Shaler Area football coach Neil Gordon remembers Aug. 16 very well.

That was the day the Titans played Gateway in a preseason scrimmage.

At that point, Gordon and his staff were still in the process of getting to know the Shaler players after taking over the program.

So much so ...

"That day I thought about leaving the pieces of tape with the players' names on them on their helmets for the scrimmage," Gordon said with a little laugh.

"It was less than 2 1/2 weeks after we started working with the guys here at Shaler and, to be honest, I still didn't know all their names yet. To think back on that day, it seems like a long time ago. I'll be the first to say that, yeah, we've come a long way."

In a way, you could say the Titans have come full circle.

At 7:30 p.m. tomorrow at Norwin High School's Knights Stadium, Shaler (8-2) will play Gateway (10-0) in a WPIAL Class AAAA quarterfinal.

The Gators come in ranked lofty nationally by many of the pundits who do such a thing.

Gateway is big.

Gateway is strong.

Gateway is fast.

Gateway is athletic.

Gordon knows all of that.

"They are extremely well coached and are students of the game and, looking at them, I don't know if they have a weakness anywhere on the field," Gordon said of Gateway, which played in the WPIAL title game last season.

"Plus, a lot of people don't understand how hard those kids at Gateway work. On offense, defense and special teams, you watch them on film and they are working like dogs. Those kids don't just walk out there and beat other teams, they work hard and it leads to wins."

It does, but Gordon hopes his players at Shaler are able to buck that trend tomorrow night. He certainly knows one thing -- the pressure is more on Gateway than on his team.

Gordon can extract some experiences he went through more than a decade ago while coaching at Penn Hills to draw a parallel to what Gateway coach Terry Smith is feeling.

Gordon's 1995 Penn Hills team won the WPIAL and PIAA titles and reached as high as No. 5 in the USA Today rankings. In 1996, Penn Hills spent some time at the top, climbing all the way to No. 1 in the USA Today rankings before the Indians' season unexpectedly came to a close with a 14-12 loss against Plum on a muddy field.

"Those were probably the most gut-wrenching times in my career because we were the favorites to win every game and we'd show up for games and all the pressure was on us to perform," Gordon said.

"So I know what Terry [Smith] is going through and it isn't easy."

The Center football team -- and in particular its offense -- needs to be ready tomorrow night. If recent history is an accurate indicator, the Trojans (8-2) are looking at a steep uphill climb when the team travels to Deer Lakes to play Shady Side Academy (10-0) in a WPIAL Class AA quarterfinal playoff game.

Last week in the first round, Shady Side Academy constructed its seventh shutout of the season, its third consecutively and fourth in five games.

On top of that, the Indians have yielded more than seven points in just one game this season -- but they still won that one by 18 points, a 42-24 decision against Burrell.

A quick look at the final score from Avonworth's 35-8 victory against California in the first round of the WPIAL Class A playoffs last week doesn't tell the whole story -- to understand what happened at the game, one needs to dig a tad deeper.

This one was over early, with Avonworth rolling to a 14-0 lead after the first quarter, turning that into a 35-0 advantage at halftime and enacting the mercy rule for the start of the second half.

California's touchdown didn't come until the fourth quarter, when the game was well in hand for Avonworth.

The game marked the sixth time the Antelopes scored at least 35 points in a game this year.

As it has all season, North Hills leaned on its defense in a 31-0 victory Friday against Fox Chapel in a WPIAL Class AAAA first-round playoff game, eliminating the Foxes from the postseason.

The game marked the third time North Hills shutout of the season and was the fourth consecutive time the Indians held an opponent to 18 or fewer points.

North Hills was able to turn some defense directly into instant offense in the Fox Chapel game, as R.J. Miller intercepted a second-half pass and returned it 29 yards for a touchdown.