Central Catholic vs. Penn Hills, and Beaver Falls vs. Aliquippa are two games that highlight the 2008 Thursday night football schedule on FSN Pittsburgh television.

This will be the fourth year the cable station is televising regular-season WPIAL games on Thursday nights. This year's schedule starts Sept. 4 with Erie McDowell at Seneca Valley and finishes Oct. 23 with McKeesport at Gateway.

But FSN Pittsburgh will televise a game on Friday nights in the first three rounds of the WPIAL playoffs and also the four championship games Nov. 22 at Heinz Field.

When FSN started the Thursday night games in 2005, it met resistance from some schools. They turned down opportunities to have games televised because they didn't want to move them from Friday nights.

But FSN executive producer Shawn McClintock said the feeling about Thursday night games seems to be much different now.

"We've seen a greater acceptance, cooperation and excitement," McClintock said. "People, teams and communities are calling us now, wanting to get on. There was reluctance to the Thursday night stuff at first. But I think people see we treat the game like we do the Penguins and Pirates, and they see the games have become a big deal to the schools and communities."

In the first year of the Thursday games, FSN picked some games involving teams that were mediocre at best. Now the station has some excellent matchups. Central Catholic is the defending WPIAL and PIAA Class AAAA champion and will meet a Penn Hills team that is expected to be one of the best in the WPIAL. Aliquippa and Beaver Falls are rivals and will be two of the top WPIAL Class AA teams this fall.

McClintock said getting the Penn Hills-Central Catholic game for a Thursday night wasn't easy because Central Catholic doesn't have a home field. The school had to find a venue that was available on a Thursday night. The game will be played at Carnegie Mellon University.

This will be the first time that Mars, Plum and Seneca Valley will play a Thursday night game on Fox Sports Net.

One of the reasons FSN is showing Erie McDowell-Seneca Valley is because the station has subscribers in the Erie area.

Transfer ineligible

The WPIAL has ruled Justin Hosack ineligible to play basketball next season after he transferred from Hopewell to Lincoln Park. The WPIAL had a hearing Monday with Hosack and claimed that athletic reasons entered into Hosack's transfer. Hosack can appeal the ruling to the PIAA. Hosack, a junior, was a starting guard last season on a Hopewell team that made it to the WPIAL Class AAA championship game. Lincoln Park is a charter school in Midland that has played WPIAL basketball for only one season.

No track for Pryor

Jeannette star athlete Terrelle Pryor didn't run track this year after all.

Pryor, an Ohio State football recruit, had said in April that he wanted to run track this spring for the first time since his freshman year. He planned to compete in the 200, an event he ran as a freshman. But Pryor said things just never worked out and he wasn't able to practice. So he didn't participate in yesterday's WPIAL qualifiers.

The WPIAL Class AA track and field championships will be Tuesday at South Side Beaver and Class AAA May 15 at Baldwin.