High School category, Page 166

Welcome to Week 9 of the high school football season, the final Friday in October and the last regular season weekend of the 2024 campaign. There are 65 WPIAL football playoff berths this season, with 49 spots guaranteed to be clinched by the end of Friday in the six classifications,...

Gabby Beinecke scored the overtime winner, assisted by Abbey Spalla, to lead No. 2 South Fayette to a 1-0 victory over No. 10 Bethel Park (10-7-3) in the WPIAL Class 3A girls soccer quarterfinals Thursday night. The Lions (16-3) will meet No. 6 Mars in the semifinals Tuesday. Fox Chapel...

Canon-McMillan ordered personal pizzas from Pizza Hut for the drive home Thursday night from Harrison City. The food arrived much earlier than expected, at halftime. The Big Macs’ go-ahead goal to open the second half was delivered even faster. Sarah Coffman ran wide and poked a shot past Rease Solomon...

It’s always tough beating a team three times in a season. But the Deer Lakes boys soccer team did it against North Catholic on Thursday with a WPIAL Class 2A semifinals berth on the line. The third-seeded Lancers beat the sixth-seeded Trojans, 3-0, at Lancer Stadium in West Deer. Earlier...

Keirstin Curry said she couldn’t have hit a better shot. It couldn’t have come at a better time. Moments after coming on as a substitute in double overtime, Curry got a little bit of space and ripped a shot from 30 yards into the top of the net to give...

All season, Norwin cross country coach Brian Fleckenstein kept telling his runners they could beat North Allegheny. On Thursday, that’s exactly what they did. The Knights won their first team title since 1977, second in school history, by edging the Tigers for the WPIAL Class 3A boys title at White...

Woodland Hills is best known as a football school. Junior Annabel Johnson is putting the cross country team on the map. Johnson pulled away in the final half-mile to win the Class 3A girls title at the WPIAL cross country championship at White Oak Park on Thursday. Her time was...

Safe to say Fox Chapel senior Ethan Vaughan left everything he had on the course at White Oak Park. Vaughan became the third Fox Chapel runner to win a WPIAL cross country title when he paced the Class 3A boys field Thursday. He ran 15 minutes, 26.50 seconds to squeeze...

Freeport senior Michael Braun earned a top-10 finish at the WPIAL cross country championships last year and ran at states. The recent Penn State commit wanted more this year. He got what he wanted Thursday. Braun went out fast and led wire to wire to win his first WPIAL championship...

The WPIAL football playoff picture won’t be in full focus for Westmoreland County teams until late Friday night or even Saturday afternoon. Several teams’ seasons will come down to the final week of the regular season. Area teams that already have clinched spots in the postseason are Penn-Trafford (7-2) and...

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. Freeport quarterback Mike Petras ran for two touchdowns, and Deer Lakes running back Allen Schietroma scored on a 22-yard pass and 50-yard punt...

Mt. Pleasant girls soccer players remember that sinking, helpless feeling that overtook them as Burrell’s golden goal hit the twine a year ago. The Vikings were shocked by the Buccaneers, 2-1, in the WPIAL 2A quarterfinals, ending their hopes of a return trip to the district finals. Burrell was the...

High schools Field hockey WPIAL playoffs Class 3A Semifinals Thursday’s schedule Norwin (4-12) at Pine-Richland (18-0), 7 p.m.; North Allegheny (8-10) at Mt. Lebanon (11-4), 7 p.m. Class 2A Semifinals Wednesday’s results Fox Chapel 2, Penn-Trafford 1 Thursday’s schedule Latrobe (3-10) at Peters Township (14-3), 6 p.m. Championship Saturday, Nov....

It was a battle of two second-place girls volleyball teams in Class 2A, and the great equalizer was playoff experience. No. 10 Burrell had great poise, played mistake-free and dominated the net, as the Bucs upset host No. 7 South Allegheny on Wednesday in WPIAL first-round play. “When you do...

Quarterfinal soccer continues in the 2024 WPIAL playoffs. The lone boys tournament taking center stage Thursday will be Class 2A, where the left side of the bracket was busted up in the opening round. Top-seeded South Park advanced in the first round, but the No. 4, 5 and 8 seeds...

WPIAL and PIAA champions have not been crowned yet in girls soccer, but some of the talented players who will lead teams to titles were recognized by coaches in the district. The All-WPIAL list for girls soccer came out Wednesday night. Mt. Pleasant and Peters Township lead all schools in...

It wasn’t like playing Yahtzee, where players shake the dice, dump them and see what comes up, but there was some major movement at the top of the Trib 10 this week. Two big-time showdowns shook up the power rankings and when the dust cleared, a third different team sits...

Jovan Sankoorikal scored the go-ahead goal early in the second half to lead No. 7 Franklin Regional to a 2-1 upset victory over second-seeded Thomas Jefferson in the WPIAL Class 3A boys soccer quarterfinals Wednesday night. Fabrizzio Costa scored a first-half goal, assisted by Sankoorikal, and Joey Bayne also registered...

When Xavier Jackson took a tumble after getting fouled during the first overtime, he considered not going back into the game because he felt pain in his hip. The Bethel Park junior forward quickly reconsidered, wiping the rubber pellets from the turf off his face and arms and checking back...

With four minutes to go in a tense tie game, Fox Chapel sophomore forward Emma Srodes brought the ball through the Penn-Trafford zone on a change of possession and fired a shot from 10 yards. “We’ve been practicing that shot a lot in practice, the shot when I take the...

The Freeport girls volleyball team saw its 19-year run as a section champion come to an end this year, but it quickly turned the page. Now the focus is on the pursuit of getting to another WPIAL final. The sixth-seeded Yellowjackets started their journey with a 3-0 victory over No....

The North Allegheny boys golf team ended a 50-year drought by winning the WPIAL Class 3A team title Oct. 10. Now North Allegheny athletic director Bob Bozzuto has to find more room for the PIAA team championship trophy. The Tigers capped a tremendous season by winning their first PIAA title...

Player of the week Landon Kucic Kiski Area, sr., RB/LB The 210-pound tailback continues to run hard for a Cavaliers team in the hunt for a wild-card berth in the Class 5A Big East Conference. Kucic tallied his third straight 100-plus rushing-yard performance last Friday in a 15-14 comeback win...

Class 5A Big East Conference Kiski Area (4-5, 2-3) at 5-Woodland Hills (7-2, 5-0) 7 p.m. Friday, The Wolvarena, Turtle Creek Last week’s results: Kiski Area 15, Plum 14; Woodland Hills 27, Franklin Regional 17 Last year’s meeting: Did not play Kiski Area has won three straight games after a...

Last week: 10-1 Season: 71-21 (77.2%) As the WPIAL football season reaches its conclusion, there’s only one thing on The Birdie’s mind: tiebreakers. There’s nothing that makes his beady Birdie eyes light up like arcane discussions of the procedures for breaking ties in the standings. He’s a little concerned about...