Dave Mackall stories, Page 26

The sometimes-fine line in NCAA sports between Division I and II basketball programs showed up this week when Seton Hill caught St. Francis (Pa.) by surprise in an exhibition game, handing the Red Flash a come-from-behind, eye-opening loss on their home court. It speaks to the strength of the D-II...

ALTOONA — Another state semifinal, another loss for the Franklin Regional boys soccer team. But not for the lack of a superb effort did the Panthers succumb on Tuesday night to District 3 champion Lower Dauphin in the PIAA Class AAA semifinals. The Falcons, taking advantage of several rare opportunities...

After sending all its games into a mercy-rule mode, the Ligonier Valley football team nearly wound up on the short end in the District 6 Class 2A semifinals Saturday night. But the Rams survived a spirited Bellwood-Antis performance to come away with a 21-20 decision and advance to their fourth...

Patrick Body didn’t want to go home. Not after dropping a pair of passes during a scoreless first half, the second one in the end zone that seemingly would have gone for a touchdown. The sophomore Gateway wide receiver made up for those blunders in the final minute Friday night,...

Ask the Saint Vincent women’s basketball coach what he likes most about the current version of Bearcats, and you likely won’t get a straight answer. There seem to be so many choices. For Jimmy Petruska, whose team is coming off its third NCAA Division III playoffs appearance in eight-plus seasons...

For the second time in as many years, Ligonier Valley and Bellwood-Antis find themselves opposite one another in the District 6 Class 2A football semifinals, both eyeing a spot in the championship game next weekend. Barely unlike last season, both teams are undefeated at 11-0. Just once-beaten a year ago,...

The changes are many, but the expectations for the Saint Vincent College men’s basketball program remain the same. A perennial title contender, Saint Vincent is the narrow choice in a preseason poll of conference coaches to win the NCAA Division III Presidents’ Athletic Conference regular season title. Gone are longtime...

Ligonier Valley’s presumed final football game against a District 6 Heritage Conference opponent before joining the WPIAL next year ended much like the ones before it. The Rams, without all-time leading rusher Kyrie Miller — out with a sprained ankle — skated to victory in their opener of the District...

At a summer football camp in central Pennsylvania, a Philadelphia-area high school coach observed Ligonier Valley’s massive linemen, prompting an impulsive reaction. “Tough to run on that team. It’s like facing The Great Wall of China,” Ligonier Valley coach Roger Beitel said, repeating what he overheard Downingtown West coach Mike...

Chalk up another Appalachian Bowl rout for the Ligonier Valley football team. Kyrie Miller rushed for 234 yards and three touchdowns on 27 carries before leaving the game with an ankle injury in the third quarter as the Rams cruised to a 58-6 victory over Portage on Saturday night at...

For one half, it was a defensive struggle Friday night at Greensburg Central Catholic. After halftime, it was nearly all Centurions on both sides of the ball. David Altimore passed for 224 yards and three touchdowns to lead GCC to a 34-14 victory over Southmoreland in a WPIAL playoffs tuneup...

Ligonier Valley has shown no sympathy this year, enforcing a 35-point mercy rule in all nine football games to date — outscoring opponents by a combined 421-47. This season, however, is no different than others in recent years for the undefeated Rams. For what likely will be the final time,...

Football for Roger Beitel began for real as a player at Penns Manor High School, which is the site of Saturday’s Appalachian Bowl that matches champions of the Heritage and Western Pennsylvania Athletic conferences. Football has come full circle for Beitel, who returns home perhaps for the final time as...

Ligonier Valley’s football dominance in the Heritage Conference is no secret, especially to its District 6 opponents, including Blairsville, the latest victim of a Rams machine that has produced 37 consecutive conference victories dating to 2015. Those schools likely won’t be concerned anymore if Ligonier Valley is approved to join...

Matt Furjanic’s phone was ringing all day long. So much so that the Rankin native and former Robert Morris men’s basketball coach was liable to have had it pried off his ear. His friends were calling him constantly at his home in Winter Haven, Fla., on Thursday to send along...

The annual trips back and forth on Route 422 between Slippery Rock and Indiana help keep this college football rivalry going. And that’s before the teams even get off the bus. There’s a lot more to it once they hit the field, and another chapter was written Saturday when No....

Following a year in which Derry played for a WPIAL championship, anything less might feel like a bust. But the Trojans are piling up the victories again, and the consensus Friday night after a 42-6 rout of Yough was one of optimism. “We played a pretty complete game,” Derry senior...

The longer the Seneca Valley football team bus meandered through Hempfield late Friday afternoon, searching for a more direct route to Spartan Stadium amid the chaos of homecoming activities, the more Raiders coach Ron Butschle’s stomach churned. Good thing his players seemed oblivious to the developing urgency of reaching their...

Jared Hartman, Belle Vernon’s dynamic quarterback/linebacker, a stocky, 6-foot-1, 210-pound rock, typically prefers to not take credit for much of the Leopards’ success without insisting his teammates join in the spotlight. Friday night at Greensburg Salem, following a 43-3 rout of the Golden Lions, was no different. Hartman, a senior,...

Ligonier Valley wore throwback jerseys Friday night to honor the former New Florence Wolverines, but the Rams played like their usual selves in a 54-7 rout of visiting West Shamokin. Sam Sheeder passed for 310 yards and four touchdowns, three to John Beard, and Ligonier Valley, No. 3 in the...

Something was missing this year at Irwin Park. Except for sporatic groups of shootarounds or an occasional game of H.O.R.S.E., the sound of bouncing basketballs mainly was absent this summer on the hardcourts at Irwin’s chief recreational compound just off Pennsylvania Avenue, near Main Street. The Irwin Men’s Summer Basketball...

Central Catholic shook off a tough, one-point loss a week ago to North Allegheny with a successful trip Friday night to Hempfield. But the Vikings would’ve liked a more convincing outcome. As it was, No. 3 Central Catholic, behind 112 yards rushing and two touchdowns from Eddie Tillman, beat Hempfield,...

Top-ranked Class A Jeannette stayed unbeaten Friday night, but the result paled when the game with Imani Christian Academy was halted in the fourth quarter after shots were fired outside McKee Stadium. “It happened outside the stadium,” Jeannette coach Roy Hall said, “but it’s still a black eye on Jeannette...

Pine-Richland is picking up this year where the Rams left off a year ago in claiming another WPIAL Class 6A football championship, their second in a row and third in five seasons. Cole Spencer has been a big reason for Pine-Richland’s continued success. The junior quarterback’s play has been nothing...

The numbers in boys soccer are up this season at Yough, where coach Chris Duda is encouraged by increased interest in his playoff-starved program. There were 22 players in camp preparing for the Cougars’ opener Tuesday at Waynesburg Central. “We’ve been lacking in numbers, but we’ve got 22 this year...