Dave Mackall stories, Page 26
Ligonier Valley goes to 5-0 with rout of Carrick despite another key injury
Ligonier Valley spent another Friday night tuning up for what’s next: The games that count. The Rams, ranked No. 5 in WPIAL Class 2A, open Allegheny Conference play in a week at Steel Valley with what coach Roger Beitel said following Friday night’s 62-12 rout of visiting Carrick will be...
Longtime friends Flynn, Hileman looking to coach Hempfield girls volleyball to success
Friends since birth? Well, perhaps not that far back. But close enough. To the best of their recollection, Ashten Flynn and Payton Hileman have been “best friends” since they were 3 years old. “Our parents were good friends, too,” Flynn said. “They did all kinds of things together, and the...
Derry girls volleyball aims to continue long run of postseason berths
Call Derry girls volleyball coach Brock Smith a perfectionist of sorts, though it’s far from a flawless setting. Derry, which is off to a 2-1 start in Section 5-2A, hasn’t won any WPIAL championships in the sport and has made just one appearance in the PIAA playoffs since Smith took...
Deer Lakes dominates Derry to end 15-game losing skid
Deer Lakes’ long losing streak in football is over. Derek Burk threw three touchdown passes — two to Conner Walker during a 19-point third-quarter outburst that ignited a running clock — to lead the visiting Lancers to a 49-0 rout of winless Derry on Friday night in the Allegheny 7...
Greensburg CC girls volleyball has sights set on WPIAL title after falling short last season
It’s not likely to be a situation where a new coach inherits a talented team, then appears to be a genius if the team goes on to new heights. No, in this particular case, it doesn’t seem to be that way at all. This coach and these girls already were...
New coach Brannigan hopes to lead her former team back to prominence at Greensburg Salem
Maybe it’s her competitive nature. Perhaps it’s the bittersweet memory of falling just short of a PIAA championship as a Greensburg Salem senior in 2006-07 that motivates Rachel Brannigan. Then again, playing girls volleyball for revered coach Lynn Jobe, the architect of the Golden Lions’ magical Class 3A state championship...
Kiski Area remains unbeaten, gets past Latrobe
Kiski Area and Latrobe conducted a football staredown, trading touchdowns nearly all night long. Until Latrobe flinched. Chad Hepler, picking up the slack when starter Brock Wilkins went down early with an injury, rushed for 136 yards and a key 30-yard touchdown late, and Logan Johnson passed for 171 yards...
Hempfield welcomes new field hockey coach
Hempfield field hockey, a program without at least a .500 record since its inception nearly 20 years ago, will look to former St. Francis (Pa.) midfielder Nikki (Snyder) Schmitt this season in the hope of building a winner. She replaces Michele Fischer, whose teams at Hempfield never won more than...
Lily Fenton leads Latrobe volleyball team, carries on family legacy
She is the final sibling from a family known for its athletic excellence to etch her name into Westmoreland County sports folklore. And she’s just a junior at Latrobe. Lily Fenton, a 5-foot-6 setter who, in 2020, was a WPIAL first-team all-section player and was recognized by the AAU National...
Greensburg Salem reverses fortunes in 4th quarter, pulls away from Connellsville
In its opener a week ago, Greensburg Salem folded in the fourth quarter. The Golden Lions didn’t let it happen again on Friday night. Greensburg Salem scored 20 fourth-quarter points to pull away from visiting Connellsville and earn a 36-19 victory. Hayden Teska threw a touchdown pass and rushed for...
Latrobe builds huge 1st-half lead, dominates Derry
Vince Skillings stood motionless as his grandson, Latrobe sophomore Ja’Tawn Williams, intercepted a Derry pass and raced 45 yards for a touchdown on the final play of the game. It was about the only thing Skillings could laugh about after Latrobe thrashed his Trojans, 61-0, on Friday night in the...
Steel Valley finding its way back to top
Just three years removed from its latest WPIAL football championship, Steel Valley is trying to find a way back to the top. “They’re getting it, slowly but surely,” said coach Ray Braszo, who returned to the Ironmen’s helm in 2019, a year after the school won its second WPIAL Class...
Indiana pushing for winning season
Like so many coaches, Brandon Overdorff has so many questions. Are we big enough? Are we strong enough? Are we fast enough? Can we compete? Indiana, currently the easternmost WPIAL member school, is preparing to chase another winning season, something that has escaped the Indians in Overdorff’s first three years...
East Allegheny eyes another playoff chance
Not long ago at East Allegheny, the concept of regularly playing football in the postseason was but a dream. It rarely happened. Anymore, though, just making it there isn’t enough. “We’ve gotten the program to where we’re getting to the playoffs. We even won a game (in 2017),” coach Dom...
Turowski siblings turn in big day at Westmoreland Junior Amateur, with Nicholas Turowski winning
The siblings, three years apart, sat within earshot of one another, along with some others in the field, while awaiting the official results of the annual Westmoreland County Golf Association Junior Amateur Tournament. That’s not to say Alex and Nicholas Turowski didn’t already know who would finish atop the leaderboard...
Seton Hill baseball shifts focus to NCAA regional tournament
A disappointing weekend of baseball at Seton Hill couldn’t keep the Griffins down for long. Of course, being rewarded with a top seed in the NCAA Division II regionals helped with the pain of losing out on a conference title. But a trip to the ice cream stand was just...
Hempfield baseball team rolls into WPIAL title game with win over Norwin
Hempfield is headed to a WPIAL baseball championship game for the first time in school history. Christian Zilli had three hits, four RBIs and closed out Hempfield’s 12-2 rout of Norwin following Jake Kramer’s strong start for the third-seeded Spartans in the Class 6A semifinals on Tuesday at Latrobe. Hempfield...
Seton Hill baseball falls to Bloomsburg in PSAC championship series
Home runs have been a friend of Seton Hill baseball this season, but the long ball came back to haunt the Griffins in their bid for a third Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference championship in five years. Bloomsburg homered five times to produce all its runs, and the Huskies won the...
Seton Hill, Bloomsburg split first 2 games of PSAC finals, setting up Saturday showdown
Down a game in the best-of-3 championship series, Bloomsburg rode freshman Michael Standen’s five-hitter to a convincing 9-2 victory over No. 6 Seton Hill on Friday in the second game of a doubleheader in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Tournament at SHU Baseball Complex. Anthony Viggiano hit a grand slam,...
Seton Hill baseball sweeps Mercyhurst, moves to PSAC championship series
The No. 7 Seton Hill baseball team was staring at only its fifth loss of the season Sunday when Jack Oberdorf stepped to the plate against Mercyhurst in the top of the ninth inning. One swing of the bat gave the Griffins a three-run lead in the second game of...
Kollar stellar as Seton Hill blanks Gannon in PSAC quarterfinals
In high school, right-hander Jared Kollar routinely faced pressure situations. He was the winning pitcher in WPIAL and PIAA championship games in 2017 as a senior at Latrobe. Four years later, as a college senior at Seton Hill, Kollar took the mound Wednesday for just the third time after returning...
Latrobe baseball team makes most out of few chances in win over Penn-Trafford
Latrobe’s offense took a break Thursday, but the Wildcats baseball team still managed to beat Penn-Trafford for a second consecutive day. Latrobe scored all its runs in the first inning without a hit, and Rayce King and Tommy Ciesielski combined on a five-hitter as the visiting Wildcats won, 3-1. The...
Duquesne loses bid for NEC title in overtime loss to Sacred Heart
Football in the ‘Burgh on a Sunday usually means a fall date with the Pittsburgh Steelers. On this particular spring Sunday afternoon during a season of uncertainty, college football was the showcase on the Bluff. But the home team did not prevail. Sacred Heart forced Duquesne quarterback Joe Mischler to...
Southmoreland softball team charges out of gate
If Southmoreland needed an early-season hint as to its softball team’s chances in Class 3A of the WPIAL, it may have gotten it this week with victories over Class 4A schools in its first two games. What’s more, the Scotties outscored Greensburg Salem and Uniontown by a combined 17-3. But...
Southmoreland baseball driven to turn close losses into wins, playoff berth
When the Southmoreland baseball team began preparing for a return to the diamond following last season’s covid-related layoff, coach Al Govern privately asked each player to come up with a goal. In every case, he said, the players offered a similar response. “It’s the playoffs or bust this year,” Govern...
