Bill Beckner stories, Page 140
Campus clippings: UPG women’s tennis team repeats as regular-season conference champ
Regular season champions for the second straight season. That was the title bestowed on the Pitt-Greensburg women’s tennis team after an 8-1 win over Penn State Altoona capped a 6-0 run through AMCC play and improved the Bobcats to 8-2. The doubles teams of Cathryn Rossi and sophomore Isabella Lane;...
Gamal Marballie re-opens recruiting now that he is healthy
Coming out of high school, Gamal Marballie had small-college interest for football, but he seemed to disappear from the recruiting landscape. That is because he did. Marballie, a two-sport standout at Yough who also was a 1,000-point scorer in basketball, took a year off to rehab a knee injury he...
Westmoreland campus clippings: Logan Wiland carries Seton Hill to victory
Seton Hill running back Logan Wiland needed an ice bath Sunday morning. The grad student carried the football 38 times and gained 178 yards Saturday in Erie as the Griffins rallied past Mercyhurst, 19-17, for another grind-it-out victory, its first of the season in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference. Wiland...
‘Beach Patrol’ defense makes Belle Vernon girls soccer team hard to play against
Five years ago, Belle Vernon’s boys soccer team had a smothering defense — and confidence to match. The Leopards looked in the mirror and what they saw impressed them so much they gave their defensive unit a nickname: “Border Patrol.” This year’s girls team at Belle Vernon might need a...
Playoff-bound Yough boys soccer makes climb back to respectability
Spectators are surprised by what they’re seeing on Cougar Mountain this season: a Yough boys soccer team making a steep climb back to respectability. “I had some parents come up to me and say, ‘What Yough team is this?’ ” Cougars coach Dave Vilchek said. “We’re playing well. We’re possessing...
High school notebook: Greensburg Central Catholic girls look to extend WPIAL golf title streak
Greensburg Central Catholic is climbing the stairway to seven. The girls golf team will go for its seventh consecutive WPIAL championship Thursday at Cedarbrook Golf Course in Rostraver. The Centurions will have to beat only three teams: Central Valley, Elizabeth Forward and Mt. Pleasant. Last year, GCC won by 99...
WPIAL soccer rankings: Week of Oct. 11, 2021
Girls Class 4A Rank, Team…W-L-T…Last rank 1. North Allegheny…(11-0-1)…1 2. Latrobe…(10-0-1)…2 3. Moon…(10-1-1)…3 4. Peters Township…(8-3-3)…4 5. Butler…(10-0-2)…5 OUT: None Watch: Norwin (10-2) Class 3A 1. Mars…(10-0-1)…1 2. Plum…(13-1)…2 3. Hampton…(9-2-2)…3 4. Franklin Regional…(8-3-1)…4 5. Belle Vernon…(12-3)…NR OUT: Connellsville (11-2) 5 Watch: Oakland Catholic (8-2-1) Class 2A 1. North Catholic…(12-1)…1...
Westmoreland H.S. football notebook: P-T still savoring win over Gateway
Penn-Trafford’s Warrior Stadium was alive with goings-on Friday night. It was the hub of Harrison City as the stadium lit up a rainy community. It was homecoming, which featured the annual parade that comes with it. Nearby roads were closed for a short time for all of the bells and...
Playoff-bound Jeannette boys soccer setting new standards for program
When Art Cicero was offered the Jeannette boys soccer job in 2018, the Jayhawks were coming off a 1-16-1 season and facing another rebuild. A floundering program since its inception in 1997, Jeannette had a three-year stretch from 2007-09 when it couldn’t even field a team. Cicero, a Hempfield grad...
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...
