Bill Beckner stories, Page 178

Penn-Trafford showed a flair for the dramatic Tuesday night against a quality opponent. Sophomore Maura Suman ignited a celebration when she made a buzzer-beating 3-pointer from the wing to lift the Warriors to a 59-58 upset of No. 2 Gateway in a Class 5A nonsection game in Harrison City. Suman...

Last year, on would-be women’s basketball game nights at Westmoreland County Community College, the gym was either quiet or being used for another event at the school. Intramurals got more attention. That is because there was no women’s basketball last year in Youngwood. The season was shelved due to a...

Clear back in the spring, when basketballs were tucked away on dusty racks in darkened equipment rooms, Jonathan Bass was starting the hype. The second-year girls basketball coach at Jeannette has taken social media by storm in an effort to promote his program and players. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram — the...

Andrew Mastovich surely made his mark in the Penn State Behrend men’s soccer program. The senior defender out of Franklin Regional added another postseason accolade Wednesday when he was named to the All-Eastern College Athletic Conference Division III All-Star First Team. Mastovich, the AMCC Defensive Player of the Year, is...

Greensburg Central Catholic rookie basketball coach Christian Hyland said his young lineup was not starstruck playing at Jeannette. Neither was the 24-year-old coach, who made it two wins in his first three games as the Centurions clipped the Jayhawks, 48-46, in a nonsection game Tuesday night. An introduction to varsity...

Former Latrobe golf standout Brady Pevarnik will play for a new team next season. Pevarnik is leaving Penn State and will transfer to the College of Charleston (S.C.) for the spring semester. A a regular contender during his WPIAL career, Pevarnik has top-10 finishes at the notable Scott Robertson Memorial...

Longtime IUP women’s soccer coach Adel Heder will be inducted into the PA West Yough Soccer Hall of Fame. Heder, who has WPIAL ties, will join four other inductees at a ceremony Jan. 4 at the PA West Soccer Awards Gala at the DoubleTree Hotel in Green Tree. The boys...

Robert “Poogie” Kennedy has one more semester left at Lackawanna before, concievably, he embarks on the next chapter of his football career. The former Jeannette star who has shined as a safety at the junior college level, continues to draw Division I interest. Lackawanna (10-1) finished runner-up in the NJCAA...

Senior basketball player Melina Maietta, a 20-point scorer, has been dismissed from the Greensburg Central Catholic girls basketball team, according to Centurions coach Sam Salih. Maietta was in attendance at Monday night’s game at Jeannette but sat in the opposite-side bleachers and did not play. Salih said the move was...

Scott Houseman almost did not go to Lackawanna, but the hulking linemen sure is glad he did. Not only did the Yough graduate get to play for a national championship with the Falcons, he also has seen a spike in his recruiting. A starter on the offensive line this season,...

Knocked around but never rattled, Greensburg Salem rallied from a scratchy start and evened its record after the first weekend of the boys basketball season. All it took was for Franklin Regional to back it into a corner. “We took two separate roundhouses — two 10-0 runs — but kept...

Hempfield senior football player Cole Graham added three Division I college opportunities to his suddenly growing list. He announced scholarship offers last week from FCS programs Lehigh, Duquesne and Monmouth. Graham, a 6-foot-6, 270-pound two-way lineman, also has a FBS offer from Connecticut. Graham helped Hempfield rush for 2,039 yards,...

Latrobe senior Lane Ruffner is ready to take the next step in his hockey career. Ruffner signed a contract with the Wichita Warriors of the North American Hockey League. The defenseman is in his second season with the U18 Esmark Stars AAA Hockey Club. “I’ve been waiting for the opportunity...

Brady Pevarnik has changed clubs before to combat a stiff wind or to negotiate a tight pin placement. But now the former Latrobe star golfer is changing colleges. Pevarnik is leaving Penn State and will transfer to the College of Charleston (S.C.) for the spring semester. “It just wasn’t the...

Total reload. Those are the words Penn-Trafford boys basketball coach Jim Rocco paired together to describe his team heading into a new season that begins Friday night with the Warriors taking on North Allegheny at the Hempfield tip-off tournament. The Warriors bid farewell to five quality seniors, including double-digit scorer...

STORYLINES 1. Great expectations Norwin and Southmoreland could be the last local teams standing come the postseason. Both have experienced teams that went a couple of rounds in the WPIAL and PIAA postseason but will need deep benches to sustain prolonged runs. 2. Gene pull A veteran coach returns to...

STORYLINES 1. Youth movement Christian Hyland is the new coach at Greensburg Central Catholic and he is barely older than his players. At 24, he is one of the youngest head coaches in the WPIAL. Can he take the experience he honed as an assistant and turn it into wins?...

Pancakes. How appropriate. Late Penn Hills, Pitt and NFL great Bill Fralic made the pancake block famous and organizers of an award in his honor will announce the first recipient Saturday morning during a pancake breakfast. The first Bill Fralic Memorial Award, which will recognize the top lineman in the...

Yough was in Dutch, so it brought “Dutch” back. Art “Dutch” Harvey has returned to lead the Cougars softball program, which he had run until June when he resigned. He had been the coach for six seasons but decided to go in a different direction. That direction became a U-turn...

Hempfield senior football player Cole Graham added his second Division I college opportunity Wednesday, announcing a scholarship offer from Lehigh, a FCS program. Graham, a 6-foot-6, 270-pound two-way lineman, has a FBS offer from Connecticut. Graham this season helped Hempfield rush for 2,039 yards — led by senior running back...

The Harlon Hill Award often is called the Heisman Trophy of NCAA Division II football. Could this year’s hardware end up in the hands of a player from … Slippery Rock? Could happen. Slippery Rock senior quarterback Roland Rivers III is one of the eight finalists for the Hill Award,...

On the eve of her volleyball team’s opening match in the NCAA Division II Tournament, Seton Hill’s Viktoria Farian received some more postseason recognition. Farian, a junior outside hitter, was named to the NCAA Division II Conference Commissioner’s Association All-Atlantic Region second team. She was a first-team selection last season....

Anthony DiFalco was in biology class Wednesday morning when his soccer coach at Franklin Regional, Rand Hudson, entered the classroom and interrupted the session. The coach came bearing good news. Forget biology. This was more like AP soccer. DiFalco, a sophomore forward, was selected as a United Soccer Coaches Region...