5 things to know about ‘moving day’

In professional golf tournaments that are contested over four days, the third round is known as “moving day,” when those on the fringe try to play their way into contention, thus making a move up the leaderboard while others lose touch with the frontrunners.
This is the eighth Friday of the high school football season and it can be considered Moving Day, which is ultimately about jockeying for playoff position. After tonight, teams have to be in a position where running the numbers – Gardner Points and point differential – will be as important as running plays.
Here are five things to watch as we move closer to the WPIAL playoffs:
1. Game of the Week, part 1 - Keystone Oaks at McGuffey. Let’s face it, Sto-Rox is well on its way to the Class 2A Century Conference championship. The Vikings rolled through Keystone Oaks, McGuffey and Washington – three teams with one conference loss each – in consecutive weeks by a combined score of 94-0.
The only remaining mystery is who will finish second in the conference. The Highlanders, Prexies and Golden Eagles play a round-robin over the season’s final three weeks. McGuffey should be wary of KO, not only because the Golden Eagles are on a two-game winning streak in which they outscored their opponents 87-0, but because there is a history lesson.
Ten years ago, back in 2012, a winless (0-7) Keystone Oaks team went to McGuffey and pulled off an upset, knocking the Highlanders out of playoff contention. If you overlook KO, you might suffer a KO punch to your playoff plans.
Game of the Week, part 2 – Fort Cherry at Cornell. What happens tonight in Coraopolis could go a long way in determining where the Rangers and Raiders are on Nov. 4, when the playoffs begin.
The top four teams in the Class A Black Hills Conference will advance to the postseason, and Fort Cherry and Cornell are currently tied for fourth place with 2-2 records. If Fort Cherry can beat a reeling Cornell team that is coming off losses to Bishop Canevin and Burgettstown by a combined score of 89-6, then the Rangers could have their sights set on finishing as high as a tie for second place if it can beat Burgettstown two weeks from today.
2. Avella forfeits - Avella has forfeited its Class A Black Hills Conference football game tonight at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart because injuries have taken the Eagles down to fewer than 15 healthy players.
Avella, the smallest school in WPIAL football, began the season with only 20 players on the roster.
The Eagles have a 1-6 overall record and 1-3 mark in the conference before the forfeit. Avella has been outscored 272-37. OLSH is currently tied for second place in the conference at 3-1 and is 6-1 overall. Burgettstown defeated OLSH last Saturday.
3. Logjam in the Allegheny Six - Bethel Park’s 27-14 victory over Upper St. Clair has scrambled the Class 5A Allegheny Six Conference. The Black Hawks (2-0) are in first place heading into a game tonight against winless Moon. BP finishes the season at South Fayette (1-1) and at home against Peters Township (3-1). USC (2-1) the preseason favorite, ends the season at home against South Fayette, which can still play its way into the title picture. Only the top two finishers are assured of a playoff berth. Class 5A will have two wild cards, but a team must finish in third place in its conference to gain the wild card.
4. Point, counterpoint - If you like high-scoring games, then the Class A Tri-County South Conference is the place for you. There have been 40 games involving at least one team from the TCS this season and the winning team in those games has scored at least 35 points in 28 of them. Last week, Carmichaels edged Monessen 40-36 in a wild game that featured 11 lead changes. Don’t expect the scoring to stop any time soon.
5. Trinity’s last stand? - Trinity still has a chance to make the playoffs out of the Class 4A Big Seven Conference, but at 1-3 and in sixth place the Hillers can’t afford another loss. They host Laurel Highlands (4-2) tonight in a must-win contest and Trinity could use some help in the form of a Connellsville win over Latrobe. History tells us the game against LH could be a close one. The last three meetings between the Hillers and Mustangs have been decided by a combined nine points.