Preview: North Allegheny vs Canon-McMillan

Tagged under: District 7, pfn

Stone Manges | November 4, 2026

This Friday, the North Allegheny Tigers heads on the road to battle a 6A foe in the Canon-McMillan Big Macs in the first round of the WPIAL Playoffs. 

Earlier this season the Big Macs took down the Tigers 23-13 on the road and now get to host at AHN Field in Canonsburg. Canon-McMillan comes into this first round clash with a 5-5 record, but hiding behind those five loses are some deceiving loses. 

The Big Macs lost back to back weeks early in the year, to Trinity at home then Upper St. Clair on the road, but both were hard fought games. They couldn’t handle the Hillers, who were riding in off a week one blow out of Ringgold, then gave undefeated Upper St. Clair a run for their money. 

Two weeks later for Canon-McMillan, they went blow for blow against Hempfield in a 38-34 overtime thriller. The season has also featured some exciting wins. The Big Macs handed a week one loss to the defending WPIAL champs Peters Township, beat Norwin by two scores and blew out Seneca Valley and Mount Lebanon. 

Quarterback Ty Jansma and receiver Roman Cimarolli are a duo to keep an eye on for the Big Macs. Together they have combined for 623 yards and five touchdowns on the year. Bryce Collins has been a solid contributor to the offense from the backfield as well. The Senior back has 976 yards and 13 touchdowns while averaging 6.3 yards per carry in 2026. 

North Allegheny also comes into the playoffs at 5-5, but for a while it looked as though they weren’t going to be in this spot. 

Coming off of three straight losses to Pine-Richland, Canon-McMillan, and Central Catholic, and sitting at 2-5, they were hoping to rebound and secure a spot in the top four. 

The Tigers then ripped off three straight wins over Seneca Valley, Mount Lebanon, and Norwin to slide into the third seed in 6A. 

Quarterback Brady Brinkley comes into the first round with 1,653 pass yards and 13 touchdowns. Expect him to look for Ben Kern, who he has found six times this year in the endzone and racked up 480 yards with. 

Can the Big Macs sweep the Tigers on the year, or will we see revenge for week two on Friday with a spot in the 6A title game on the line?