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Are there no sites in Erie that could hold this game?

Unique situation, Erie is about an hour a half away for both schools, Youngstown is about 25 minutes away. Slippery Rock would have been a good PA venue, Youngstown is still 20 minutes closer to both schools. Still odd to go out of state.

Morrow Fieldhouse holds 3,000 and YSU holds 6,500.

My best guess is Slippery Rock may be unavailable or since they played the district championship there and they think there's enough interest that they need a bigger venue. Certainly a different situation.

The Hammermill Center in Erie (GannonU's home court) holds around 3k.

I am assuming that there is a huge crowd expected, larger than 3k. The D10 A championship was Held at SRU and was SRO with many angry people turned away at the door.

District X held their swimming and diving championships in Ohio. Youngstown is almost perfect, even though it is in OHIO. Farrell and KC high schools are about four miles apart from each other. Both fan bases, and the rest of the Shenango Valley area, would rather travel 15 minutes to Youngstown, than 90 minutes to Erie to find a venue big enough to house this game. Slippery Rock, Sharon High school would never hold the thousands that will attend. Sounds crazy to move to Ohio, but this is a great move for all that would want to see this game. Would not surprise me a bit if 5,000 show up for this game.

This is a BRILLIANT move by the PIAA. Both schools sit on the Ohio border, There was not enough room at Slippery Rock, There will be huge District 10 and northern District 7 fan interest in this game, Youngstown's Arena holds over 6,000 and it's only 15 miles from Farrell and 18 from Hermitage.

This is NOT a first, by the way. In a 1954 PIAA Class B 1st round game Ashley (D2 champ) defeated Athens (D4) 75-67 at Waverly, NY

In District Championship competition, Mansfield's 1969 team featuring Tom McMillen defeated Athens 77-58 for the District 4 Class B title at Elmira, NY and The District 5 1976 Track & Field Meet was held at Frostburg, MD

Wow, HR brings his wealth of knowledge! Impressive memory.

I wonder if YSU was always on the host list or if they desperately called the school to arrange it. They really need to work on getting bigger venues, or organize all semifinals at just a couple of university sites. Use Philly U, LaSalle, the Palestra, or Temple out east; Giant Center in central, and somewhere like IUP, Duquesne or Pitt. Game at whichever is closest for both schools.

Since Kennedy Catholic has players outside state lines of PA does it really matter?

I don't get the point of making two schools in basically suburban Youngstown go play at the Pete or Duquesne in downtown Pittsburgh, I think it's fair to pick a venue that caters to the two teams. It's on you have two border schools like this, and playing in Youngstown makes the most sense. Hands down.