High School category, Page 840
Gateway sophomore running back Jaquon Reynolds breaks out against Penn Hills
Jaquon Reynolds waited his turn. The diminutive 5-foot-7, 163-pound sophomore running back put in his time last year as a freshman at Gateway and grew his game under the watchful eye of the Gators coaches as well as veteran players such as Derrick Davis, now playing at LSU. After an...
Despite roster turnover, Sewickley Academy girls soccer chasing another playoff berth
Sewickley Academy is a fixture in the WPIAL girls soccer playoffs. The Panthers have advanced to the postseason 12 of the past 13 years, including 11 consecutive times from 2007-17. During that span, the SA girls captured four section championships, with the latest coming in 2017. The Panthers qualified for...
Quaker Valley girls soccer poised for postseason return
Quaker Valley’s soccer teams were absent from the WPIAL playoffs last season because of coronavirus protocols. After a covid-19 outbreak in the district last fall, QV’s athletic seasons were shut down. The QV girls finished fourth in Section 1-2A after going 3-5-2 in league play and 3-7-2 overall. The Quakers...
Penn Hills notebook: Cross country makes best of Gateway Invitational
Low numbers forced Penn Hills cross country coach Lee Zelkowitz to make some audibles with the schedule. The Indians passed on competing in the Red, White & Blue Invitational at White Oak Park and instead opened by competing in the Gateway Invitational at Boyce Park. “That’s the hardest course they...
Penn Hills coaches try to keep focus on football for players
Penn Hills football coach Jon LeDonne and his coaching staff worked hard prepping to play Woodland Hills on Sept. 17 at home. The Indians coaching staff also were tasked with keeping the players focused despite recent events in the community. No fans were allowed in Yuhas-McGinley Stadium last Friday and...
Junior striker brings joy of scoring goals to Pine-Richland boys soccer
Colin Zvejnieks’ parents told him that he has always been a runner. So much so, they claim he learned to run before he could walk. Needless to say Zvejnieks is energetic, and that trait comes out even more when he’s on the soccer field. A varsity player since his freshman...
Pine-Richland girls tennis coach Siriprasert focuses on process to build success
As a tennis coach, Jirakorn “Dang” Siriprasert concentrates more on the process than the result. Sometimes the two can go hand-in-hand. With a largely new varsity roster this year, the Pine-Richland girls team won its first four section matches of the season and is on track to contend for a...
Riverview girls volleyball riding high after defeating No. 8 Apollo-Ridge
The Riverview girls volleyball team is not the biggest in terms of roster numbers with just 14 from freshmen to seniors, but the Raiders are playing big so far in the 2021 season. “We have really worked on trusting each other and trusting the process in everything we do this...
Plum girls soccer again off to strong start
The Plum girls soccer team entered the season with high hopes to maintain a standard set the past several years that included consecutive trips to the WPIAL Class 3A title game. So far, so good for the Mustangs who were 4-0 and had outscored opponents 22-2 through a 12-1 rout...
Chartiers Valley cornerback Lamont Payne commits to Penn State
Chartiers Valley junior defensive back Lamont Payne committed to Penn State on Saturday while on campus to watch the Nittany Lions’ win over Auburn. A 6-foot-1, 175-pound cornerback, Payne is a four-star prospect according to Rivals and ranked eighth overall among Pennsylvania’s 2023 graduates. Payne announced his commitment on Twitter....
High school scores, summaries and schedules for Sept. 18, 2021
High schools Football Saturday’s results WPIAL Nonconference Western Beaver 20, Beaver 14 District 8 City League Westinghouse 41, Allderdice 12 District 10 McDowell 38, Butler 21 Saturday’s summaries Nonconference Western Beaver 20, Beaver 14 Beaver 0 7 7 0 —14 Western Beaver 7 13 0 0 —20 WB: Thad Gray...
High school roundup for Sept. 18, 2021: LeFebvre leads Western Beaver past Beaver
Quarterback Xander LeFebvre had a 5-yard touchdown run and blocked a punt that Lonnie Craft ran in for a 15-yard score to lead Western Beaver to a 20-14 nonsection win over Beaver on Saturday. Thad Gray scored on a 31-yard run for the Golden Beavers (3-1). Wyatt Ringer had a...
5 things we learned in Week 3 of H.S. football: Bishop Canevin joins Class A conversation
Rebuilding a football program traditionally takes playbooks and practice, but Bishop Canevin coach Rich Johnson added tree pruners and paint brushes to his list. He spent time sprucing up the practice field in his two years there. “When everyone was in quarantine, me and my staff were down at the...
George Guido: Valley’s ‘Dirty 30’ 1996 football team to be honored
Usually, being called the “Dirty 30” is anything but complimentary. But for Valley’s 1996 football team, it was a tag of which to be proud. The only Vikings team to post an undefeated regular season (9-0) in the school’s 55-year history will be remembered Oct. 1 at Valley Memorial Stadium...
Tough challenges await unbeaten Kiski Area, Highlands
The last time the Kiski Area football team was 4-0, the current players weren’t born. The year was 2002, and the Cavaliers finished 6-4 and qualified for the WPIAL Class AAAA playoffs. Highlands is 4-0 for the first time since 2015, when the Golden Rams began the season 5-0 en...
Latrobe’s Brewer has been a touchdown machine
In the first three games of the season, Latrobe senior flanker Kyle Brewer has been a touchdown-maker. He scored nine touchdowns three ways: rushing, receiving and a punt return. In Friday’s game against Mt. Pleasant, Brewer didn’t score in the Wildcats’ 35-0 victory. What’s more, he didn’t care that he...
Westmoreland high school football notebook: Southmoreland opens it up
Southmoreland is developing a reputation for having an exciting offense. The fourth-ranked Scotties were at it again Friday night as they improved to 3-1 with a 33-19 win over South Allegheny in the Class 3A Interstate Conference opener. They are averaging 38.3 points across their three wins, using a spread...
Trib HSSN high school football rankings: Sept. 19, 2021
Class 6A Rk, Team, W-L, Last 1. Central Catholic, 3-1, 1 2. Mt. Lebanon, 4-0, 2 3. North Allegheny, 3-1, 3 4. Seneca Valley, 3-1, 4 5. Canon-McMillan, 2-2, 5 Out: none Class 5A 1. Moon, 4-0, 1 2. Gateway, 3-1, 2 3. Peters Township, 3-1, 5 4. South Fayette,...
Veteran lineup returns for WPIAL field hockey runner-up Fox Chapel
Fox Chapel was a WPIAL finalist in field hockey in 2020. The Foxes lost 2-1 to undefeated defending champion Penn-Trafford in the Class 2A final Nov. 2 at a chilly Burk Stadium in Fox Chapel. The Fox Chapel girls were vying for a seventh WPIAL championship in school history; they...
Runners of varying experience levels mix together on Norwin cross country teams
As experienced and trail tested as the girls cross country team is at Norwin, the boys team is just as inexperienced. But this could have the makings of a nice yin and yang situation for coach Brian Fleckenstein and the Knights. Fleckenstein doesn’t just see the boys blending into the...
Norwin notebook: Former Knight leads Pitt’s women’s soccer to record scoring surge
Redshirt junior Emily Harrigan helped the Pitt women’s soccer team to its largest margin of victory in program history. Harrigan, a former Norwin star who has rediscovered her roots in Pittsburgh since transferring from Rutgers, scored two goals — the first two of the game — in a 7-0 victory...
Strong freshman class adds to lineup for defending PIAA champion North Allegheny cross country teams
When your boys and girls teams are both defending WPIAL and PIAA cross country champions, what do you do this fall for an encore? “I don’t know how to top it exactly,” said North Allegheny coach John Neff, “but we’re going to try to match it for sure.” Many of...
North Allegheny notebook: Tigers girls soccer team opens with 4 victories
Abby Stager and Sophia Palermo scored to lead North Allegheny to a 2-0 win over Seneca Valley (3-1-1, 0-1) in a matchup of tops girls soccer teams in Section 1-4A on Sept. 14. Stager scored from long range in the first half and Palmero cleaned up the rebound of a...
Former Hampton star takes reins of school’s boys lacrosse program
One of the winningest coaches in the history of Hampton boys lacrosse is being replaced by one of the program’s top players of all time. Jim Vollberg, who led the Talbots to the 2015 WPIAL Class AA title and a steady run of championship-game appearances, will not return next spring...
Hampton to welcome doubled-up class into sports hall of fame
Former girls soccer star Amy Lindsey Shane waited more than two decades to get into the Hampton Athletic Hall of Fame, so one extra year wasn’t going to matter. “It was very nice,” she said. “For me, even though I played through college, the times that I remember the most...
