It’s off to the PIAA State Football Tournament for the Bellefonte and State College football teams after both came through with big wins Nov. 10.
The Raiders won their first District 6 championship since 1999 with a 34-12 win over Johnstown, and State College won its fourth straight sub-regional playoff game, 48-12, over Erie Area.
Now, both teams will be representing the district when the tournament begins this weekend, Friday, Nov. 17, and Saturday, Nov. 18, and both will face difficult challenges in their first-round games.
6-1 State College (9-2) vs. 2-1 Delaware Valley (12-0)
6-A first round
7 p.m., Friday, Nov. 17, Danville High School
District 2 champion Delaware Valley comes into this game with an impressive resume.
The Warriors are a perfect 12-0 for the season and have wins over such teams as Valley View (28-24), Wyoming Valley West (35-25), West Scranton (42-0), Hazleton (twice), Scranton (also twice) and Williamsport (55-17). The Valley View game Sept. 1 was the closest of the season, and DelVal has been barely challenged since that night. No one else came within 14 points and the Warriors scored 35 or more points seven times.
Delaware Valley’s two playoff wins came in the second meetings against both Scranton (49-28) and Hazleton (31-3), and no team has come within two touchdowns since Sept. 30.
The Warriors are impressive on both sides of the ball. They average more than 30 points and 370 yards of offense per game.
Their running game gets 240 yards every time out and is led by senior Ryan Obiso who has run for 1,635 yards (136 yards per game) and 20 touchdowns. Against Scranton, in the first round of the playoffs, Obiso erupted for and incredible 364 yards on 36 carries and five touchdowns.
Senior Nick Reilly is the quarterback, and he has 94 completions in 165 attempts for 1,539 yards and 14 touchdowns, and his favorite receivers are seniors Dylan Kelly (522 yards, five touchdowns) and C.J. Anderson (431 yards, five touchdowns).
Obiso and Reilly lead the team in total yards with a combined 276 yards per game.
On defense, DelVal is very aggressive. The Warriors piled up 26 sacks, seven fumble recoveries and 20 interceptions. Kelly leads the team in interceptions with 10, almost one every game. Scranton was the only team to score more than 17 points against the very-solid DelVal defense since Wyoming Valley West on Sept. 8.
State College also will come into this game on a roll. The Little Lions have won their last three games in romps and look like they have yet to reach their potential. Losses to Cumberland Valley and Harrisburg aside, SC is perhaps even faster and more dangerous than it was last season at this point.
Then, State College found itself in almost the same situation of going into the PIAA first round against this region’s champion, which was Williamsport. The Millionaires used speed and long plays to outscore the somewhat hobbled Little Lions and ended their season.
Delaware Valley, although a bit less explosive than that Williamsport team, will nonetheless present just as imposing a challenge.
The winner will face either the WPIAL’s Pine Richland (12-0) or Central Catholic (10-2).
6-1 Bellefonte (10-2) vs. 4-1 Selinsgrove (10-2)
4-A first round
Altoona High School Mansion Park, Saturday, Nov. 18
District 4 champion Selinsgrove ran roughshod over Shikellamy in the championship game Nov. 10 by a score of 34-0.
The score of that game is notable because Shikellamy is one of only two teams to beat Selinsgrove this season when the 9-3 Braves eked out a 26-24 win. The rematch, on the other hand, was no contest.
Selinsgrove led 14-0 at halftime and kept up the pressure — on offense and defense — and cruised away with the win.
As he has all season, quarterback Logan Leiby led the Seals with 156 passing yards and two touchdowns, while junior running back Joe Kahn ran 40 times for 175 yards and a touchdown. Leiby also added 81 yards on the ground and another two scores.
For the season, Kahn has 948 yards on the ground with 11 touchdowns, and Leiby has 290 on 91 carries and five touchdowns.
Through the air, Leiby completed 200 of 303 passes (65 percent) for 3,200 yards and 35 touchdowns. He averages almost 270 yards per game passing.
Leiby’s top receivers are seniors Ricky Cope (497 yards, eight touchdowns) and Jarett Inch (1,062 yards, 13 touchdowns). Inch, at 6-foot-2 and 195 pounds, has scored at least one touchdown in the last six Seal games and has six games in which he went over 100 yards receiving.
Defensively, Selinsgrove has been hitting its stride since the beginning of the playoffs and gave up just seven points against Jersey Shore and Shikellamy.
For Bellefonte, it is difficult to imagine the Raiders doing anything different than relying on their playmakers — Dylan Deitrich, C.J. Funk and Dexter Gallishaw — and, of course, their steadfast defense.
This will be new territory for Bellefonte — the Raiders haven’t been in the tournament for 18 years — but this whole season has been new territory in many ways already. Another new challenge, which this team seems to relish, will be nothing new and probably very welcome.
The winner heads east against either 1-1 Pottsgrove or 11-1 Bethlehem Catholic.
Kickoff is at 1 p.m. in Altoona.
