Michael Love stories

The South Fayette girls soccer team came into Wednesday’s Class 3A championship game at Highmark Stadium seeking its third consecutive WPIAL title. Fox Chapel hoped to prevent that in the rematch of last year’s championship clash won by the Lions. The Foxes also were gunning for their second WPIAL crown...

Player of the week Antonio Perkins Burrell, So., QB/DB It was a school-record night for Perkins in last Friday’s 48-41 victory over Deer Lakes. He set team marks for rushing yards (360) and touchdowns (seven) in a game. Of the 360 rushing yards, 303 came in the second half. Perkins...

The Kiski Area football team is hoping to break a long playoff-win drought when it travels to Shaler on Friday for a WPIAL Class 5A first-round game. The Cavaliers have dropped 12 postseason games in a row since defeating Armstrong Central, 29-13, in 1990. First-year Kiski coach Colyn Haugh said...

WPIAL soccer playoffs Girls Class A Third-place consolation 11-Waynesburg (11-4-2) at 4-Springdale (12-2-1) 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Springdale Winner plays: District 5 champion Tuesday in PIAA first round (site/time TBD) Players to watch: Lacey Shondeck, Springdale; Kolbi Rastoka, Waynesburg Throw-ins: Springdale hopes to qualify for the PIAA playoffs for the...

The Sewickley Academy girls soccer team felt the sting of a WPIAL playoff loss to Springdale each of the past three years. The setbacks in 2022 and 2023 came in the first round. Last year, the Panthers’ WPIAL run was ended by the Dynamos in the semifinals, just one win...

When the Freeport and Quaker Valley girls soccer teams found out that No. 8 Burrell had shut out No. 4 Mt. Pleasant in the first of two Class 2A semifinals Tuesday evening, they knew there was going to be a rematch. It was going to be either the Quakers and...

Fox Chapel’s and South Fayette’s girls soccer teams will be reacquainted Wednesday night. The top two seeds in the WPIAL Class 3A playoffs will meet again at Highmark Stadium to decide this year’s champion. It was just a year ago that the Foxes and Lions clashed in the final, with...

It took a few extra days, but North Allegheny claimed the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Softball League title Saturday at McIntyre Park in Ross Township. The third-seeded Tigers started the day with an 11-7 win over No. 2 Bethel Park in the semifinals before taking down No. 1 Montour, 7-3, in...

Gateway was the only football team in the Big East Conference to complete its conference schedule before last Friday’s games, which wrapped up the regular season. The Gators, at 3-6 overall and 3-3 in conference play, hoped to take care of business Friday against Class 6A Hempfield while also watching...

Out of the hundreds of boys golfers who took to courses in high school matches this fall, only 36 were able to play for a WPIAL Class 3A championship at Butler Country Club. Plum senior Dany Caruso and Mustangs junior Gavin Fink were two of them. And while they didn’t...

It will be a play the Plum football faithful will not soon forget. Mustangs senior Austin Kolanowski set up for a 24-yard field goal with the score tied with two seconds left. The kick was blocked, but Kolankowski followed the ball and picked it up at the 10. He ran...

Leechburg and Neshannock each picked up a win even before playing their regular-season finale Friday. The Blue Devils’ Week 5 Eastern Conference game with Springdale from Sept. 26, originally postponed because the Dynamos were without enough healthy players to play the game, was officially declared a forfeit victory for Leechburg...

Rebekah Hall was thrust further into the WPIAL spotlight after last week’s title-winning performance at the Tri-State Coaches Association meet at White Oak Park. The Hampton junior came back to White Oak on Thursday with a goal to add a WPIAL title to her 2025 cross country resume. Mission accomplished....

Player of the week Timmy Andrasy Leechburg, Sr., RB/LB Andrasy was at it again last Friday against Brentwood as the Blue Devils bounced back from a loss to No. 1 Clairton and clinched their fifth straight trip to the WPIAL playoffs. He powered his way through 39 carries as Leechburg...

Freeport earned a much-needed victory last Friday with a 49-19 triumph over East Allegheny on senior night at Freeport Area Athletic Stadium. The Yellowjackets had lost two in a row coming into the game, one in heartbreaking fashion and the other that was not as close against a Class 3A...

Carter French has designs on winning a WPIAL Class 2A cross country championship Thursday at White Oak Park. The Knoch junior, who placed fifth in last year’s Class 2A race, has raised his level this fall with several first-place finishes in meets and invitationals. Last week, he built up a...

The Burrell girls soccer team scored just one goal in its WPIAL Class 2A first-round game against Belle Vernon on Tuesday at Buccaneer Stadium. Junior Makiah Buchak found the back of the net with three minutes left in the first half. But that single tally was all the Bucs needed....

Rain on Sunday wiped out the planned semifinals and championship games of the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Softball League playoff tournament. Top seed Montour, No. 2 Bethel Park, No. 4 Hempfield and No. 3 North Allegheny all advanced and will now decide the title Saturday at McIntyre Field in Ross Township....

For the seventh year in a row, the Plum girls soccer team opened the WPIAL Class 3A playoffs with a Monday evening home game. The Mustangs were undefeated in the first six matchups, outscoring their opponents 33-3. The winning continued under the lights at Mustangs Stadium, this time against a...

For the first time in program history, the Burrell girls volleyball team will enter the WPIAL playoffs as a section champion. But head coach Kourtney Lehman said the Bucs players, who outlasted Southmoreland in four games on the road Thursday to clinch the outright Section 5-2A title, quickly turned the...

WPIAL soccer playoffs Girls Class A First round 13 Chartiers-Houston (8-5-2) at 5-Springdale (10-1-1) 6 p.m. Tuesday at Springdale High School Winner plays: Winner of 12-Riverview (8-5) vs. 5-Riverside (8-3-1) Saturday in quarterfinals (site/time TBD) Throw-ins: Springdale is seeking back-to-back WPIAL titles. The Dynamos captured the third WPIAL crown in...

The WPIAL field hockey committee on Monday released the brackets for the Class 3A, Class 2A and Class A playoffs. Pine-Richland (Class 3A), Peters Township (Class 2A) and Shady Side Academy (Class A) are the No. 1 seeds. Pine-Richland will host No. 4 Norwin in one Class 3A semifinal at...

Apollo-Ridge has gone from a one-win season in 2024 to qualifying for the WPIAL playoffs. The Vikings’ turnaround continued Friday when they clinched the postseason berth with a 45-34 Allegheny Conference victory over South Park, last year’s WPIAL Class 2A champion. Apollo-Ridge (6-3, 4-1) and Steel Valley (6-3, 4-1) are...

All of the invitationals and dual meets are over and the training runs are coming to an end as the Riverview and Plum cross country teams gear up for Thursday’s WPIAL championships at White Oak Park. The Raiders and Mustangs have competed at White Oak several times already this season...

The Plum hockey team went 13-6 last year in the PIHL Class A regular season and had high hopes for a run in the Penguins Cup playoffs. However, a 6-0 loss to North Hills in the first round put a halt to those plans. “That was very tough,” third-year Mustangs...