On Monday, Trinity High School linebacker Andrew Sweat understands there will be no gray area.

"We will either be one week away from possibly selling tickets to Heinz Field or we will be turning in our pads," Sweat said. "That's pretty much it. There are just two options. That's where we are right now."

Where Trinity (7-3) is right now is in the WPIAL Class AAA quarterfinals, where the Hillers will face Montour (10-0) at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow at Canon-McMillan's stadium.

If someone were to have said in mid-August that Trinity would still be playing in Week 11, few would have argued -- but making the same statement just one month ago would have been met by more than a few skeptics.

On paper, as the season was approaching, Trinity looked like a force. After all, coach Ed Dalton had stallions such as Sweat (an Ohio State recruit), linebacker/running back Mike Yancich (a Penn State recruit) and Division I prospect Brandon Weaver, also a linebacker and running back.

But something happened on the way to anticipated domination -- the Hillers found themselves in mid-October with just a 4-3 record and smarting from a 35-14 home loss against Thomas Jefferson in a televised game.

"It was after that TJ game that we sort of knew we had to regroup," Sweat said. "We didn't play well at all and we were embarrassed by how we played. We were all frustrated and the coaches let us know when we were watching film after that game that they were disappointed in us.

"We knew we had to get better or we weren't going anywhere."

Since then, Trinity has beaten Keystone Oaks, Peters Township and Mount Pleasant by a combined 131-48 score.

But Montour is a notch above Trinity's previous three opponents, with the Spartans featuring running back Christian Wilson (1,534 yards, 24 touchdowns) and quarterback E.J. Banks (734 yards rushing, 1,069 yards passing, 8 touchdowns rushing).

"There is no question that Trinity is a very good football team and they have some momentum right now that maybe they didn't have at the beginning of the year," Montour coach Lou Cerro said.

"Their linebackers have great motors and they have a lot of talent. I think, as it normally does in the playoffs, things are going to come down to which team makes the fewest mistakes."

Other Class AAA games

• The Trinity-Montour winner advances to play the winner of Knoch (8-2) and Highlands (8-2), two Greater Allegheny Conference teams more than familiar with each other.

Just two weeks ago, in the final game of the regular season, Knoch defeated visiting Highlands, 41-13. Knights running back Tim McNerney had 188 yards rushing on 29 carries and three touchdowns. McNerney is one of the best stories of the year. He entered the season as a backup, was pressed into service because of a season-ending injury to Knoch's returning starter, Alex Whisler, and has accumulated 1,692 yards and 23 touchdowns.

• Pine-Richland (9-1), which has averaged 41 points per game the past five weeks, will face Chartiers Valley (8-2). The Rams boast a 1,200-yard rusher (Ian Hennessy) and a 1,300-yard passer (Vinny Nittoli).

The Colts have shown they can play with the big boys this year. Their two losses came against No. 1 seed Thomas Jefferson, 3-0, and No. 2 seed Montour, 7-0.

• Thomas Jefferson (10-0) has rolled through just about every opponent, winning games by a 39.3-7.9 scoring average. But when the Jaguars play West Allegheny (6-4) at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow, they will be lining up against one of the teams that gave them all they could handle this year.

In Week 2, West Allegheny gave Thomas Jefferson a super-sized scare before losing, 18-13.