Thirty-four years isn’t too long of a time. At 34, a baseball player is only a little past his prime. A football player is closing in on the end of a career. Yet, it’s been that long since Valley, a Class AA school, won a section title — until now. Valley won its first section title since 1970 and qualified for the WPIAL playoffs, which begin Saturday. Valley, one of 17 Class AA schools that qualified, plays Riverside on Monday at Herb Field in Ross Township. Other schools include powerhouses Blackhawk, South Park and Mt. Pleasant, all of which won their respective conferences. Mohawk, which finished the season with an 8-8 section record, won the section over playoff-bound Riverside and Beaver Falls. “Our exhibition schedule is as good an anybody’s going into it,” said Mohawk coach Archie Donofrio. “We ended on a high note in league play. We should have a good showing for ourselves.” Mount Pleasant, who made it to the playoffs in 2002, beat out Yough and Derry for the section title. Yough qualified for the PIAA playoffs, losing 5-4 to Grove City in the first round. Yough plays Washington at California (Pa.) University at 3 p.m. Monday. Greensburg Central Catholic returns to the playoffs for the first time since their PIAA title run in 2002. “We went four years in a row, missed a year and now, we’re going back,” GCC coach Jack Korpar said. “We lost our middle infield (to graduation) but we have a couple freshmen who stepped in. We’re a young team; we only got two seniors. … We can hit and field with anyone.” The Centurions play Northgate on Monday at Shaler. In AAA, 20 teams qualified for the playoffs, requiring four preliminary games. Four teams — Greater Latrobe, Indiana Area, Penn-Trafford and Norwin — tied for the section title in Section 1. “It’s happened before,” Indiana coach Doug Steve said about the four-way tie. “I think this goes to show you how competitive this division is. This is one of the stronger divisions in the WPIAL.” Among the four teams from that section, Indiana has the longest playoff drought. Both Greater Latrobe and Norwin appeared in the postseason last year, and Penn-Trafford went in 2002. Indiana hasn’t been to the playoffs since 2001, when the Indians lost 11-7 to Pine Richland in the first round. “No doubt (we missed it),” he said. “For four straight years, we tied for the second spot and lost out on the tiebreaker. There was a lot of rejoice after we saw P-T beat Norwin. It helped us get over the Latrobe loss a little quicker.” If Norwin would have beaten Penn-Trafford on Wednesday, Indiana would have been out of the playoffs on another tiebreaker, because they lost twice to Greater Latrobe. The drought is even more signifigant for Ringgold, which hasn’t made it to the WPIAL playoffs since 1999, when they lost to Shaler in the WPIAL championship game 6-3. For the first time in 12 years, according to athletic director Jim Lembo, Connellsville failed to make the playoffs. “We lost seven out of nine starters,” said Falcons coach Brian Shipley. “We were just inexperienced and got off to a late start. We were trying to play catchup the whole year.”

---

Copyright ©2026— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)

---