Dave Mackall stories, Page 13
Duquesne holds off UC Irving, ending Anteaters’ 6-game winning streak
Duquesne returned home last week from the Cornhusker Classic championship game knowing its 10-point loss to Nebraska was a product of some poor choices in a game it led for much of the way. In spite of it, the Dukes enjoyed three days off during a Thanksgiving holiday stretch, the...
With small, young roster, Southmoreland girls aim to improve, stay competitive
Southmoreland will begin the 2023-24 girls basketball season with “a clean slate.” It’s simply the best description coach Amber Cernuto can surmise. Perhaps, it’s the only one? “We only have 10 players, so we won’t even be having a JV season this year,” she said. “Everybody is going to get...
Ty Keffer hopes to lead Southmoreland boys basketball team on tough road to playoffs
For the Southmoreland boys basketball team, some important business is at hand. Not surprisingly, a return to the postseason tops the list. The process long has been underway. “We’ve got some seasoned guys back, some guys who played a lot of basketball for us last year,” coach Frank Muccino said....
Robert Morris shoots better than 50% from floor to defeat FDU
Robert Morris showed up ready Sunday to face a familiar foe. In a meeting of former longtime Northeast Conference rivals, Josh Corbin scored a career-high 34 points, and the hot-shooting Colonials, playing on a day’s rest, held off Fairleigh Dickinson, 97-86, in the final game of the Urban-Bennett Memorial Classic...
Bench-clearing skirmish leaves both teams short-handed as RMU loses to Jacksonville
Robert Morris and Jacksonville got together Friday ready to play a college basketball game at UPMC Events Center. Neither team figured on coming away with an empty bench. Robert Morris certainly didn’t want to drop its third consecutive game, either. Unfortunately for the Colonials, both came true. Playing the final...
Duquesne runs into foul trouble as bid to knock off Nebraska fizzles
Duquesne gave Nebraska, the only Power Five conference opponent on its schedule, a fight Wednesday night, but the Dukes couldn’t overcome their foul trouble and stumbled to their second loss of the year. Keisei Tominaga scored 23 points, Juwan Gary added 20 and Nebraska rallied from a two-point halftime deficit...
Monessen girls, veteran coach ready to again overcome small-school challenges
Thirty-eight years. That’s how long Janine Vertacnik has been coaching basketball, most of it at the high school level. Thirty-eight years and counting, she said. Will she keep going, say, forever? “We’re working on it, but we’re not there yet,” the sixth-year Monessen girls coach joked. After leading the Greyhounds...
After a good season with a bad ending, expectations remain high for strong Monessen boys roster
How far can Monessen go this year? A fair question in the Mon Valley, where things can get gritty. And the tough-minded Greyhounds, indeed, are a part of it. Pause. There’s the matter of last season’s ending, a sore chapter in Monessen’s storied basketball program. Nevertheless, in this new year...
WCCA all-star volleyball event has successful 2nd year at Ligonier Valley
The traditions at Thanksgiving are endless. The turkey trots, the parades and don’t forget about Charlie Brown. In Westmoreland County, volleyball enthusiasts were hoping the Westmoreland County Coaches Association All-Star Game continued a tradition that started last season and evolved into a second year Tuesday night at Ligonier Valley High...
Hired at last minute, new coach begins rebuilding process for Ligonier Valley girls
She first excelled on the basketball court as a talented player in a remote, northeast corner of Westmoreland County before continuing on as a successful coach at the now defunct St. Clair school, where she is the all-time leading scorer. Later on, Laurel Valley icon Christy Hajjar enjoyed more prosperity...
Ligonier Valley boys look to pick up tempo, build on win total in tough section
It’s just Ligonier Valley’s misfortune. Since rejoining the WPIAL in 2020, the Rams have played in a section that has produced a District 7 champion in each season. In 2020-21, South Allegheny won the Class 3A title, followed by Shady Side Academy in 2021-22. Deer Lakes took the prize in...
Duquesne basketball team dominates Rider at Cornhusker Classic
Someone must have lit a fire under the Duquesne Dukes. Perhaps it was the Princeton Tigers, who in coldhearted fashion two days earlier handed Duquesne its first loss. Apparently, it wasn’t sitting well with the Dukes, who took out their frustrations Friday night on visiting Rider in the second game...
Princeton hangs on to hand 1st loss of season to Duquesne
By now, it’s no secret Duquesne’s basketball schedule was assembled with postseason aspirations in mind. Not the College Basketball Invitational, where the Dukes made an appearance last season, mind you. Not even the National Invitation Tournament. “We’re building this to get to the (Atlantic 10 Tournament) championship and to get...
Duquesne offense guides way in win against Stony Brook
It’s early, but the Duquesne men’s basketball team already appears to be carving a niche. “We’re getting there. We’re just going to keep putting it together,” emerging sophomore point guard Kareem Rozier said. For the second game in a row, the Dukes overcame a lethargic first-half showing and scored at...
Ligonier Valley grad Alex Torrance caps playing career at Waynesburg
Like many players on a football field, Alex Torrance gets very little mention. It doesn’t bother him, though. As a longtime offensive lineman in high school and college, Torrance is used to it. Really, if you attended one of his games and you didn’t know him, he probably would blend...
Duquesne basketball holds on to win season opener vs. Cleveland State
A season of promise at Duquesne began Monday night with a heart-throbbing, two-point victory for a college basketball program that has been starving for substantial success. “That’s pretty much exactly how I thought it would go,” Duquesne coach Keith Dambrot said. Dae Dae Grant, voted to the Atlantic 10 Conference...
Duquesne sets sights on long-awaited return to relevance
This time, things might be different. This time, there could be no excuses. It has been 45 years since Duquesne last appeared in an NCAA Tournament in men’s basketball. Perhaps, the once-proud Dukes finally will make their sixth showing in one of college sports’ biggest events. “We’re going to have...
Big 2nd quarter sparks Penn Hills over Penn-Trafford in WPIAL Class 5A playoffs
They played Thunderstruck, among AC/DC’s most powerful anthems, after another lightning strike by the Penn Hills offense early in the fourth quarter Friday night of the Indians’ 63-28 rout of Penn-Trafford in a WPIAL Class 5A quarterfinal football game at Yuhas McGinley Stadium. It was strike after strike as No....
Da’sjon Craggette runs for school-record 335 yards as Southmoreland routs Mt. Pleasant
A handout at Viking Stadium in Mt. Pleasant Township promoted the neighboring high school football rivalry between Mt. Pleasant and Southmoreland as “The Real Backyard Brawl.” The results suggest otherwise: Mt. Pleasant leads the all-time series 36-8. And that includes Southmoreland’s dominating 40-3 Interstate Conference victory Friday night. “They’ve dominated...
Moon girls blank feisty Latrobe to earn spot in WPIAL Class 3A semifinals
For Moon girls soccer coach Bill Pfeifer, winning never gets stale. Even after notching back-to-back PIAA championships, his two-time WPIAL champion Tigers continue to provide daily thrills. Thursday night on their home turf at Tiger Stadium was no different. In a particularly chippy atmosphere that saw multiple players tumbling to...
Freeport eliminates Valley from playoff contention
A funny thing happened Friday night at Freeport Area Athletic Stadium: Two winless high school football teams in conference play squared off with the winner still in the hunt for a WPIAL Class 3A playoff berth entering the final week of the regular season. Drew Ross passed for 133 yards...
Latrobe pulls away from Connellsville to run winning streak to 4
Looking relaxed and satisfied, Ron Prady stood back and admired his team’s quiet celebration. The Latrobe football coach knows all too well the feeling of success and he wants his players to experience it as well. So far, so good. Quarterback John Wetzel rushed for three touchdowns and passed for...
Ligonier Valley alum Aaron Tutino makes most of move to offense at St. Francis (Pa.)
It took a former Westmoreland County star and one of Pennsylvania’s top all-time high school receivers more than four years to find the end zone recently in a college football game. Aaron Tutino was hoping it wouldn’t take nearly as long to do it again. Tutino caught 61 touchdown passes...
‘Festive day’ as Robert Morris hockey teams play 1st home games since 2021
A lively celebration enveloped Clearview Arena on Saturday, and for good reason: Division I hockey is back in the hockeytown of Pittsburgh. Outside Robert Morris Island Sports Center’s Neville Island complex, tailgaters were undeterred by a chill in the air as they partied between games of the men’s and women’s...
Burrell runs past Ligonier Valley for conference victory
“Three yards and a cloud of dust.” The late Hall of Fame coach Woody Hayes’ run-first Ohio State football teams of several decades ago helped coin that popular gridiron cliche, a phrase sure to have come to the minds of fans Friday night at Ligonier’s foggy Weller Field. Hayes would’ve...
