Take one look at the tale of the tape for Friday’s WPIAL Class 2A semifinal clash between No. 2 South Park and No. 3 Ellwood City at North Allegheny, and the two teams almost appear to be mirror images of one another.
For starters, each team is fueled by a stellar senior running back with hopes of culminating their record-setting high school career by playing in their first WPIAL championship game. Both squads also rely heavily on their stout offensive lines to control the line of scrimmage by dominating in the trenches. And above all else, each program is enjoying its best season in a long, long time — and the Eagles and Wolverines are both backed by spirited fan bases that are desperate to relive their long-lost glory days.
“Our goal at the beginning of the season was to get down to [Acrisure Stadium] and have a chance to play there, and now we’re on the doorstep,” said South Park coach Brian Abbey. “Every matchup is unique. It really doesn’t matter how we do it, as long as we’re on that winning side. … Whatever it takes to get it done. That’s been the motto all year.”
As for Ellwood City, a win against the Eagles would send the upstart Wolverines (10-0) to their first WPIAL championship game in 37 years — and if Ellwood City can find a way to win the whole thing, fans all throughout Lawrence County will be partying like it’s 1925.
“No pressure,” said Wolverines coach Dan Bradley. “Just the support has been outstanding. Our games, they’re packed. We’ve got a great environment. Our fans make noise. It’s pretty good right now.”
Circling back to the running backs, it truly is remarkable how similar South Park’s Eric Doerue and Ellwood City’s Elijah Palmer-McCane are, both on paper and on film. Just take a look at how they stack up — Doerue (6-0, 205) has 1,458 yards rushing and 21 touchdowns on the year, while Palmer-McCane (6-0, 200) has 1,421 yards rushing with 19 scores. For his career, Doerue has rushed for 4,515 yards and scored 61 total TDs, and Palmer-McCane has 4,183 career yards and 50 total TDs. Both players also sit atop their school’s respective thrones as the leading rusher in program history.
“Both have had outstanding careers,” Bradley said. “They’ll be the difference for whichever team wins. Their guy will be the difference.”
But while Palmer-McCane strictly focuses his energy toward the offensive side of the ball for the Wolverines, Doerue is equally impactful on defense as a hard-hitting linebacker capable of filling the hole and chasing ball-carriers down from sideline to sideline for the Eagles (10-1). He already holds a scholarship offer from Bowling Green, but where Doerue ends up playing in college and which side of the ball he will line up on remains to be seen.
“I always feel like he should be getting a lot more [interest],” Abbey said. “He can play on Saturdays on either side of the ball.”
Paving the way for Doerue up front are twin brothers Parker and Troy Cunningham, two of the top offensive linemen in the area. Parker is a James Madison recruit who lines up at right tackle, while Troy is a left tackle with several FBS scholarship offers. On defense, they typically line up next to one another on the interior, although Troy is also capable of playing defensive end as well.
“They’re both physical kids,” Abbey said. “They’re both very athletic. They complement each other very well. … They’re the anchors on each side of our line, so it gives us balance.
“That’s where the game is going to be won or lost. We welcome it, because we know we have our strength there. But they’re going to give us a really tough test.”
It’s no secret that both teams prefer to run the ball, and South Park likely has the more potent rushing attack with junior quarterback Robert Lenzi (787 yards rushing, 8.6 yards per carry) and versatile receiver Kenyan Brown (391 yards rushing, 7.5 ypc) in addition to Doerue. Still, the Wolverines might have the more balanced offense with senior quarterback Chris Smiley running the show.
A three-year starter who ranks as the leading passer in school history with 3,988 career yards, Smiley has passed for 1,359 yards and 15 touchdowns on the year, and he has a handful of reliable receivers to spread the ball around to — including Dom Hogue (23 catches, 371 yards, 2 TDs), Dailonn Currie (19 catches, 287 yards, 5 TDs) and Gavin Partridge (8 catches, 199 yards, 2 TDs).
“We tend to throw it more [than they do],” Bradley said. “They’re efficient in their passing game. … Hopefully we get some balance and some big plays out of our passing game as well.”
This is only the Eagles’ third appearance in the semifinals in the past two decades, and a win on Friday night would send them to their first WPIAL championship game since 2005, when they finished 16-0 while capturing WPIAL and PIAA crowns. But for Ellwood City, a win would snap a much longer drought, as the Wolverines haven’t played in a WPIAL final since 1987, and their only WPIAL title came all the way back in 1925.
No matter what happens, fans can expect an action-packed, back-and-forth clash where the team that does a better job limiting mistakes and taking care of the ball will likely come out on top.
“It seems kind of fitting, with all the rankings and predictions throughout the season,” Bradley said. “All the rankings, 2-3, 3-2, all the same. Us vs. them, both wearing blue and white. … We’re just happy to be there, and hopefully we rise to the challenge.”
In the other Class 2A semifinal, No. 1 Seton LaSalle (10-0) puts its undefeated record on the line against surging Steel Valley (8-3), with the No. 4 Ironmen riding a seven-game winning streak into Friday’s contest at West Mifflin. Steel Valley is seeking its third consecutive WPIAL championship appearance after falling just short of claiming back-to-back titles last season, while the Rebels are looking to secure their first trip to the final in 20 years.
Seton LaSalle boasts both the No. 1 scoring offense (43.8 ppg) and No. 1 scoring defense (10.1 ppg) in all of Class 2A, and the Rebels have been nothing short of dominant over the past two months. Following a pair of hotly contested matchups in a 23-12 win against North Catholic and a 21-14 triumph over Bishop Canevin to start the season, Seton LaSalle has won each of its past eight games by 24 points or more.
The Rebels have a plethora of top-notch playmakers at their disposal, but sophomore wideout Khalil Taylor is the main attraction. A blue-chip recruit ranked by Rivals as one of the top-100 prospects in the nation in the 2027 class, Taylor leads the team with 44 receptions for 858 yards and 21 touchdowns on the season. Elsewhere, Logan King has 169 carries for 1,054 yards and 16 TDs, while quarterback Mike Pastirik has been nearly flawless, completing 106-of-155 attempts for 1,817 yards and 31 touchdowns to only three interceptions.
On the other side, the Ironmen feature the terrific Barksdale brothers, two of the most dynamic and explosive playmakers in the WPIAL. After recovering from a knee injury that cost him almost the entire 2023 season, Da’Ron Barksdale took over as Steel Valley’s starting quarterback in a Week 4 win against Waynesburg on Sept. 20, and the Ironmen haven’t lost since.
A coveted junior with offers from Pitt, West Virginia and Syracuse, among others, the dual-threat QB has done most of his damage with his legs for Steel Valley this season, rushing for 789 yards and 16 TDs while averaging 10.1 yards per carry. His older brother, senior tailback Donald Barksdale, is one of only 27 players in WPIAL history with more than 5,000 yards rushing for his career. He now has 2,150 yards rushing and 33 TDs on the year, giving him back-to-back seasons with more than 2,000 yards on the ground for the Ironmen.
Class 1A
While each of the top-four seeds are still alive in Class 2A, only three of the top four survived to reach the Class 1A semifinals. Defending champion Fort Cherry is back in the semifinal round as the No. 1 seed along with No. 2 Clairton and No. 3 Bishop Canevin, while No. 13 Jeannette is crashing the party as the Cinderella story making its first semifinal appearance since 2020.
In order for the Jayhawks to keep their magical playoff run alive, they will need to pull off a massive upset against Matt Sieg and the undefeated Rangers on Friday at Canon-McMillan. Fresh off announcing his verbal commitment to Penn State last week, the heralded junior steered Fort Cherry (12-0) to a come-from-behind 27-20 win against Cornell in the quarterfinals while passing and rushing for two touchdowns apiece.
That gives Sieg an even 150 total touchdowns for his career — only 27 TDs shy of the PIAA record — and he still has another full season left to go. With 3,913 yards passing for his career, Sieg needs only 87 yards through the air on Friday to join Jeannette legend Terrelle Pryor as the second WPIAL quarterback to pass and rush for 4,000 yards in his career.
Sieg is having another spectacular season for the Rangers, passing for 1,022 yards and 19 TDs with four interceptions to go with 1,495 yards rushing and 24 rushing TDs — but he isn’t doing it alone. His top target, senior Shane Cornali, has 29 catches for 562 yards and 14 TDs, while Braydon Cook has 25 receptions for 315 yards and four scores. Sophomore running back Ryan Huey has 651 yards and 11 TDs on 119 carries, and Eli Salvini (49 carries for 458 yards) and Christian Yanosko (60 carries for 329 yards) also see plenty of work in the backfield.
For Jeannette (9-3), junior quarterback Ky’mone Brown is having one of the biggest breakout seasons of any local player in 2024. Brown has completed 79-of-146 attempts for 1,540 yards and 19 touchdowns with nine interceptions, and he also leads the team by a wide margin with 1,113 yards rushing and 15 TDs on the ground. Sophomore wideout Jayce Powell is Brown’s favorite target, with 45 receptions for 791 yards and 15 TDs on the year, while junior tight end Noah Sunder provides another reliable big-play threat with 17 catches for 447 yards and 10 scores.
In the other semifinal, Clairton (12-0) and Bishop Canevin (9-2) will square off at Peters Township Middle School, with the Bears attempting to reach their first WPIAL championship game since 2020 and the Crusaders seeking their third trip to the title game in the past four seasons. Clairton has posted nine shutouts while allowing only 21 points on the year, allowing a measly 1.7 points per game on defense — by far the best mark in the WPIAL. The Bears also boast the WPIAL’s highest-scoring offense at 54.1 ppg.
Clairton has an abundance of playmakers on offense, with senior tailback Drahcir Jones (99 carries, 1,161 yards, 24 TDs) as its centerpiece. At wideout, junior Taris Wooding has 25 receptions for 560 yards and eight TDs, and 6-3 senior Zae-mear Correll has 18 catches for 360 yards and five scores. Versatile juniors Donte Wright (355 yards rushing, 473 yards receiving, 18 total TDs) and Michael Ruffin (313 yards rushing, 325 yards receiving, 13 total TDs) have each made a major impact as well — and of course, tying it all together is junior quarterback Jeff Thompson (1,872 yards passing, 27 TDs, 3 INTs).
As for Bishop Canevin, senior quarterback Kole Olszsewski continues to climb the all-time WPIAL passing leaderboard, as he now ranks No. 16 all time with 6,682 career yards passing. On the season, Olszsewski has completed 134-of-233 passes for 2,254 yards and 23 TDs to eight interceptions.
Speedy sophomore Myontae Mott leads the Crusaders with 961 yards rushing and 18 TDs, and junior Damar Olds has a team-high 45 catches for 858 yards and 13 scores. Jayden Lindsey (31 receptions, 500 yards) and Justin Melvin (23 receptions, 498 yards) round out a talented trio of receivers for Bishop Canevin, and the Crusaders will need each of their offensive weapons to perform at their absolute best in order to stand a chance against the Bears’ top-ranked defense.
Steve is a sports writer at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at srotstein@unionprogress.com.
