Bill Beckner stories, Page 13
Mt. Pleasant claims section title, runs win streak to 7 with shutout of Charleroi
Mt. Pleasant boys soccer coach Floyd Snyder wore a gray suit with a red and blue tie and dress shoes and capped his outfit with a blue visor to lead his team Tuesday night. The coach looked dapper in his senior night attire, the 18th year he’s dressed up for...
Norwin runner Annie Czajkowski commits to Pitt
Pitt picked up a commitment from one of the state’s top distance runners as Norwin senior Annie Czajkowski pledged to the Panthers for track and cross country. Czajkowski chose Pitt over other offers from Rutgers, Delaware and Duquesne. She also talked to Penn State and Georgia. Her brother, Noah, is...
Westmoreland County girls soccer notebook: 11 area teams advance to playoffs
The WPIAL will release playoff brackets around 1 p.m. Wednesday on Trib HSSN. The local field of teams is set at 11. They are: Norwin (14-2), Penn-Trafford (9-6-1) and Latrobe (8-6) in Class 4A; Franklin Regional (14-3) and Kiski Area (7-3) in 3A; Belle Vernon (13-4-1), Burrell (9-5-2), Mt. Pleasant...
Westmoreland campus clippings: Saint Vincent volleyball coach Sue Hozak gets 700th win
Longtime Saint Vincent women’s volleyball coach Sue Hozak is among the most successful coaches in the nation. She has the wins to prove it. Hozak, who has guided the team since 1985, picked up her 700th career win as SVC defeated visiting Geneva, 3-0, in a PAC match at Carey...
Westmoreland County high school notebook: Hempfield senior looks to play 2 ways at Mercyhurst
If all goes as planned, Chase Sikorski will be fielding ground balls one day and coming out of the bullpen the next when he heads off to play college baseball. The Hempfield senior believes he will be a utility man — a pitcher and infielder — at Mercyhurst, where he...
Westmoreland athletes of the week: Hempfield’s Preslee Horchak, Mt. Pleasant’s Damien Ohler
Preslee Horchak School: Hempfield Class: Senior Sport: Volleyball Claim to fame: Horchak is always in the mood to help her teammates. The setter recently reached 1,000 career assists while helping Hempfield to a 10-3 record and a first-place tie with Penn-Trafford. She had 32 assists in a 3-2 win over...
Westmoreland high school football notebook: Injuries pile up for Hempfield ahead of must-win game
Hempfield’s injury list is growing, along with a sense of urgency. The Spartans saw three linemen and a receiver/defensive back leave the field and not return in Friday night’s flat 47-8 loss to Seneca Valley. Linemen Jake Wiederstein (arm), Brock Heisler (hand) and Noah Helfrich (shoulder) and receiver Nick Marquis...
Norwin hockey turns page after taking lumps last season
Coming off a 1-19 season, second-year Norwin hockey coach Denny Zeravica wants to take what he and his players learned from bouts of adversity and apply it to present times. Last year was last year. That ice has melted. “Even though we had a down year in regard to winning,...
Seneca Valley comes up big in ground game, dominates Hempfield
Seneca Valley had been practicing the play it calls “White Whale” for weeks. When offensive tackle Tommy Wuychek, big No. 68, turned the trick play into a “Big Man” touchdown — a 3-yard pitch and run in the second quarter — the Raiders knew it was their night. A whale...
Sellout expected for Mt. Pleasant-Southmoreland football, tickets limited
Russ Grimm Field will be jam-packed for Friday night’s Class 3A Interstate Conference football matchup between Mt. Pleasant and Southmoreland. Southmoreland officials are urging fans to arrive early. Online ticket sales were stopped after orders reached 1,500, athletic director Brian Pritts said. A limited number of remaining tickets, which are...
Plum boys soccer clinches 7th straight section title after scoreless tie against Norwin
A section-championship boys soccer match didn’t get a victor, but it proved to be an ideal tune-up for the upcoming WPIAL playoffs. Norwin and Plum settled on a 0-0 draw on a cold Thursday night at Mustang Stadium in their second Section 1-4A game of the season. Even with the...
Westmoreland County H.S. football notebook: Penn-Trafford shows flair for dramatic
Penn-Trafford is showing a penchant for late-game flair. Just like they did against Moon earlier in the season, the fifth-ranked Warriors rallied in the second half last week to get past rival Gateway, 33-23, in Class 5A Big East play. Gateway took a 23-7 lead into halftime before the Warriors...
Ayres sets program shutout record as Franklin Regional girls top Elizabeth Forward
Addison Ayres saves most of the shots she faces, but the Franklin Regional senior goalkeeper couldn’t save herself after Wednesday night’s game. As the Panthers gathered in their customary circle after a 5-0 Section 4-3A girls soccer victory over visiting Elizabeth Forward, Ayres didn’t see junior teammates Grace Copeland and...
Westmoreland County boys soccer notebook: Franklin Regional getting healthy, building momentum
Franklin Regional is getting healthy. That could be bad news for other boys soccer teams in WPIAL Class 3A. “The more we start to get healthy, the more depth we have,” Panthers coach Nick White said. “When we put guys in, the level doesn’t drop.” Senior Keaton Sheetz and sophomore...
Westmoreland County girls soccer notebook: As section title shows, ‘Norwin is back’
Norwin has secured its first outright section championship since 2019, a sure sign the Knights (12-2) are back to being WPIAL title contenders again. “Yes, Norwin is back,” junior Siena Ali said. Senior Nicole Bown and her classmates on the team have seen both ends of the spectrum. When they...
Norwin clinches 1st outright section title in 6 years with win over Penn-Trafford
Fifth-ranked Norwin secured its first outright section championship since 2019 and ran its winning streak to 11 with a 1-0 victory over Penn-Trafford on Monday night in a Section 1-4A girls soccer game teeming with playoff atmosphere at Norwin Knights Stadium. The longtime Westmoreland County rivals staged another one of...
Westmoreland County campus clippings: Penn-Trafford grad David Newsom wins Grove City Invitational
With sophomore David Newsom out in front as the medalist, the Saint Vincent men’s golf team won the Grove City Invitational at Grove City Country Club. Newsom, a Penn-Trafford graduate, shot 3-under-par 69 to win the individual title by two shots. The lefty finished with six birdies and carded a...
High school notebook: Westmoreland cross country championships set for Wednesday
The Westmoreland County Coaches Association Cross Country Championships will be Wednesday at Westmoreland County Community College. The boys varsity race begins at 3 p.m., followed by girls varsity at 3:40 and junior varsity at 4:20. Returning champions are the Norwin boys and girls (3A), and the Greensburg Salem girls (2A)...
Westmoreland high school athletes of the week, Oct. 5, 2025: Franklin Regional’s Allyssa Velasquez, Penn-Trafford’s Jordan Tucek
Allyssa Velasquez School: Franklin Regional Class: Senior Sport: Soccer Claim to fame: Velasquez has emerged as one of the top goal scorers in the WPIAL. She is second in Westmoreland County in goals — to Morgan Gesinski of Mt. Pleasant — with a career-high 18. She had back-to-back hat tricks...
Westmoreland high school football notebook: Crosby, Brown go toe-to-toe in rivalry game
Samir Crosby didn’t get a win in what was likely his final game at Jeannette, but the elusive senior star from Greensburg Central Catholic still put on a show in front of his hometown family and friends. A day after getting cleared to play after suffering a concussion two weeks...
Franklin Regional notebook: Soccer teams looking to bounce back
The Franklin Regional soccer teams were looking to rebound from section losses that bumped both from the Trib HSSN rankings. The boys (11-2, 5-2) moved into the No. 5 spot in Class 3A for the second time this season but dropped a 1-0 decision to Penn-Trafford. The defeat ended a...
Jeannette holds off rally by GCC, Crosby for crucial Eastern Conference win
Two lifelong friends who grew up together in Jeannette had another blast playing backyard football against each other, trading big runs and pass plays in the latest chapter of the Jeannette-Greensburg Central Catholic rivalry. Jeannette and Kymon’e Brown won the first half. Greensburg Central Catholic and Samir Crosby won the...
Tim O’Rourke named new boys basketball coach at Greensburg Central Catholic
Familiarity won’t be a problem for new Greensburg Central Catholic boys basketball coach Tim O’Rourke. He’s had maroon in his blood for some time. A former girls assistant and junior high boys and girls coach at the school, O’Rourke is primed to take over after the summer resignation of Christian...
Fiery Franklin Regional boys get revenge against Belle Vernon with resounding win
Franklin Regional had its annual campus bonfire Thursday night. Shortly after the fire department doused the flames, the boys soccer team went out and smoked Belle Vernon. Aidan Alexander and Michael Hillebrand each scored two goals as the fifth-ranked Panthers avenged an earlier loss to the visiting Leopards in dominant...
Westmoreland County high school football notebook: Injuries could impact Eastern Conference clash
Forget the stat sheet. Take a look at the injury list. The biggest question mark in the 36th football meeting between Jeannette (3-3, 1-2) and Greensburg Central Catholic (3-3, 1-2) is who has more questionable players. Both teams had standout wide receivers sustain injuries last week. For Jeannette, it was...
