District Nine Playoff Preview

Tagged under: District 9, News, Playoffs

Phil Myers | November 5, 2026

Let the playoff games begin.  Pennsylvania high school football warms up as district and state playoffs begin this week.  District Nine is a small school haven because the majority of the 21 teams in D-9 are in the 1A or 2A classification.  In fact, 11 of the 21 District Nine teams are classified as 1A.

1A

Keystone (9-1) is the number one seed and has a bye this week as only 7 teams entered the post season extravaganza.  The Panthers, who have won 8 straight football games, will draw the winner of this week’s quarterfinal game between fifth seeded Redbank Valley (5-4) who plays at Ridgway (6-4) who is the fourth seed.  The Elkers slaughtered Redbank 42-6 early in the season.  It is doubtful the score will be that lopsided this time around as the Bulldogs have made some adjustments since then and have been playing good football.

Brockway (8-2) garnered the number two seed, and they too have won 8 in a row.  The Rovers will play host to the number seven seed, Union/AC Valley (5-5).  The Falcon Knights have given Brockway some trouble here and there in recent meetings.  These two teams have not played each other since the 2024 regular season.  Brockway won 41-20 back then and they split a pair of games in 2023 with Brockway winning 27-20 in the playoffs.

The Port Allegany Gators (6-4) are the defending District NIne 1A Champs and come into the 2026 playoffs as the number three seed.  They will have the home field against the Smethport Hubbers (8-1), the number six seed.  Port Allegany gave Smethport their only loss by a score of 56-7 early in the 2026 campaign.  The Hubbers are a better team now so the score of this playoff game may not be that askewed. 

The Brockway-UACV winner will take on the Port Allegany-Smethport winner next week, probably at a neutral site.  All 1A games this week are Friday and game time is 7:00.

2A

Due to complications, last week began the 2A playoffs when Central Clarion, the number two seed, pounded Moniteau, the number three seed, by a score of 73-8.  This week is the title game, as the number one seed Karns City (9-1) will play Central Clarion (6-4) at Brookville Friday night.  Central Clarion gave Karns City their only loss of the year, 43-14.  All four of the Wildcat losses have been by 7 points or less.  In fact, they lost to undefeated General McLane in overtime in a game that saw the Lancers score in the waning seconds to send the game to overtime.  For the most part the Karns City Gremlins have rolled to victories this year with a couple of exceptions.  Look for a lot closer game this week between two pretty good teams.  The winner gets state ranked Westinghouse the next week.

3A

Punxsutawney (7-3) is the only D-9 representative in this classification.  Additionally, there is supposed to be a subregion with Districts 5 and 8 along with 9, but the Chucks are the sole representative for all three districts.  As a result, they will have byes for the next two weeks.  On either Nov. 21st or 22nd they will play the champion from District 6.

4A

Clearfield (4-6) will be the lone team out of District Nine and will be playing the District Eight representative in a subregional contest, University Prep (5-4) from the Pittsburgh City League.  The game will be played Saturday November 7 at 1:00 at Mansell Stadium in DuBois.  The winner gets a bye the following week and then on Nov. 21st or 22nd will play the District Ten champion.  The Bison beat University Prep in the 2024 playoffs by a score of 34-24.

5A

DuBois (6-4) is the only 5A team in District Nine.  The Beavers will be on the road to tackle Hollidaysburg (7-2) in a District 9-6 subregional with the winner going up against the District Two champion the week after (Nov. 13 or 14).  The game is Friday night at 7:00.  Hollidaysburg came to DuBois last week and beat them 51-14.  So, this will be the second week in a row theyl play each other.  The Golden Tigers have been a nemesis over the years for DuBois.  The last time DuBois beat Hollidaysburg was back in 2009 by a score of 24-14.