The team was 1-8 a year ago. The starting quarterback hadn't played football for two seasons and had never played the position in his life before this year. The standout running back was averaging 63 yards a game the first half of this season and the team was given a No. 14 seed for the WPIAL playoffs.

Put it all together and it's awfully surprising Hampton is still playing football the second week of November. Even the Talbots' coach is surprised.

Jacque DeMatteo believed Hampton eventually could be a winner in time, but he didn't expect the Talbots to be on the cusp of history this season.

Hampton (6-4) meets Uniontown (7-3) in a Class AAA quarterfinal tomorrow night at Yough. A Hampton win would put the Talbots in the semifinals for the first time in school history.

"It's been a pleasant surprise," said DeMatteo, in his second season at Hampton. "We lost some key players to season-ending injuries at the beginning of this season, too. But the kids have somehow been rallying behind each other, working hard and pulling together."

Running back Andrew Bly has helped push Hampton into the quarterfinals. After five games, he had only 318 yards. In the past five, he has 845. Junior quarterback Phil Powell also is showing promise. He had never played quarterback before this year and didn't come out for the team the past two years.

"The kids set goals in the offseason and the main one was just to make the playoffs," DeMatteo said. "We didn't talk about winning the conference or anything else. We had to be realistic."

And the Talbots are enjoying success despite having only 27 players on the team.

"The nice thing is I think we have a different mindset and swagger right now," DeMatteo said. "I've seen their mindset change here and their confidence has grown tremendously. These kids really believe they can do some special things here."

Thomas Jefferson has a 48-game winning streak against WPIAL teams, and the previous time Thomas Jefferson lost a WPIAL game was to Franklin Regional in the 2005 WPIAL title game. Guess who plays Thomas Jefferson (10-0) in the AAA quarterfinals tonight? Franklin Regional. The two meet tomorrow at Elizabeth Forward.

The 2005 Franklin Regional team relied heavily on the run to beat Thomas Jefferson, but this Franklin Regional team will throw a balanced offense at Thomas Jefferson. Franklin Regional (8-2) has a talented running back in Chad Bowman, who has rushed for more than 1,300 yards. But quarterback Stephen Liberatore has thrown for almost 1,500 yards.

West Allegheny (8-2) and New Castle (8-2) meet for the second time this year, tomorrow at North Allegheny. West Allegheny won the first meeting, 28-21, when Mike Caputo rushed for 297 yards on 40 carries.

In the other quarterfinal, Hopewell (10-0) plays Mars (7-3) at Ambridge. Running back Rushel Shell will play for Hopewell after the school suspended him last week for having "chew" tobacco on him during school.

Mars has running back Austin Miele, who has rushed for 1,218 yards. Miele has been bothered by a hamstring injury lately and sat out part of the game last week. He will play, though.

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.