Bill Beckner stories, Page 30

Common denominators in games help to reveal a team’s identity, and Penn-Trafford continues to build on its strengths. Well-rounded guard play again complemented the post, and defense bailed out a shaky-at-times offense as the third-ranked Lady Warriors kept their record clean with a 53-27 victory over Franklin Regional in a...

Third-year men’s basketball coach Ben Wilkins and his Seton Hill Griffins are finding ways to win again, and people are noticing. Wilkins recently was named the HoopDirt.com Division II Coach of the Week. The Griffins (9-2, 2-2 PSAC West) picked up wins over Pitt-Greensburg and Glenville State, the latter on...

Hempfield’s girls are starting to believe in the merits of team defense. The proof is in the “daggers” and “turkeys.” Daggers are recorded when Hempfield gets a defensive stop and scores right after it. Turkeys, like bowling, are when the Lady Spartans collect three defensive stops in a row. With...

Add another postseason honor to Robin Reilly’s resume. Reilly, the talented soccer player from Latrobe who is set to enroll early and continue her playing career at West Virginia, was one of three WPIAL players to earn the latest accolade. She was a United Soccer Coaches Fall East All-Region selection....

As Washington & Jefferson football players filed into the locker room at halftime, Justin Johns knew he had broken the other team’s spirit, but was unaware he’d broken a team record. Johns, a frightening fifth-year linebacker out of Franklin Regional, had heard he was close to breaking the Presidents’ all-time...

One coach was concerned with how his team started. The other, with how his finished. It’s very early, but critiques now are going to be harsher than they might be later in the season. Greensburg Central Catholic built double-digit leads at halftime and at the start of the fourth quarter...

The Hempfield Spartan Field House will be the site of six boys basketball games Friday and Saturday for the 20th Hempfield tipoff tournament. On Friday, the opening game will mark the return of longtime coach Paul Sapotichne to Greensburg Salem. The Golden Lions will play Connellsville at 4:45 p.m. Sapotichne...

A cerebral leader behind the plate for Hempfield, Ella Berkebile has softball instincts that allow her to control the cadence of games. The catcher has been battery mates with standout pitchers Riley Miller and Julia Varhola, framing spots for them while also working to get groundouts and flyouts. The junior...

Penn-Trafford learned how to play without Torrie DeStefano last season after the then-sophomore guard suffered a season-ending knee injury just six games into the schedule. Now that she is back, coach John Giannikas clearly prefers life with DeStefano in the lineup. “It’s great to have her back,” the veteran coach...

Trailing Glenville State by two points with 6.7 seconds remaining, Seton Hill had one more punch waiting for the visiting Pioneers. A near turnover in the closing moments instead became the shot of the year so far for the men’s basketball team. Grad guard Ryan Meis inbounded from in front...

Eliezer Nicolas bristles a bit when he is referred to as a late bloomer in the college track recruiting game. The senior from Norwin, though, acknowledges he was a Division I prospect who simply had not yet been discovered. “I see myself as a hidden gem,” Nicolas said. “I am...

The third annual We Serve First All-Star Girls Volleyball Classic is set for 3 p.m. Saturday at Kiski Area. Nine local girls were among the 40 selected to play — Pyper Ferres of Burrell; Carson Burgh of Franklin Regional; Maddie Joyce, Adelyne Ledbetter and Jael Ledbetter of Kiski Area; Addison...

Trib HSSN Boys Soccer All-Stars Player of the year Ryan Moessner, Jr., F, Bentworth Taking his teammates on a journey that began in Washington County and ended in Mechanicsburg, junior Ryan Moessner left the deepest footprint on the highest-scoring boys soccer team in the WPIAL. An electric goal-scoring threat who...

Trib HSSN Girls Soccer All-Stars Player of the year Molly Kubistek, Jr., GK, Peters Township Molly Kubistek received a lofty honor last month when she won the sixth Moe Rosensteel Most Outstanding Player Award, essentially crowning her the top player in the WPIAL. For the first time, the selection committee...

2024 Girls Soccer All-Stars Player of the year Alexis Brown, Sr., MF, Penn-Trafford Unsure of how she would return from a fractured kneecap that tore down her junior year, Alexis Brown set out to reset her career and have a memorable bounce-back season. The Penn-Trafford senior wanted to stay healthy...

2024 Boys Soccer All-Stars • Player of the year • Roman Agostoni, Sr., MF, Latrobe The time will come when Roman Agostoni pauses to reflect on the incredible senior soccer season he had for Latrobe and the frontman role that he embraced to help the Wildcats make history. Perhaps the...

Lucky bounces can help a football team go a long way. Coaches even say they are necessary to winning in the postseason. Unlucky ones, on the other hand, can spell doom. Norwin started 2-0 for the first time since 2014, but a rash of injuries sent the Knights spiraling to...

Franklin Regional made the WPIAL Class 5A football quarterfinals without one of its top defensive players. Senior linebacker Austin Kerns was on his way to a monster year when he was injured in a Week 7 loss at Penn-Trafford. He already was recovering from a high ankle sprain when he...

Starting 5s A preview of girls high school basketball season in Westmoreland County: 5 storylines to follow: • The sugar high has worn off, for now, but the returning players remember how sweet it was, those glorious championship moments at “The Pete,” Pitt’s Petersen Events Center. Norwin and Greensburg Central...

Starting 5s A preview of boys high school basketball season in Westmoreland County: Boys 5 storylines to follow: • Postseason basketball can provide surprises and a little magic, as evidenced by Franklin Regional’s thrill ride last year to the WPIAL and PIAA finals. Recreating that scenery won’t be easy, but...

Forty-nine senior girls from the WPIAL will converge on the AHN Sports Complex at Cool Springs in Bethel Park Saturday for the Western Pennsylvania High School Girls Soccer Coaches Association all-star games. There will be three teams that will play three games in a round-robin format. The opening game begins...

When it comes to wrestling at Army, Ethan Berginc is one good soldier. Berginc, a Jeannette native who wrestled at Hempfield via a co-operative agreement, is on a roll eary in his junior season. Far from his days as a plebe, Berginc won back-to-back titles at 133 pounds, the second...

Latrobe senior Robin Reilly and Mt. Pleasant junior Morgan Gesinski were finalists for the Moe Rosensteel girls soccer award, but the local pair have something else in common. Reilly and Gesinski were selected as all-state players by the Pennsylvania Soccer Coaches Association, Reilly as a midfielder, Gesinski as a forward....

The Pennsylvania Soccer Coaches Association announced its all-state girls lists. Three WPIAL players were selected as forwards: Fox Chapel sophomore Emily McKee, senior Brianna Ross of Springdale, and Mt. Pleasant junior Morgan Gesinski. Montour senior Grace Bannon, junior Karly Majeski of Seneca Valley, senior Camryn Klein of Peters Township, Latrobe...

It didn’t take Riley Gesinski long to adjust to college-level soccer in the NCAA Division III Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference. The freshman midfielder from Pitt-Greensburg made her mark this season, and conference coaches noticed. The former Mt. Pleasant standout was named the AMCC Newcomer of the Year. She led a...