Avonworth, Pittsburgh Central Catholic Look to Add PIAA Titles to Already Memorable Seasons

Saturday marks the final day of high school football across the state of Pennsylvania.

After Clairton claimed PIAA gold earlier in the week, two other local teams look to walk away as state champions on Saturday, Class-3A representative Avonworth and Class-6A powerhouse Pittsburgh Central Catholic.

The PIAA Class-6A Championship will be a rematch of a star-studded Week 0 matchup between Pittsburgh Central Catholic and LaSalle College High School. The two storied teams met back in August at the Wolvarena in Turtle Creek and LaSalle walked away as 23-6 victors.

While the Explores took care of business pretty easily at the start of the season, the loss helped the Vikings grow as a team as they rattled off 12-straight victories since that point and figured out their identity in the process.

A big reason that the Vikings ran the table since the opening-week loss is the play of running back/linebacker Roman Thompson. The junior carried the Vikings offense with more than 20 total touchdowns and played a huge role on a star-studded defense that has Division-I commits across the board.

Aside from Thompson, who has offers from schools such as Pitt and Penn State, the Vikings defense is loaded with guys like linebacker Colsen Gatten (Duke) and edge rusher Ashton Blatt (North Carolina).

The rematch will not be easy for the Vikings though as the Explorers are equally stacked with Division-I recruits littered throughout the roster including quarterback Gavin Sidwar (Missouri), safety Joey O’Brien (Notre Dame) and J.P. Oates (Virginia Tech).

While the lone blemish on Pittsburgh Central Catholic’s season has come against LaSalle, it may work out in the Vikings favor. Not only have the Vikings already seen what type of team the Explorers are, they will have revenge on their mind which should result in a rock fight come 7 p.m. on Saturday.

The other PIAA championship bout on Saturday is a Class-3A showdown between two undefeated teams, Avonworth and Northwestern Lehigh, and it also serves as a rematch to last year’s state championship game in which the Lopes left as runners up after a 36-33 overtime loss.

Again, the local team will walk onto Chapman Field looking for revenge, and based on their recent performances, the Lopes look more than ready for the fight ahead.

The Antelopes have looked outright dominate in their postseason run as they took down a star-studded Imani Christian team in the WPIAL Championship before downing a notoriously strong Penn Cambria team in the semifinals last week.

The Lopes are not like many smaller classification schools as they can beat a team in a variety of ways, whether that is through the air, on the ground or with a physical defensive game plan.

They displayed all of those things in their dominate 30-6 win over Imani Christian just a few weeks back.

Luca Neal is an athlete which goes a long way in the Lopes’ offensive success. In the WPIAL Championship win, Neal rushed 12 times for 111 yards and a touchdown while adding three catches for 63 yards, 61 coming after the catch.

Another player that continuously flashed on the Lopes’ offense this season was sophomore Jaden Jones, who added a 37-yard touchdown reception in the WPIAL Class-3A title game.

The Lopes will rely on the both of them immensely in the state title rematch against a Northwestern Lehigh team that is looking to repeat as champions.

While the two met in the state championship a season ago, the two programs have a lot in common as each have rose the dynasty-like heights in recent years. Northwestern Lehigh is gearing up for its third-straight PIAA title appearance while Avonworth has become a team to fear across the WPIAL over the last handful of seasons.

Based on each team’s success this year, and the feelings of last year’s game still in mind, Saturday’s championship should be one for the ages. Kickoff is at 1 p.m. at Chapman Field in Cumberland Valley.