Jonathan Bombulie stories

As of the middle of July, there was a clear favorite in WPIAL Class 2A football this season. With 2,000-yard passer Anthony Smith throwing to game-breaking receiver Khalil Taylor, Seton LaSalle was looking like the team to beat. But sometimes life gets in the way, even at private schools. On...

Editor’s note: Trib HSSN will publish team-by-team previews for one conference per day until the start of the high school football season Aug. 22. Due to production schedule conflicts, the Charleroi preview will be published later in the week. Mike Bosnic has been at this a while, entering his 17th...

Editor’s note: Trib HSSN will publish team-by-team previews for one conference per day until the start of the high school football season Aug. 22. There are two aspects to the turnaround of the Ellwood City program that help make it one of the best stories going in WPIAL football. First...

The book (and movie and TV show) wasn’t called “Saturday Afternoon Sunshine.” It was “Friday Night Lights,” and that’s a concept Western Beaver will become much more familiar with this season. The Golden Beavers have been playing at Rich Niedbala Field at the high school in Industry for 63 years....

Since 2021, when Donald was a freshman, there’s always been a Barksdale in the backfield for the Steel Valley football team. It’s been a run to remember. Over the past four seasons, the Ironmen have gone 42-8 with a WPIAL championship in 2022, a runner-up finish the following year and...

Editor’s note: Trib HSSN will publish team-by-team previews for one conference per day until the start of the high school football season Aug. 22. South Park is coming off a dream season. Led by a dominant offensive line and superstar running back in Erie Doerue, the Eagles defeated Seton LaSalle,...

Two days after 17-year-old hockey star Gavin McKenna announced his intentions to play for Penn State in the fall, the school confirmed the news via press release. “His arrival to Hockey Valley is extremely significant not only to our hockey program, but to Penn State athletics and to college hockey...

Ten players are under par after the first round of the U.S. Open at Oakmont. Just two of them are former major champions. Brooks Koepka shot a 2-under 68 and Jon Rahm carded a 1-under 69 to reside on the first page of the leaderboard, not far behind first-round leader...

As Bryson DeChambeau walked out of the media tent toward a waiting golf cart, two faces squeezed through a partition in the privacy fence surrounding the paved lot, one on top of the other. After they yelled to get his attention, the faces disappeared and a hand holding a hat...

When he held his first news conference after being hired by the Penguins on June 1, 2023, Kyle Dubas was asked about his team’s goaltending situation. Tristan Jarry was headed to free agency, so Dubas was going to have to make some moves at the position. “Goaltending is vitally important,”...

Hockey fans who believe in omens could have seen this coming before the season was 20 minutes old. In the first period of their season opener Oct. 9, the Penguins gave up a pair of goals to Jacob Trouba, of all people, and went on to lose 6-0 to the...

The goal Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic scored during a 5-2 win over the Buffalo Sabres on Friday night, naturally, was unassisted. He picked up a puck dumped in by Sabres forward Peyton Krebs and threw it the length of the ice for the 19th goalie goal in NHL history....

As far as centuries go, the 21st has treated the Pittsburgh Penguins pretty well. No team in the NHL has scored more goals (5,737) or held more Stanley Cup parades (three) since Jan. 1, 2000. It stands to reason, then, that their Quarter-Century Team should be something to see. Each...

On both a team and individual basis, the spotlight has been vacated in WPIAL Class 2A girls basketball. Greensburg Central Catholic defeated Serra Catholic in last year’s WPIAL finals, but the Centurions moved up to Class 3A thanks to the PIAA’s competitive balance formula and the Eagles dropped down to...

Since the PIAA went to six classifications in 2017, North Catholic has dominated Class 4A girls basketball. The Trojanettes have won six of the eight WPIAL championships awarded during that span, and they might have won the other two, but they were playing in Class 3A in 2021 and 2022....

South Park 21, Seton LaSalle 14 South Park 6-8-7-0 — 21 Seton LaSalle 0-7-0-7 — 14 Scoring summary SP: Eric Doerue 6 run (kick blocked) SP: Robert Lenzi 1 run (Doerue run) SLS: Khalil Taylor 32 run (Brayden Carter kick) SP: Doerue 8 run (Griffin Burnett kick) SLS: Richard Littlejohn...

Fort Cherry 21, Clairton 20 Fort Cherry 7-7-0-7 — 21 Clairton 6-0-14-0 — 20 Scoring summary C: Mike Ruffin 79 run (run failed) FC: Matt Sieg 4 run (Nik Massey kick) FC: Sieg 1 run (Massey kick) C: Drahcir Jones 58 run (Ruffin run) C: Ruffin 3 run (run failed)...

Throughout the course of the next four months, contending teams will reach new heights and new stars will emerge. But at the beginning of the WPIAL Class 6A girls basketball season, the story might be more about who’s missing. For starters, seven-time WPIAL champion coach Spencer Stefko is no longer...

Now that Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby is in his late 30s — almost certainly a literal graybeard should he have the chance to grow one in the spring — it’s fitting that his public comments portray a calming voice of wisdom. Yes, the Penguins are off to a lackluster...

Editor’s note: Trib HSSN will publish team-by-team previews for one conference per day until the start of the high school football season Friday. Due to production schedule conflicts, the Charleroi preview will be published later in the week. When coach Mike Bosnic looks down the Washington roster, he sees the...

Since taking over at his alma mater in May, Sto-Rox’s Brendan Blair has been caught up in a whirlwind that many in his position across the WPIAL can probably relate to. “To me, being a head coach, it hasn’t really sunk in for me because I’ve been so busy making...

There’s an interesting cast of title contenders in the Class 2A Midwestern Athletic Conference this season, ranging from perennial power Beaver Falls to exciting upstart Ellwood City. There’s one thing every MAC team has in common, though. If they want to win a conference title, they’re going to have to...

Editor’s note: Trib HSSN will publish team-by-team previews for one conference per day until the start of the high school football season Friday. A year ago, Beaver Falls taught a lesson about never giving up on a season that won’t soon be forgotten. The Tigers were 2-3 in the first...

On Aug. 12, the outlook for the Western Beaver football team this season changed via events that took place not on a practice field in Chippewa but in an office building in Scott Township. That’s when the WPIAL ruled Western Beaver sophomore quarterback Jaivin Peel would be fully eligible for...