J-M蘑菇视频 10-0 record only nets No. 6 seed in playoffs; Mikes left out of playoff field
Jim Downey | 蘑菇视频
Jefferson-Morgan’s thrilling 28-27 victory at California Friday night may have earned the Rockets the Tri-County South Conference championship but it apparently did little to impress the WPIAL football committee.
The WPIAL football playoff pairings were released on Saturday afternoon and Jefferson-Morgan (10-0) was seeded sixth in the 16-team Class 1A bracket and will host No. 11 South Side (6-3), the third-place team out of the Big 7 Conference, in a first-round game this Friday.
At least J-M is in the postseason. The committee awarded one of four Class 1A wild card berths to Brentwood, the fifth-place team out of the Eastern Conference, instead of Carmichaels, which tied for third place in the TCS but only ranked fourth after tiebreakers were applied. Only the top three teams in each Class 1A conference received an automatic spot in the postseason.
The Mikes sported a 5-3 overall record and were 4-3 in the TCS. The Spartans were 4-6 overall and 3-4 in the Eastern Conference. What stung Carmichaels even more was that two of Brentwood’s four wins came against winless teams. The combined record of teams the Mikes defeated was 11-38 (.222 winning percentage) to 5-32 (.135) for the Spartans, who had one less win than Carmichaels despite playing two more games.
The two had one common opponent in Frazier. Bentworth beat the Commodores, 41-18, and the Mikes also defeated them, 50-20.
“It’s disappointing when you compare the records and look at some of the scores,” Carmichaels coach Ryan Krull said. “Now I will say this. We have to take responsibility, too. We placed fourth in our conference. We knew they were only taking only the top three teams as automatically in. We didn’t take care of our business in three of those other contests. So we left ourselves open to be at the mercy of the committee, unfortunately.
“Our conference does always seem to get underseeded and then we play a much tougher first-round game than a lot of other I feel comparable teams, then people say, look they lost.”
Granted the spot the Mikes and Spartans were vying for was the 16th seed and a date with No. 1 Fort Cherry, but reaching the playoffs is a reward all teams would like to have on their resume, Krull pointed out.
“We would’ve welcomed the chance to play Fort Cherry,” Krull said. “We owe it to our kids to give them every possibility they can get to compete on Fridays. We wanted that extra game.
“Anyone who says well it doesn’t matter, either of us will be playing the No. 1 seed, or those who might say they’d rather not make the playoffs than have their kids get embarrassed in a game, that’s cowardly. That’s everything we’re against at Carmichaels.”
Had last year’s playoff rules still been in effect, Carmicahels would’ve qualified.
As for the rest of the Tri-County South, second-place California (7-3) was seeded 10th and third-place Bentworth was slotted at No. 14 which means both will be on the road in Friday’s first round. The Trojans are at No. 7 Laurel (5-5), the second-place team in the Big 7, and the Bearcats travel to No. 3 Bishop Canevin (7-2), which finished second to Fort Cherry in the Black Hills Conference.
The top four seeds in Class 1A are Fort Cherry, Clairton, Bishop Canevin and Neshannock, with Greensburg Central Catholic fifth, just ahead of the Rockets.
In Class 2A, Waynesburg Central (6-4) which tied for second place behind undefeated and top-seeded Seton LaSalle in the Century Conference, didn’t get much love either as it was seeded at No. 11 in the 13-team bracket and has a first-round date with sixth-seeded South Allegheny (8-2), the third-place team out of the Allegheny Conference.
The top four seeds in Class 2A are Seton LaSalle, South Park, Ellwood City and Steel Valley.
In Class 3A, Interstate Conference champion Elizabeth Forward (7-3) was seeded third and received a first-round bye.Southmoreland and Mount Pleasant, who finished in a tie for second behind the Warriors, were seeded at No. 8 and No. 10.
The Scotties, as a top-eight seed in the 16-team bracket, received a home game and will meet No. 9 Highlands (5-4), the fourth-place team in the Allegheny 7 Conference. The Vikings (5-5) travel to No. 7 Freeport (7-3), the third-place team out of the Allegheny 7.
The top four seeds in Class 3A are Imani Christian, Central Valley, EF and Beaver.
Belle Vernon, which dropped into third place in the Big Six Conference after falling at Trinity Friday, received one of two wild card spots to gain entry into the eight-team Class 4A field. The Leopards (4-4) were seeded sixth and play at No. 3 McKeesport (6-4), the Greater Allegheny Conference champion, which already defeated Belle Vernon in a non-conference game on the Tigers’ field, 28-7, on Sept. 13.