Mike Vukovcan Some big news was announced yesterday by the PIAA that will impact the Hopewell Vikings HS football team.
Aliquippa’s on-going battle with the WPIAL and PIAA added another layer on Wednesday as the PIAA overturned its earlier decision and now will allow Aliquippa to move down from Class 4A and play in Class 3A for at least the next two seasons.
Reportedly, the biggest factors in this decision were health and safety with the size of Aliquippa’s roster. Also, all the transfers that went to Aliquippa over the last few years have all left.
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This is no doubt the right decision by the PIAA. When you look at the latest enrollment numbers, Aliquippa will have just 158 male students enrolled, which technically makes them a Class 2A school. Making them play 4A because of their success on the field was just a wrong decision.
Despite having to play up, that didn’t stop the winning as the Quips played in five of the last six WPIAL championship games (winning 4 WPIALs in 2021-23 and 2025 along with two state championships, 2021 and 2023).
We bring all this up because in all likelihood, Aliquippa will be joining a section with HC Matt Mottes and Hopewell. Mottes is a former Aliquippa standout offensive and defensive lineman so this will no doubt be a meaningful game for him.
The WPIAL will be releasing the upcoming section alignments for the next two seasons in the near future, and it’ll be interesting to see who the Vikings opponents will be.
If Avonworth stays, it could be a really strong section with Aliquippa, Avonworth, Beaver and Hopewell. You would imagine that Ambridge will remain in the section. Other possibilities could be Beaver Falls, Ellwood City or OLSH but nothing official yet.
