PFN Pennsylvania HS Football Rankings, OH so close in 2023!

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Billy Splain | November 29, 2023

Well, here we are. It’s Semi-Finals week. We had some great games last week, but not many surprises for the Rankings team. Well, yeah, it’s partly because the top 8 in each class faced off. But it’s also in part because, since before the season began, our group of helmetheads was pretty darned close to what the end result is looking like.
A deeper dive shows there are only a few teams in the current rankings that the gurus of the gridiron didn’t have to start the season (sort of). Let’s take a look:

In 6A they didn’t see the excellent season had by CB South. Congrats to them, great season so far!  They also missed on Wilson, Township and Central York. Only 2 teams in the top ten weren’t there to start the season. I’ll also add D-East was honorable mention. So that’s a 9/10 score for ranked teams.

In 5A, Peters Twp made a heck of a run. The helmet heads missed on them, sort of. Our WPIAL Backyard gang had them ranked 4th. Also pulling of a great run that surprised our team was Ephrata and Chester. 7/10 aint bad at all.

Let’s look at 4A. McKeesport was an honorable mention, they replaced TJ. Mars came close, but Montour took their place. Dallas is shocking the state and has another game for their efforts. They replace ACC who had one of the toughest schedules in the state, and probably the toughest in 4A. Selinsgrove was also an HM. That’s 9/10 with two who started as HM.

Checking out 3A, Northwestern Lehigh started as an honorable mention and took the place of Loyalsock. Grove City faltered late, but rival Hickory took their spot jumping from the preseason HM crowd. Elizabeth Forward also fell, Palmerton rose to the top ten and Scranton Prep jumped from HM to the top ten as well. Central was another HM and took the spot that NDGP held. Avonworth replaced West Perry. So while the top ten only saw 4 at the end remain in the top ten, the team did have four of the others ranked as HM. That gives the group an 8/10 radar ranking score.

That 2A group, it was tough. Trinity, Steel Valley, Executive and Central Clarion all fell out of the top ten. Replacing them are Troy, Mercyhurst Prep, Camp Hill and #3 Bald Eagle Area who was HM to start giving the gang a 6/10 score  here. **We will brag here, we had Beaver Falls in the top ten to start.

Finally in 1A, Union, Canton, Brockway and Lakeview were replaced by Redbank Valley, South Williamsport, South Side,  and Clairton. Clairton was the lone team in the HM list that made it through to the top ten. So for 1A, they landed 6 of the top ten.

So in summary, the helmet heads had 45 of the 60 ranked somewhere in their top 15 at the beginning of the 2023 season. The only thing that changes now are the top four in each class. See ya Friday Night!

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