Warfield said McKeesport is probably the fastest team Aliquippa has faced this year.

“We watch some teams (on video) that look like they have decent speed, but when they play us, it looks like they slow down a little bit,” Warfield said. “But this McKeesport team, I think their speed is real.”

Aliquippa’s workhorse is Hayes, who’ll make his third start in the WPIAL finals. He has 1,645 rushing yards and 18 touchdowns this season after a 202-yard effort against Mars in the semifinals.

The Quips also feature running back John Tracy, a senior with 10 touchdowns.

One difference about this year’s Aliquippa team is the offensive line. The Quips graduated three super-sized standouts from a year ago, but that doesn’t mean this year’s linemen are small.

Senior tackle Kamari Matthews (6-4, 300) is the biggest of the group. Senior center Braylon Wilcox (6-0, 245) also started against McKeesport a year ago.

“Now they’re just ‘big,’ not ‘overly big’ like they’ve been the last couple of years,” Miller said. “They’re kind of the prototypical Aliquippa team. They’re big up front, they have great skill and some elite players.”

McKeesport’s last appearance in the WPIAL finals ended in a 38-37 overtime loss to West Allegheny in 2016. Miller and his Tigers thought they’d won the title when West A missed a last-second field goal, but a penalty led to another attempt and eventually overtime.

“We thought we had it won a couple of times,” Miller said. “I even got a Gatorade bath that night after they missed the field goal.”

The heartache didn’t end there for McKeesport. The Tigers also lost to the eventual WPIAL champion in the 2018 quarterfinals (Penn Hills) and the 2019 semifinals (Gateway), both in Class 5A.

In 2021, they lost in the 4A semifinals to Aliquippa, 27-21, in double overtime. Last year, Aliquippa ran away with a 42-7 semifinal victory.

So, before this year’s playoff brackets were even released, McKeesport assumed the path to a championship eventually would run through Aliquippa.

“You kind of figure you’re eventually going to see them in the semifinals or championship game,” Miller said. “It might as well be the day after Thanksgiving.”

Chris Harlan is a TribLive reporter covering sports. He joined the Trib in 2009 after seven years as a reporter at the Beaver County Times. He can be reached at charlan@triblive.com.

Tags: Aliquippa, McKeesport