High School category, Page 646
Montour climbs back from brink to defeat OLSH in WPIAL Class 2A volleyball finals
Montour boys volleyball coach Colin Vitale was smiling before, during and after the WPIAL Class 2A championship match Thursday night at Robert Morris’ UPMC Events Center. Vitale, appearing relaxed even when his team was on the brink of defeat in the fourth game, was a ball of joy afterwards with...
High school roundup for May 25, 2022: Undefeated Neshannock, Frazier reach WPIAL finals
Neshannock has been the most dangerous offensive team in the WPIAL this season, averaging more than 12 runs per game. On Wednesday, the Lancers managed to score only one run, but that was all they needed. Winning pitcher Addy Frye, a freshman, delivered the game-winning RBI double in the bottom...
‘Underdog’ Seneca Valley rolls past Hempfield into Class 6A WPIAL finals
As Hempfield was making lineup changes late in the game, Seneca Valley players passed the time with a quick round of Rock-Paper-Scissors. The game went around the horn. Other players danced to music in between innings. It’s all fun and games these days for the Raiders, and they wouldn’t have...
Elizabeth Forward puts end to Burrell’s softball title hopes
While the Burrell softball team failed to reach one of its goals Wednesday, another one remains very much in play. The Bucs saw their pursuit of a WPIAL Class 4A title halted in a 2-1 semifinal loss to No. 2 Elizabeth Forward at Norwin. But No. 3 Burrell’s season isn’t...
WPIAL softball playoff preview capsule for Thursday, May 26, 2022
WPIAL softball playoffs Consolation game Class A Greensburg Central Catholic (12-6) vs. Springdale (11-2) 4 p.m. Thursday at Plum Players to watch: Emma Henry, GCC; Alexis Hrivnak, Springdale Extra bases: GCC is having its best season since 2012, the last time it made the PIAA playoffs. The Centurions must win...
Alle-Kiski sends plenty of track athletes to PIAAs
Deer Lakes senior Carson McCoy doesn’t have to wait long to run at the PIAA track and field championships at Shippensburg University. He will be on the track at 9 a.m. Friday morning in defense of his Class 2A boys 1,600-meter title. It is the first of many events on...
Laurel Highlands’ Rodney Gallagher commits to play football at West VirginiaVideo
Keeping his family close was important to Rodney Gallagher, so he did what countless other Western Pennsylvania football recruits have done and committed to his hometown team. But for him, a junior at Laurel Highlands in Fayette County, that’s not Pitt or Penn State. That’s West Virginia. Gallagher, the state’s...
What to watch for in WPIAL sports for May 25, 2022: Boys volleyball, lacrosse titles up for grabs
The district gold starts to flow Wednesday with two WPIAL boys volleyball and three district lacrosse title matches. In boys volleyball, could there be a changing of the guard in Class 3A? North Allegheny has completely dominated the 3A landscape with 21 WPIAL boys volleyball championships, four straight crowns and...
Bethel Park hires former WPIAL basketball star Dante Calabria as boys coach
Dante Calabria, a former WPIAL basketball star who won a national championship at North Carolina, was hired Tuesday as boys coach at Bethel Park. A 1992 Blackhawk graduate and WPIAL Hall of Fame inductee, Calabria has coached at the college, professional and prep school levels, most recently as an assistant...
High school scores, summaries and schedules for May 24, 2022
High schools Baseball WPIAL playoffs Class 6A Semifinals Tuesday’s results Mt. Lebanon 2, Central Catholic 1 Upper St. Clair 8, Butler 2 Championship May 31 or June 1 Mt. Lebanon (15-7) vs. Upper St. Clair (12-8) at Wild Things Park Class 5A Championship May 31 or June 1 Peters Township...
High school roundup for May 24, 2022: Mason Sike’s homer carries top-seeded Montour to comeback win
Mason Sike hit a tie-breaking two-run homer in the bottom of the fifth inning, leading top-seeded Montour to a 4-2 comeback win over Laurel Highlands in the WPIAL Class 4A baseball semifinals Tuesday. Jake Robinson hit a solo home run to tie it in the fourth for the Spartans (17-5),...
West Greene softball team downs Springdale, goes for 6th straight WPIAL title
The West Greene machine just keeps on rolling. The Pioneers have a chance at an unprecedented sixth consecutive WPIAL softball title after Tuesday’s 5-2 victory over Springdale in a Class A semifinal at Upper St. Clair’s Boyce-Mayview Field. West Greene (14-3) will play Union on June 1 at Lilley Field...
Led by freshman, Union softball drops Greensburg CC to return to WPIAL finals
For the third consecutive season, the Union softball team will be making a trip south for the WPIAL championship game. Union defeated Greensburg Central Catholic, 9-2, in the Class A semifinals Tuesday at Mars to earn a spot in the finals June 1 at Cal (Pa.). The pair of seniors...
Penn-Trafford rallies to semifinal win over Chartiers Valley
This wasn’t calculated. Nothing about it was based on analytics. And it had nothing to do with what was written on a wrist band. What Penn-Trafford softball coach Denny Little and his staff did in the fifth inning Tuesday was pure, unscripted feel — as good as drawing up a...
Shields brothers pitch Mt. Lebanon past Central Catholic, into WPIAL title game
From one brother to another, Derrick and David Shields made sure that Mt. Lebanon would play for a WPIAL baseball title. Derrick pitched six innings and did not allow an earned run and David shut the door in the seventh with the tying run at second base to lift the...
Avonworth slams door on Southmoreland in WPIAL Class 3A softball semifinals
Scoreless during another pitching gem, Avonworth’s Alivia Lantzy decided to take matters into her own hands. The sophomore blasted a triple to deep right-center field that barely stayed in Boyce-Mayview Field. The big fifth-inning hit scored Layne Shinsky and Syd Savatt, and Leah Kuban added a home run in the...
Deer Lakes softball holds off South Allegheny, reaches WPIAL Class 3A final
The Deer Lakes softball team is back where it has been several times over the past decade. The Lancers, the No. 3 seed in the WPIAL Class 3A playoffs, punched their tickets to their sixth WPIAL title game since 2012 with a 5-4 victory over No. 2 South Allegheny on...
After brilliant junior year for Leechburg football, Braylan Lovelace still has more in store
Junior running back Braylan Lovelace and the Leechburg football team never had a problem getting fired up for games as the team made its first playoff appearance in 32 years last season. The Blue Devils can thank Phil Collins and his 1981 hit, “In the Air Tonight,” for that. “When...
In days before multiple classes, A-K Valley’s Davids took down Goliaths for WPIAL baseball gold
The WPIAL baseball playoffs are underway for the 108th tournament, and it is amazing how things have evolved over the years. Before 1979, there was just one enrollment class. Now there are six. The David-vs.-Goliath analogy can be way overused in sports, but in the first 66 years of the...
Underdog Greensburg Central Catholic boys lacrosse team makes way into WPIAL playoffs
Who would have thought the boys lacrosse team at Greensburg Central Catholic, coming off an 0-8 record and led by a first-year coach with no experience in the sport, would qualify for the WPIAL playoffs, having inched close to the .500 mark going in? Well, seemingly with some help from...
Burrell track and field carries strong team bond into postseason
Every spring, track and field athletes don their school colors, lace up their sneakers and prepare to compete for their team. Track and field is a team sport in the sense that points from each event go toward a team total, and that all-for-one spirit has created bonds that will...
Westmoreland County Senior Spotlight: Franklin Regional’s Alisa Kane
Franklin Regional’s softball team has shown a ton of power this season, scoring runs at a high rate. It’s a big part of why they finished second in their section and earned a spot in the WPIAL playoffs. One thing that cannot be undervalued, though, is their defense. Senior third...
A-K Valley Senior Spotlight: Leechburg’s Bella Vozar
The majority of softball players get out more than they get on base. Not Leechburg’s Bella Vozar, who is batting .545 in her senior season. Vozar hit safely in nine of 11 games at the tail end of the regular season and has helped the team significantly behind the plate...
A-K Valley WPIAL playoff softball capsule: Game for Wednesday, May 25, 2022
Class 4A Semifinals 2-Elizabeth Forward (15-2) vs. 3-Burrell (12-1) 3 p.m. Wednesday at Norwin Winner plays: Winner of 1-Beaver Area (17-0) vs. 5-Montour (14-4) Players to Watch: Carlee Soukup, Elizabeth Forward; Pyper Ferres, Burrell Extra bases: The Warriors won their first WPIAL title in 2019 when they shut out Mt....
Westmoreland WPIAL playoff softball capsule: Games for Wednesday, May 25, 2022
Class 6A Semifinals 4-Seneca Valley (11-6) vs. 1-Hempfield (13-3) 4 p.m. Wednesday at Fox Chapel Winner plays: Winner of 7-North Allegheny (12-9) vs. 3-Pine-Richland (12-4) on June 1 in championship (time TBD) at Cal (Pa.) Players to watch: Lexie Hames, Seneca Valley; Hannah Uhrinek, Hempfield On the air: Broadcast |...
