One round of the WPIAL football playoffs is in the books and it was the Eastern Conference that had the strongest showing in the WPIAL.

Coaches and players alike take pride in the conference's achievements in the postseason. Brentwood and Springdale pulled off playoff upsets on the road. North Catholic and Avonworth held serve at home to make the conference 4-0, the only conference in any classification to achieve the feat.

That is the good news.

The bad news, at least for the Dynamos and Trojans, is that their paths are about to cross with a conference rival in the WPIAL quarterfinals. The Eastern Conference champion Trojans, the No. 4-seed in Class A, will meet No. 12-seed Springdale at Deer Lakes High School's Lancer Stadium in West Deer tomorrow night at 7:30 in an Eastern Conference rematch with a trip to the WPIAL semifinals on the line.

"We were very happy but not surprised," Springdale coach Chuck Wagner said of the four Eastern Conference teams still alive in the quarterfinals.

"The Eastern Conference had not received the recognition it deserved. I think the four teams from our conference, if you look at who played whom and who beat whom, we all went through some tough games to get here."

The teams kicked off conference play on Sept. 18. North Catholic won, 20-14, at home when Springdale fumbled a ball on the Trojans 7 with less than a minute to play.

It was an important win for North Catholic, which had opened the season with back-to-back losses at Serra Catholic and at Laurel. The win against Springdale started a winning streak that reached eight games after a 38-3 win against Jefferson-Morgan Friday night.

The Dynamos rebounded from the loss to win five of their last six games, but their playoff berth was not clinched until a 40-0 win at Riverview in the final week of the season. In the first round, Springdale did what it has done so many times before, upset a Monessen team in the playoffs.

It was the fourth time in the past six years that a Chuck Wagner-coached team upended a higher-ranked Monessen squad. In the 2003 quarterfinals Springdale stunned Monessen, the top-ranked Class A team in the state at the time, en route to an improbable WPIAL title run. And in 2004 and 2006 it was Springdale winning at Monessen in the first round.

The previous wins against the Greyhounds were by double-digit margins. On Friday things were a lot closer. With the game tied, 14-14, the Dynamos turned the ball over on downs at the Monessen 10-yard line in the final minutes and the game appeared to be headed to overtime until a Monessen interception in its own territory gave Springdale another chance.

Bill Arch scored on a 6-yard run with 30 seconds to play to ensure the upset.

The Dynamos rushing attack was a constant in the game and during Springdale's season. Freshman Sean Dugan and Arch both surpassed 100 yards against Monessen. As a team, Springdale gained 318 yards on the ground and only 36 through the air.

"Our running game has been quite solid throughout the year," Wagner said. "Our line has really picked it up the last couple of weeks."

North Catholic brings with it a more balanced offense. On the ground the Trojans can use two capable backs, Julian Durden or Matt Fedzen. Through the air, junior Martin Long is coming off his biggest game since taking the reins as starting quarterback as a freshman.

"I think overall they may have the most well balanced club in the conference," Wagner said.

"Their quarterback can run or throw and they can run or throw [as a team]. That makes it very tough in regard to what we have to do defensively. We are going to have to play some outstanding defense against them."

Against Jefferson-Morgan Long accounted for four consecutive touchdowns, including three touchdown passes and a 34-yard touchdown run.

"It was probably the best game I have seen him play," said Fedzen, Long's backfield partner for three years.

"He has improved ever since he got here as a freshman and now it is getting to the point where it is expected."

Long will need to have a big game to reverse North Catholic's playoff fortunes from a year ago. In a near similar situation last season, North Catholic defeated Fort Cherry in the first round setting up a rematch against an Eastern Conference foe.

The Trojans were eliminated in the quarterfinals, 30-8, by Avonworth. In that situation, Avonworth had defeated North Catholic in the regular season. This year it is North Catholic who comes into the game having the confidence of a previous head-to-head win.

"There is always room for improvement," Fedzen said. "We didn't play our best game the first time around, but I'm sure they didn't play theirs either."

• Who: North Catholic vs. Springdale.

• When: 7:30 p.m. tomorrow.

• Where: Lancer Stadium, Deer Lakes High School.

• The skinny: This will be the second meeting this season between the two Eastern Conference teams with North Catholic winning the first game. The winner will play Rochester or Brentwood in the Class A semifinals.

Mike White's "High School Sports Edition" videos are featured exclusively on PG+, a members-only web site from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.