High School category

Bentworth coach Tyler Hamstra and the Bearcats girls soccer team knew they’d have a chance to capture their first WPIAL Class A soccer championship Thursday night. On a wet and rainy night at Highmark Stadium, it played out how they’d hoped. With 1 minute, 33 seconds left in regulation, sophomore...

Quaker Valley was building toward something in the waning minutes of overtime. The players felt it, the coaches could sense it and the fans hidden under umbrellas perked up. Ari Bosh clanged a shot off the crossbar and then sent the rebound just wide off a defender to set up...

Fox Chapel boys soccer coach Erik Ingram doesn’t always get bogged down by tactics when the Foxes play section rival Seneca Valley. Many times, Ingram gets caught up in being a spectator. Ingram appreciates competing against the Raiders because he admires the program they’ve built. Seneca Valley will be the...

Welcome to the start of the 2025 WPIAL football playoffs. Don’t be thrown off if the start of the postseason is a little creepy. There are 25 first-round or quarterfinals games slated for Halloween night around the WPIAL, so 50 teams will have to wait until about 9:30 to find...

Burrell hopes the third time’s the charm. Freeport hopes to get out the brooms. A new chapter in one of the Alle-Kiski Valley’s most intense girls soccer rivalries will be written Saturday at Highmark Stadium. The No. 2 Yellowjackets, who won both games against the Bucs in the Section 2...

Franklin Regional and West Allegheny are a combined 29-0 this season when they score two or more goals. No. 3 seed Franklin Regional (18-3) is 17-0, and No. 8 West Allegheny (13-6) is perfect on 12 occasions. Both teams won 1-0 games in the semifinals, so scoring could be at...

WPIAL Class 4A girls soccer championship 5-North Allegheny (16-3-2) vs. 2-Seneca Valley (12-3-2) 6 p.m. Friday, Highmark Stadium Coaches: Chuck Kelley, North Allegheny; Mark Perry, Seneca Valley Players to watch: Emma Schupansky, North Allegheny; Maddie Marcotte, Seneca Valley WPIAL titles: North Allegheny 3 (2022, 2020, 2019); Seneca Valley 5 (2018,...

When Hempfield cross country coach Jeff Mayo first met his team in 2022, he knew this was a special group. Four years later, Mayo’s view was spot on. Hempfield won its first WPIAL Class 3A cross country title Oct. 23, and it heads to Hershey for the PIAA championships Saturday....

Each week throughout the high school football season, the Valley News Dispatch will take a look at the players, coaches and events that shaped our scholastic legacy. Plum got by McKeesport, 12-9, in a WPIAL Class 4A opening-round contest Oct. 30, 2020. A 12-yard run by Eryck Moore with 51...

Southmoreland football coaches repeatedly preach for the team to “go 1-0 every week.” The players hear it multiple times a day, dozens of times per week, hundreds per month. If the Scotties follow orders this week, they’ll make history. Southmoreland (9-1) will try to capture its first playoff victory, which...

High schools Field hockey WPIAL playoffs Championship At North Allegheny Class 2A Wednesday’s results Fox Chapel 2, Peters Township 0 Class A Wednesday’s results Shady Side Academy 1, Aquinas Academy 0 Football WPIAL playoffs All games 7 p.m. Class 6A Semifinals Nov. 7 Canon-McMillan (4-6) vs Central Catholic (9-1), site...

We still have two days left in October, yet Christmas commercials and music are already popping up on us. One popular holiday lyric that fits these next few days for fall high school sports fans is, “It’s the most wonderful time of the year”. There is gold in them there...

North Allegheny’s eight-year reign as the top Class 4A girls volleyball team in Pennsylvania came to an end in the WPIAL semifinals Wednesday night. Fifth-seeded Pine-Richland, which had lost to North Allegheny in four games twice in the regular season, pulled off a sweep of the top-seeded Tigers, 27-25, 25-17,...

For the third straight year, Aquinas Academy and Shady Side Academy met in the Class A field hockey title game. The Crusaders came in looking to finally get over the hump, having played in the championship game the last four years and coming up empty. The Bulldogs were looking to...

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...

WPIAL Class 3A boys soccer championship 3-Franklin Regional (18-3) vs. 8-West Allegheny (13-6) Noon Saturday, Highmark Stadium, Pittsburgh … Franklin Regional is a firm believer in a centuries-old sports adage: Defense wins championships. The Panthers’ back line has been one of the WPIAL’s best, and it could be what brings...

While there was some slight shuffling in both the big school and small school power rankings this week, don’t look for much movement following the first weekend of the WPIAL football playoffs. More than half of the current teams in the Trib 10 are not in action Halloween night. Eleven...

The only thing to match the torrential rain at the WPIAL Class 2A field hockey championship game at North Allegheny was the relentless force of the Fox Chapel attack. The No. 2-seeded Foxes (13-3-3) rode a strong wave of offensive pressure to a 2-0 victory over top seed Peters Township...

Zane Spence cradled the WPIAL Class 2A boys soccer championship trophy Wednesday night at Highmark Stadium, ignoring the steady rain that was streaming down. The Deer Lakes senior defender was too proud continuing a family and program tradition to be brought down by the weather. Spence headed in a shot...

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...

Here’s a look at the don’t-miss matchups for Week 10 in the A-K Valley: Class 5A First round 11-Plum (5-5) at 6-Upper St. Clair (8-2) 7 p.m. Friday, Panther Stadium, Upper St. Clair Last week: Plum 20, Penn Hills 14; Upper St. Clair 56, Baldwin 8 Playoff record: Plum 9-18;...

Last week: 9-2 Season: 89-20 (81.7%) When the regular season ends and playoffs begin, The Birdie tends to get a little melancholy. “At this point, the season can be over in the blink of an eye,” the football fowl philosophized. So before he makes his picks for the first week...

Football WPIAL playoffs All games 7 p.m. Class 6A Semifinals Nov. 7 Canon-McMillan (4-6) vs Central Catholic (9-1), site TBD; Norwin (7-3) at North Allegheny (7-3) Class 5A First round Friday’s schedule Kiski Area (4-6) at Shaler (3-7); Armstrong (4-6) at Moon (7-3); North Hills (3-7) at Bethel Park (6-4);...

Player of the week Giovanni Rothrauff Norwin, Jr., RB/OLB The junior ran for a career-high 260 yards in helping the Knights to a 14-7 victory over Mt. Lebanon. He is approaching a Norwin record for yards in a season. He has rushed 1,433 yards and nine touchdowns. Players to watch...