Hopewell, Greensburg Salem point totals among worst in decades; McKeesport hires football coach

By Mike White | Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2010, 12:45 p.m.

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I went through some more WPIAL basketball playoff scores this afternoon and came up with this: Hopewell's and Greensburg Salem's offensive outputs in the first round of the WPIAL Class AAA playoffs were among the worst in the WPIAL in 60-some years.

Both teams scored only 25 points in games Tuesday. I'm still scratching my head, trying to figure out what happened because Hopewell and Greensburg Salem aren't bad teams. But Greensburg Salem lost to Montour, 42-25, and Hopewell lost to Belle Vernon, 40-25.

Here is what I came up with: The fewest points scored in a WPIAL game in recent years was 19. South Side Beaver lost to Washington, 57-19, only two years ago. However, I went back to the mid 1940s looking at playoff scores in the largest classifications (AAA or AAAA). The 25 points is among the worst five offensive outputs. Since 1947, the fewest points scored in a Class AAA or AAAA basketball playoff game was 20 by Highlands in a 25-20 loss to Latrobe in 1988. But I seem to remember that game was deliberately slowed down.

The other worst single-game performances since 1947 in Class AAA or AAAA are: In 1962, Uniontown defeated Mt. Lebanon, 43-25. In 1947, Sharon lost to Aliquippa, 39-22. That same year, Uniontown lost to Duquesne, 47-23.

So there you have it, Hopewell and Greensburg Salem had two of the worst offensive performances in 60 some years of WPIAL football.

Ward hired

McKeesport hired Jim Ward as its new football coach tonight. Ward was Yough's coach last season and also spent a few years as head coach at South Allegheny (2000-02).