Bill Beckner stories, Page 138
Norwin notebook: Football players happy to be back on field after covid shutdown
Norwin’s football players were itching to get back on the field after a covid-related forfeit Sept. 24 and some unexpected down time. The Knights may never have been so anxious. Players were on the field at Knights Stadium on Sept. 30 after the girls soccer game, and they were bursting...
Norwin girls soccer battling injuries, tough section slate
With the number of injuries and player rotations Norwin has had this season, you might expect the Knights to be struggling to stay in the playoff race. But it has been quite the contrary for the girls soccer team, which has navigated the absences and lineup changes with poise. Injuries...
Penn-Trafford answers bell, beats Gateway for 1st place in Big East Conference
Jakob Haynes saw an opening and rang Gateway’s bell. Gateway had just crossed midfield and was facing a 4th and 1 to keep a potential go-ahead drive going. But the Penn-Trafford junior linebacker knifed through the line and delivered a drive-killing tackle on running back Jaquon Reynolds with 1 minute,...
Brownsville-Mt. Pleasant football game canceled
The Brownsville at Mt. Pleasant football game scheduled for Friday night has been canceled and will be ruled a no contest by the WPIAL. Brownsville told Mt. Pleasant it does not have enough players to compete due to covid-19 concerns. No. 4-ranked Mt. Pleasant will not pursue another opponent on...
Westmoreland football notebook: Greensburg Salem girls soccer coach among WPIAL’s top refs
Jessica Melodia played for the Pittsburgh Passion women’s football team from 2015-17. When she “retired,” a void was left in her life. “I missed football,” said Melodia, the girls soccer coach at Greensburg Salem. “I started playing about 20 years too late but loved it. I didn’t have any injuries,...
Quaker Valley, South Fayette golfers claim WPIAL championships
When she was 9 years old, Marissa Malosh first picked up a golf club during a vacation in Hilton Head, S.C. A family friend and avid golfer, Rob Watterson, watched her hit balls on the beach and thought it was a good idea she keep the club in her hands...
North Allegheny’s Wrigley claims 3rd straight WPIAL girls golf title
North Allegheny senior Caroline Wrigley knew she was chasing WPIAL history. But the real goal here was to have something to tell Uncle Frank. Wrigley completed a WPIAL three-peat Wednesday, the same feat her uncle, Frank Fuhrer III, accomplished while playing at Fox Chapel from 1974-76. He went on to...
Westmoreland County girls soccer notebook: GCC goes on field trip
As Greensburg Central Catholic prepared to play No. 1 Springdale in a key rematch, practice was replaced by something more fun: a field trip. The defending WPIAL champion and state runner-up Centurions took a day to spend some time on the “Hill” last week as they watched Seton Hill host...
Westmoreland County boys soccer notebook: Eye-popping Belle Vernon goal goes viral
Throughout the soccer season, Pennylvania Soccer and Hudl.com scour the state looking for the top highlight-reel goals. When the website saw Daniel Sassak’s jaw-dropper for Belle Vernon that stunned Trinity, it took the play straight to the top. Pennsylvania Soccer named it the No. 1 goal of the week in...
Former pitcher expected to be next Hempfield softball coach
Hempfield has recommended a candidate to replace legendary softball coach Bob Kalp, who resigned in July after 25 seasons. The next coach, if approved at a voting meeting Oct. 18, will be Tina (Skelly) Madison, who was an assistant under Kalp for one season. Madison worked with pitchers because she...
Belle Vernon girls soccer sees shutout streak end but shows off offense at Greensburg Salem
Belle Vernon ran its winning streak to seven, but the Leopards made a rather quick exit after Tuesday’s early evening game in Greensburg. Only minutes after the final horn, the girls soccer team’s bus was on the move, kicking up gravel in the parking lot behind Offut Field. This was...
Westmoreland campus clippings: Byers off to good start for Penn State tennis
He went from what could have been in high school to what will be in college. Loren Byers is a sophomore at Penn State, a school that recruited him because he was one of the nation’s top tennis players at the prep level. But Byers, who was ranked No. 46...
Westmoreland Campus Clippings: Saint Vincent rallies to win PAC barnburner
Down 14-0 after the first quarter, the Saint Vincent football team rallied and won a back-and-forth thriller at Chuck Noll Field on Saturday, 42-40, against Case Western Reserve. Junior Brady Walker threw for 219 yards and two touchdowns, freshman Billy Beck rushed for 93 yards and two scores and sophomore...
Olivia Cernuto returns from injury, scores hat trick as No. 4 Southmoreland tops No. 2 Yough
Junior forward Olivia Cernuto wasn’t at 100%, but neither was her team as Southmoreland hosted Yough in a Section 3-2A rematch of top-five girls soccer teams. It didn’t matter. The Scotties gave 110% effort with what they had and it paid off. Cerntuo, a junior forward who missed four-and-a-half games...
Family more than a metaphor for Greensburg Salem girls soccer
“Hop in,” Kylie Smith tells her teammates as she picks them up to go to a game. But these aren’t just teammates filling up her vehicle. No, this trip is all relative. There’s two sisters and two cousins joining her, just like they do in the starting lineup for the...
WPIAL team golf playoffs set
The WPIAL team golf playoffs will get underway next Tuesday with 19 Class AAA boys teams playing at semifinal sites Beaver Valley Golf Club in Patterson Heights and The Links at Spring Church in Apollo. The same number of Class AA boys teams will play to advance out of semifinal...
Westmoreland high school notebook: Flamingos ‘flock’ to area for Belle Vernon fundraiser
Plastic pink flamingos have been showing up in yards around Belle Vernon, but for good reason. The Belle Vernon girls soccer team isn’t out to prank anyone. It’s quite the opposite, in fact. It is all part of a fundraiser that is back for a second straight year. Money raised...
High-scoring DiFalco diversifies his game for Franklin Regional boys soccer team
It was like time stopped for a few seconds, and Anthony DiFalco was controlling the dials. The rolling boil that was the Franklin Regional offense that night against Greensburg Salem became a gentle simmer as DiFalco slowed the pace briefly to set up another scoring opportunity. Junior Jake Zimmerman took...
Westmoreland H.S. football notebook: GCC coach reflects on ‘all-around great day’
Friday will be quite unforgettable for Greensburg Central Catholic first-year coach Marko Thomas. On Friday morning, he and his wife, Kerri, welcomed their fourth child — all boys — into the world. Devin was born at 9:11 a.m. By the time 9:11 p.m. rolled around, Thomas was coaching his Centurions...
Southmoreland’s female running back, Lilly Wasmund, scores TD in win over Derry
The play simply was called, “Lilly.” Southmoreland put it in place Thursday at practice, running it once as a rehearsal in case junior Lilly Wasmund had the opportunity to run it in Friday night’s home game against Derry. Wasmund was up to the task when her number was called with...
Franklin Regional notebook: Connor Donnelly settles into starting QB role
Franklin Regional settled on a starting quarterback — for now. The Panthers started Connor Donnelly in Week 4 when it hosted Bethel Park, and coach Lance Getsy hoped to stick with the senior under center. The QB carousel had been turning in Murrysville since the preseason, a feeling-out process for...
Norwin notebook: Knights boys soccer climbing Class 4A rankings
Norwin coach Scott Schuchert thinks his team is rounding into form, both on the scoreboard and across the lineup. “We’re finding our identity,” he said after a recent 4-1 victory over Penn-Trafford that kept the third-ranked Knights undefeated in Section 3-4A. “Our back line guys have really played well for...
Hampton routs Greensburg Salem in battle for first place
Greensburg Salem and Hampton are from different counties, separated by about 40 miles, but they play in the same conference. The teams were a lot further apart when they met in a first-place matchup Friday night. No. 5 Hampton dominated the Golden Lions, showing its speed and depth on both...
Division I interest growing for Belle Vernon’s Devin Whitlock after statement win
Devin Whitlock is doing everything he can to land Division I college offers. Now, the colleges are starting to bite. As they say, the film doesn’t lie. Whitlock, the dynamic senior quarterback/defensive back at Belle Vernon whose game-winning run against Thomas Jefferson went viral, attracted attention from at least two...
Latrobe girls soccer after sweep of Norwin: ‘We’re the real deal’
Regan Reilly funneled the soccer ball to the middle of the attack, but shifted gears and sent a pass wide and through a pack of Norwin defenders closing in around her. There, waiting out of the corner of her eye, was Ella Bulava. When the ball touched her foot, she...
