High School category, Page 515

The long-awaited day for the Zorn family finally arrived. Sewickley Academy senior Adin Zorn officially signed his national letter of intent to attend and play baseball at Penn State. Zorn, a talented shortstop/outfielder, was recruited by the Nittany Lions early in his high school career and made a verbal commitment...

A win in the PIAA playoffs is coming for the Penn-Trafford field hockey team. Even though the squad dropped a 2-1 decision to Twin Valley in the opening round of the PIAA playoffs Nov. 8, the Warriors are closing the gap on the teams from the eastern part of the...

High school football season at Penn-Trafford ended earlier than expected with a first-round loss to Pine-Richland in the WPIAL Class 5A playoffs Nov. 4. It was an unusual season for the Warriors, the reigning WPIAL and PIAA Class 5A champions. Many felt the Warriors were primed for another run at...

Hard-headed wasn’t the word Amiera Smith was searching for. But there was a time the Penn Hills senior felt she could have had a better attitude about playing volleyball. As she prepares to head to Central State in Wilberforce, Ohio, next season, the Indians senior has seen herself morph into...

Lee Zelkowitz could see that Sawyer Kinney’s performance was climbing in the weeks leading up to the WPIAL Class 3A cross country championships. The Penn Hills junior had made major progress this season and seemed to be figuring things out. “He had a lot of good practices and intervals leading...

The WPIAL represented itself well in the PIAA Class A boys cross country championship meet in Hershey on Nov. 5. All four qualifying teams, including Riverview, were near the top of the standings. Winchester Thurston was third, followed by Eden Christian, the Raiders in fifth, and Our Lady of the...

For the first time in 17 years, the Plum varsity boys soccer team played in a PIAA tournament game. Mustangs coach Raf Kolankowski said his players gave great effort against District 10 champion Cathedral Prep, but the homestanding Ramblers made enough plays to defeat Plum, 2-0, in the PIAA Class...

High schools Field hockey PIAA playoffs Class 3A Quarterfinals Saturday’s results Conestoga 2, Manheim Township 1 (OT) Wilson 1, Downingtown West 0 Emmaus 7, Honesdale 0 Lower Dauphin 2, Great Valley 1 (OT) Semifinals Tuesday’s schedule Wilson (20-2-1) vs. Emmaus (25-0); Lower Dauphin (20-3-1) vs. Conestoga (21-2) Class 2A Quarterfinals...

Friday’s heavy rainfall was the wettest in WPIAL territory in some time. While all games were played on artificial turf, it was still tough for a teams such as Armstrong that relies on pinpoint passing patterns. Some wanted the WPIAL to delay the games until Saturday, but that wasn’t ideal,...

Morgan Gesinski School: Mt. Pleasant Year: Freshman Sport: Soccer Claim to fame: With her team clinging to a one-goal lead, Gesinski was fouled at the top of the box and calmly sank the penalty kick to give Mt. Pleasant some breathing room on the way to a 2-0 victory over...

Will Bruno scored twice to lead Seneca Valley to a 3-0 victory over Spring-Ford (15-5-4) in the PIAA Class 4A boys soccer quarterfinals Saturday, setting up a rematch of last year’s state championship game. Cole Kamarec tallied the other goal for Seneca Valley (20-1-1), which will face face Conestoga in...

In rainy and chilly conditions at Peters Township, Moon put a damper on Plum’s attempt to unseat the undefeated Tigers in a PIAA Class 3A girls soccer quarterfinal Saturday afternoon. Moon, the WPIAL champion, broke a halftime tie on a trio of goals from senior midfielder Hailey Longwell and closed...

The Freeport girls volleyball team took one step closer to its ultimate goal of winning the program’s second state title with a dominant performance in the quarterfinals. The Yellowjackets built early leads in each set and rolled to a 3-0 sweep over Quaker Valley on Saturday at North Allegheny. Freeport...

Ligonier Valley football players sat quietly in the pitch black of a locker room with no power Friday night at Reeves Field on the campus of Geneva College. “When it’s game time, I take all their cell phones,” Rams coach Roger Beitel said. “So they were sitting in the dark...

Mt. Pleasant girls soccer coach Rich Garland moved sophomore midfielder Maddie Barrick to the outside of the formation last week, hoping to generate more scoring opportunities. Consider the move a success. Barrick’s goal in the 31st minute on a cold and rainy Saturday afternoon lifted the Vikings to a 1-0...

An early deficit might dampen a team’s spirits in the state soccer playoffs. It incentivized Greensburg Central Catholic on Saturday against rival Springdale. The Centurions’ play picked up. Scoring opportunities opened. And they chased down their reward: a fourth consecutive trip to the semifinals. Sophomore Riley Kerr scored two goals,...

Grace Gent Class: Senior School: Springdale Sport: Soccer Report card: Gent scored both goals as Springdale’s girls soccer team defeated Mercyhurst Prep, 2-0, in the first round of the PIAA Class A playoffs Tuesday night. The senior forward entered Saturday’s PIAA quarterfinal contest against Greensburg Central Catholic with 26 goals...

The stadiums of Canon-McMillan and North Allegheny were chosen by the WPIAL to host two of the eight football semifinal matchups scheduled for Friday. Canon-McMillan will host the semifinal between Aliquippa and McKeesport while North Allegheny welcomes Thomas Jefferson and Central Valley from the other side of the Class 4A...

Colleges have a soccer pipeline going to Franklin Regional, and the recruits are producing at the next level. Sophomore Blake Cooper has been one of the top offensive threats in the AMCC for Penn State Behrend. The midfielder had a team-best 10 goals and six assists for 26 points through...

Girls soccer talent is bubbling over in Westmoreland County, as evidenced by postseason playoff runs, career scoring milestones and Division I commitments. The proof also lies in the All-WPIAL list, which was released last week. Norwin senior Reagan Casper was one of 17 defenders to make the list. Mt. Pleasant,...

North Allegheny’s hopes for a WPIAL girls volleyball three-peat were dashed on Nov. 5, when the Tigers lost to Pine-Richland, 3-2, in the Class 4A championship match at Robert Morris. The second-seeded Rams (16-2) outscored North Allegheny, 5-1, down the stretch of the fifth and deciding set to win by...

Hampton’s boys cross country team is working on mini-­dynasty status. The Talbots won the 2022 WPIAL Class 2A boys cross country championship Oct. 27 to become the first team to repeat in its division since Knoch in 2014-15. “It was definitely a team goal,” Hampton coach Dean Longwell said. “The...

Hampton senior Eric Weeks has replayed the final moments of the Talbots’ 34-33 gut-wrenching last-second WPIAL Class 4A playoff loss to Montour over and over again. But the ending never changed. “I’ve watched that play probably 50 times, thinking of anything I could have done better,” the wide receiver/defensive back...

Three graduates of the Fox Chapel Area Soccer program who have become high school standouts signed with their respective colleges. National Letter of Intent Day featured Fox Chapel’s Makayla Mulholland signing with Appalachian State University, Molly McNaughton with Cal (Pa.) and Oakland Catholic’s Gabi Folino with Northern Kentucky. All three...

High schools Football WPIAL playoffs Class 6A Semifinals Friday’s results Central Catholic 28, Mt. Lebanon 7 North Allegheny 7, Canon-McMillan 0 Championship Nov. 19 schedule North Allegheny (10-1) vs. Central Catholic (7-4) at Norwin, 6 p.m. Class 5A Semifinals Friday’s results Pine-Richland 23, Woodland Hills 12 Upper St. Clair 17,...