Fort Cherry gets No. 1 seed, Trinity, Peters Twp. earn No. 2 seeds in WPIAL football playoffs
Mark Marietta/For the Observer-Reporter
Fort Cherry will begin its three-peat bid in Class A as a top seed.
Trinity’s reward for winning the Big Six Conference is the No. 2 seed in Class 5A and a rematch with Aliquippa.
Peters Township’s unbeaten regular season earned it a bye.
Those three items and the rest of the matchups were revealed when the WPIAL released the 2025 football brackets Saturday afternoon.
The Rangers will host fellow Washington County school Avella in the first round for the Class A playoffs. Avella received the final wild card and the No. 16 seed in the bracket.
Allegheny Six Conference champ Peters Township will host the winner of No.7 Bethel Park and No. 10 North Hills in the Class 5A quarterfinals on Sept. 7. Peters Township blanked Bethel Park, 35-0, Friday.
Trinity won a conference title for the first time since 1986. The Hillers will look to cash in on home field advantage against a perennial power in Aliquippa. The Quips won last year’s first round meeting 34-14, which was played at Aliquippa.
“We’re excited for the opportunity,” Trinity coach Dan Knause said. “We love playing at home. We have one of the best home venues in the WPIAL. We look forward to playing a tough Aliquippa team.”
Several other local schools will host first-round games on Friday. All games are scheduled for a 7 p.m. kickoff.
After falling to Seton LaSalle 27-14 in the de facto Century Conference championship game Friday, Wash High received the No. 5 seed in Class 2A and will host No. 12 Beaver Falls.
In Class A, Tri-County South champ California was given the No. 6 seed and hosts No. 11 Frazier. Bentworth got the No. 7 seed and a home game against No. 10 Jeanette.
Waynesburg got the 13th and final spot in the Class 2A bracket and will play at No. 4 South Allegheny.
In Class A, Jefferson-Morgan got the No. 13 seed and will play at No. 4 Laurel. The Rockets will look to become the second Tri-County South team in a row to upset the Spartans after California beat them last year.
Chartiers-Houston is back in the playoffs for the first time since 2021 and is the No.12 seed. The Bucs play at No. 5 South Side Beaver. Monessen is the No. 15 seed and travels to No. 2 Clairton.
Canon-McMillan finished fourth after winning tiebreakers over Mt. Lebanon and Seneca Valley and will play against top-seeded Central Catholic, Sept. 7 at a site and time to be determined. The Vikings beat the Big Macs 45-10 Friday.
One of the surprises was South Fayette being left out of the Class 5A field. The Lions finished fifth in the Allegheny Six, but that was good enough for a wild card last year. Not this time. The steering committee gave four bids to each of the three conferences this year with Armstrong and Plum getting the final wild cards.