Dave Mackall stories, Page 26
Leechburg tops Greensburg Central Catholic in thrilling playoff tune-up
Two playoff-bound high school football teams, eager to flex their muscles one last time during the regular season, waged a heavyweight battle Friday night in the WPIAL Class A Eastern League. In the “someone-wins-and-someone-loses” category, Leechburg came out on top in a wild, 31-27 decision at No. 4 Greensburg Central...
Goalkeepers take center stage as South Fayette tops Franklin Regional in Class 3A shootout
South Fayette goalkeeper Kaylee Hendricks met her counterpart, Aris Lamanna of Franklin Regional, face-to-face, eye-to-eye. And in that moment, all Hendricks could think was, “Make the save and win the game.” A marathon of two halves, two overtimes and a total of nine shootout goals came down to Lamanna, Franklin...
Greensburg Central Catholic girls volleyball takes aim at long playoff run
Over the past decade, two teams, including one from Westmoreland County, have dominated the WPIAL Class A girls volleyball playoffs. Allegheny County’s Bishop Canevin has won six championships since 2012, and the Greensburg Central Catholic Centurions gathered up the remaining three. Could there be another title run in store this...
Group effort leads Latrobe girls volleyball to WPIAL playoffs for 4th straight season
The Latrobe girls volleyball team has met its first preseason goal of finishing in the top three in its section to secure a spot in the WPIAL playoff brackets for a fourth consecutive season. Everything else, following its final two scheduled regular-season matches this week, is to be determined. “The...
Cody Rubrecht does it all in Greensburg Salem’s victory over Mars
Cody Rubrecht was everywhere Friday night for Greensburg Salem’s football team. Need a rushing touchdown, a pass reception for a score, a hustling tackle to thwart a long run, an interception to stop a last-ditch drive? Cody’s your man. “He’s amazing. He’s really good,” Greensburg Salem coach Dave Keefer said...
Saint Vincent football slowly coming around under 3rd-year coach Smetanka
After an 0-4 start to his first year as football coach in 2019 at Saint Vincent, Aaron Smetanka since has guided the Bearcats to a combined 8-6 mark while his third season marches on. They are 3-2 this year and angling for just their second winning record since the school...
Baldwin topples Hempfield in coach’s return to Westmoreland County
Baldwin football coach Tim Sweeney has spent a lot of time in Westmoreland County winning games while at Derry, his alma mater. He took the Trojans to four consecutive WPIAL playoff appearances in six seasons. “Yeah, I’ve been following Derry,” he said. “I mean, I’m a Derry grad, so the...
Mt. Pleasant grad Luke Hauger is ‘something special’ as Seton Hill’s kicker
When he was a kid, Luke Hauger did what a lot of aspiring boys liked to do in the backyard: He kicked a football. When he got older, he began to play organized sports and kicked with even more frequency. He seemed to really like it. You could say Hauger...
Leechburg wins at Jeannette for first time
Leechburg’s superb season continued Friday night against one of the WPIAL’s winningest programs. It was a sweet outcome for the Blue Devils, who routed Jeannette, 53-7, in a WPIAL Class A Eastern Conference game for their first victory at storied McKee Stadium. This isn’t your average Leechburg football team. The...
Ligonier Valley finding ways to overcome adversity en route to 5-0 start
“You can’t let things get you down. It’s just staring at adversity right in his eyes and taking advantage of every day you have. You have to go out there and make the most of every opportunity, despite your situation.” Sound like classic coachspeak? You bet, but from a coach’s...
Greensburg Central Catholic’s Boyle an athlete for all seasons, but golf rises to top
Baseball mainly has been his summer sport, hockey in the winter. But golf? Well, for Wade Boyle, it’s becoming something he wants to take part in all the time. So much so the Greensburg Central Catholic junior has given up playing summer league baseball to concentrate on the links, though...
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...
