High School category, Page 871
Shaler notebook: Bowlers finish in top 20 at regionals
Throughout the season, the Shaler girls bowling team demonstrated its depth. At the Western Regional Championships, the Titans were once again led by a different competitor. Megan Schwab bowled an 847 series with a high game of 204 to place a team-high 17th at the event. Due to the pandemic,...
Brentwood basketball seasons started strong, ran out of steam
Brentwood’s basketball season started with a bang but fizzled out at the end. After a 12-0 start in a season delayed a month by covid-related concerns, the girls team dropped its final two games, including a 47-44 decision at home to Beaver Falls in the first round of the WPIAL...
Building blocks in place for Baldwin basketball
The potential is there for a big 2021-22 season for the Baldwin boys basketball team. Really big. The Highlanders will have several key players back from this year’s team. “We return the majority of our team,” said first-year coach Jeff Ackermann. “We do lose two great seniors, but I think...
Seniors lay foundation for Sewickley Academy girls basketball program
Over the past four years, the seniors of the Sewickley Academy girls basketball team have taken the program to a new level. Since the 2017-2018 season, the Panthers have produced a record of 55-34, made three WPIAL semifinal appearances and three PIAA tournament appearances, including the quarterfinals two years ago....
Penn-Trafford’s Hohman continues to show improvement after reaching PIAA podium
Penn-Trafford junior Troy Hohman finished the 2021 season with a PIAA medal. It wasn’t quite the medal he wanted. He’ll look for golden one during his senior season. Hohman (26-6, 68-30) finished fourth at the PIAA Class AAA wrestling championships March 13 by going 2-2 in the tournament. He lost...
Penn-Trafford notebook: Warriors skate past Hempfield, Latrobe
Penn-Trafford’s hockey team is looking to finish strong after going through a six-game losing streak. The Warriors improved to 9-8 with wins over Southeast Division rivals Hempfield, 1-0, on March 11 and Latrobe, 3-2, on March 15. Penn-Trafford won three of its last four games heading into its final regular...
North Allegheny boys win state bowling championship
A month after winning the first WPIBL boys team championship in program history, the North Allegheny bowling team made another significant addition to its trophy case Saturday. The Tigers are state champs. After earning the third and final qualifying spot for the step-ladder finals, North Allegheny rolled through the semifinals...
High school scores, summaries and schedules for March 20, 2021
High schools Basketball Boys PIAA playoffs Class 6A Quarterfinals Saturday’s results Archbishop Wood 70, William Allen 56 Reading 68, Scranton 53 Upper St. Clair 62, Erie 57 Semifinals Tuesday’s schedule Archbishop Wood (18-0) vs. Lower Merion (11-4); Upper St. Clair (21-1) vs. Reading (24-2) Class 5A Semifinals Monday’s schedule Archbishop...
Upper St. Clair’s Josh Matheny betters his national record in winning PIAA breaststroke titleVideo
As a sophomore, Josh Matheny wowed the crowd at Bucknell’s Kinney Natatorium and many others watching on television with a time of 52.52 seconds in the 100-yard breaststroke. That time at the 2019 PIAA Class AAA championships put him in the National Federation of State High School Associations record books....
Penn-Trafford, Franklin Regional, Hempfield relays earn PIAA medals
The Penn-Trafford boys 200-yard freestyle relay entered Saturday’s PIAA Class AAA swimming championships at Cumberland Valley High School tied for the 10th seed. But the quartet of senior Austin Prokopec, freshmen Patton Graziano and Conner Alexander and senior Ben Yant didn’t let their seeding tie them down. They finished with...
Fox Chapel’s Sophie Shao defends PIAA title in 100 butterfly
After defending her WPIAL title in the 100-yard butterfly two weeks ago, Fox Chapel sophomore Sophie Shao went looking for a similar repeat performance Saturday at the PIAA Class AAA championships at Cumberland Valley. Mission accomplished. Taking to the pool for the third time in a little more than 60...
High school roundup for March 20, 2021: Beaver drops heartbreaker, Rochester rolls in state playoffs
Freshman Jayden McBride hit a free throw with 14.7 seconds left to score the only point of overtime as Villa Maria Academy knocked off Beaver, 29-28, in a battle of undefeated teams in the PIAA Class 4A girls basketball playoffs Saturday afternoon. Billed as a matchup of stingy defensive teams,...
Spadafora, DiMichele guide OLSH past Karns City into PIAA semifinals
District 9 champion Karns City rolled into Our Lady of the Sacred Heart’s Angela Activities Center Saturday with hopes of finding the rhythm that had led to 23 Gremlins victories. Instead, OLSH’s lockdown defense ruled the day as the Chargers blasted Karns City, 75-45, in a PIAA Class 2A boys...
Short-handed Upper St. Clair wins PIAA quarterfinal with 6 players, volunteer coachVideo
Screenwriters might not turn the “Upper St. Clair Six” into a movie, but their improbable story has every element for a covid-era drama about high school basketball. Only six players were available after team-wide covid-19 testing and they asked a 20-year-old volunteer coach to lead them, yet somehow the short-handed...
Westmoreland notebook: Jeannette looking for new girls basketball coach
Jeannette is taking its girls basketball program in a new direction. The district opened the coaching position held for the last three seasons by Jonathan Bass after the Jayhawks finished 0-19 this season. The team was 0-6 in section play but opted to enter the WPIAL open playoff tournament and...
North Allegheny girls capture 1st PIAA swimming championship since ’97Video
The last time a North Allegheny girls swimming and diving team won a PIAA state championship, the TV show “Friends” was all the rage on NBC and the Green Bay Packers reigned as Super Bowl Champions. The year was 1997, a long time ago in the eyes of Tigers coach...
Chartiers Valley girls cruise past Warren in PIAA quarterfinals
Despite a “flawed” game plan, Chartiers Valley scored 26 of the final 37 points in the first half, then used a 13-0 run in the third quarter to blow open a tight game and roll to a 61-38 victory Saturday afternoon. The win lifts the three-time WPIAL champions and defending...
Brookville ousts WPIAL champion Ellwood City from PIAA playoffs
Jace Miner stole the ball on an inbounds play and scored on a layup with 10 seconds remaining, and in the blink of an eye Ellwood City’s magical run came to an end. Miner’s steal and score proved to be the game-winner as District 9 champion Brookville edged the Wolverines,...
Derry softball to be tested early on by nonsection opponents
The message was clear. With an entire year to think things over, it’s time to make a move. Second-year Derry softball coach John DePalma, though he has yet to have coached the Trojans in a game because of the coronavirus shutdown last season, likely won’t have to wait much longer...
Section championship the goal for Derry baseball team
After planning to publicly do so last year before the pandemic canceled the schedule, the Derry baseball team will try again this season to honor the memory of the mother of one of its players by including her initials on the team’s hats. Wendy Jones, the mother of Sam Jones,...
George Guido: Despite pandemic cancellation, high school streaks live on
We don’t quite know if 48 years of covering high school sports allows me to issue a decree, but if so, some streaks weren’t interrupted with the pandemic of 2020. The high school baseball and softball seasons were wiped out last year. So does that mean Leechburg’s softball streak of...
Burrell softball to debut new field, uniforms, coach in long-awaited ’21 season
For Burrell softball last year, it was a matter of new uniforms and a newly renovated field but no place to go. The Bucs, along with other WPIAL schools, had the plug pulled on their season without a chance to show off their new uniforms and a renovated Bon Air...
Burrell baseball ready to take on challenges of Class 4A
The pandemic that caused last year’s WPIAL baseball season to be wiped out had an impact on the Spohn household. Hopes were high that coach Mark Spohn might lead the Bucs to a 22nd playoff berth in 23 seasons. Also, his son Tanner, then a Burrell senior, was poised to...
Louisy eager to take over Franklin Regional boys soccer program
Thomas Louisy had pondered coaching high school soccer in the past. “I had hundreds of offers,” he said. “I just never had been interested in coaching high school.” But then the recruitment started, and he made a quick pivot. The Franklin Regional job opened after his longtime cohort, Rand Hudson,...
Hampton wrestler Hart rebounds from cracked ribs to earn PIAA silver
In mid-January, Hampton senior Justin Hart couldn’t laugh without it hurting. One month later, he was smiling with no pain at all. Hart fought back from multiple cracked ribs that sidelined him for nearly three weeks to win the WPIAL Class AAA wrestling title at 189 pounds. He followed that...
