Truck tears up North Huntingdon soccer field turf

Volunteers with a North Huntingdon soccer club are scrambling to repair damage created last week when someone tore up the turf by driving a pickup around one of the fields, a club official said.

“The field was darn near perfect. They‘re not hurting us (adults). They took away from our kids in the community,” said Robert Bunovich, president of the Norwin Soccer Club.

It caused between $5,000 and $7,000 in damage to the Norwin Soccer Club’s Field No. 7, as well as the sideline along another of the soccer fields at the CNX Sports Complex on Turner Valley Road, Bunovich said.

The club has more than 800 children in the organization, some who come from the McKeesport, East Allegheny and Jeannette areas, Bunovich said.

With ruts in the field, it’s unusable for the start of the season, which begins the weekend of Sept. 9, Bunovich said. The club said in a Facebook post it hopes to use it later in the season.

The damage from a silver Ford F-150 truck occurred before daylight — between around 5:50 a.m. and 6:01 a.m. Friday, based on footage the club obtained, Bunovich said. No one saw the damage as it happened in what is an isolated area of the township, near the Youghiogheny River and the CSX Railroad tracks.

The club filed a report with the North Huntingdon police about the damage to the field, Bunovich said. Information from North Huntingdon police was not available Monday.

Volunteers worked over the weekend to minimize the damage, trying to fill in the ruts. Schuchert’s Landscaping of North Huntingdon, which is the club’s landscaper, used a roller to level the damaged field, Bunovich said. They also spread about 200 pounds of grass seed, but it will have to be reseeded later.