Dave Mackall stories, Page 5

In an era of rampant player movement through the NCAA transfer portal, these are the games that help to speed the process of getting to know your team. How do the pieces fit together? What might you do well? The early-season matchups and mismatches continue for Robert Morris coach Andy...

Saint Vincent enters another college basketball season with high hopes in the third year of D.P. Harris’ second men’s coaching stint with the Bearcats. “It’s business as usual,” Harris said. “We expect to win championships.” After finishing a year ago as runner-up to Geneva in the NCAA Division III Presidents’...

Darius Perrantes and John Erby became friends while at Rhode Island, and they’ve remained close years later at Duquesne. That bond never was stronger than Saturday at Rooney Field. Perrantes threw four touchdown passes — three to Erby — and No. 25 Duquesne raced to its seventh straight victory, 31-6...

North Allegheny left no doubt this time. Nicholas Humphries intercepted a pair of passes — one resulting in a touchdown and the other setting up a score just before halftime — and No. 2 seed North Allegheny routed No. 3 Mt. Lebanon, 48-14, Friday night at NA’s Newman Stadium to...

The backyard football rivalry between Duquesne and Robert Morris is on again after a four-year hiatus and with a berth in the FCS playoffs in sight. Both teams enter the regular-season home stretch undefeated in Northeast Conference play, each with three games remaining. “Should be a great showing of two...

Dru Joyce III is 0-1 as a college basketball coach. So, too, are his defending Atlantic 10 champion Duquesne Dukes after a deflating 77-72 loss to Lipscomb kicked off a new season Monday night. It was billed as “Duquesne Basketball Palooza,” a season-opening event featuring a doubleheader at UPMC Cooper...

Andy Toole would like to forget about last season, but it’s not easy. Robert Morris’ longtime basketball coach just can’t stop dwelling on the things he didn’t like. And there were many. “Obviously, we did not have a successful year,” Toole said of a 6-14 Horizon League record, 10-22 overall....

On a majority of college basketball teams nowadays, the adage fits: “You can’t tell the players without a program.” It’s particularly true at Duquesne, where six of seven transfers are eligible for Monday night’s season-opening game against Atlantic Sun Conference preseason favorite Lipscomb at 8 p.m. as part of a...

McKeesport coach Matt Miller had a lot to smile about Friday night, but he secretly was fretting about his son’s physical condition following the Tigers’ bone-jarring, first-round playoff victory over Belle Vernon. “He’s a tough kid,” Miller said of his namesake, junior linebacker Matt Miller, who injured his hand badly...

Robert Morris fell to Villanova on Sunday in a charity exhibition tune-up for the Colonials’ regular-season men’s basketball opener next week at West Virginia. Despite three RMU players scoring in double figures, led by Josh Omojafo’s 15 points, the Colonials came away an 87-73 loser to the Wildcats at Finneran...

Greensburg Central Catholic’s pursuit of a fourth WPIAL girls volleyball championship and first in eight years begins in earnest Tuesday night in the Class A semifinals against Eden Christian at Peters Township’s AHN Arena. It’s one last chance for a veteran GCC lineup to reach the top. “I’m very excited...

Latrobe’s remarkable run at a Penguins Cup hockey championship a year ago was fueled by a hard-charging freshman who led the surprising Wildcats in scoring. A year later, center Joey Crimboli hasn’t missed a beat. He’s not the only one. “There’s (at least) two guys who are phenomenal on our...

Lance Getsy loves his team, loves his players. All of them. But even after Franklin Regional’s thrilling 29-26 victory Friday night over Armstrong, the Panthers football coach wishes they’d turn serious now that the WPIAL playoffs are upon them. “They take things for granted,” Getsy said, forcing a smile after...

Mt. Pleasant is headed to the WPIAL playoffs for a sixth consecutive time. Cole Chatfield passed for 210 yards before leaving the game with an injury, Jarett Garn figured in most of Mt. Pleasant’s scoring and the Vikings used a lightning-fast start Friday night at Viking Stadium to beat Derry,...

After a stretch of cold, damp weather this week, the sun broke through Thursday just in time for the annual Tri-State Track Coaches Association Cross Country Championship Meet at White Oak Park. Conditions on the 5,000-meter course near the border of Allegheny and Westmoreland counties were soft but not muddy....

Two days after sharing the court as a speaker with Arkansas’ John Calipari, Gonzaga’s Mark Few and others at a regional clinic, Robert Morris men’s basketball coach Andy Toole learned Tuesday where his team would land in the latest Horizon League preseason poll. Coming off a disappointing 6-14 league record...

Baron “B.B.” Flenory’s namesake is following his father’s legacy. But in a different sort of way. B.B. Flenory, the former Duquesne University basketball star whose life experiences continue to amaze, is himself amazed at the path his son, Baron “B.J.” Flenory, a former University of New Hampshire football star, has...

Rize Sports, the massive, multi-million-dollar, four-court basketball facility just off Ohio River Boulevard in Leetsdale, isn’t just about billionaire investor Thomas Tull’s generous funding of the building’s construction in 2023. The Steelers part-owner and entrepreneur who lives in nearby Edgeworth — emphatically — doesn’t want it to be. Instead, Tull...

Ty George’s second season as Greensburg Salem’s football coach is developing into a potential game-changer for the playoff-starved Golden Lions program. Despite a recent skid. Kai Brunot scored two touchdowns, and the Greensburg Salem defense limited Derry to 84 yards of total offense as the Golden Lions ended a three-game...

It took just two seasons for Duquesne forward David Dixon to feel the rush of winning consistently in college basketball games. Far from satisfied, even after being part of consecutive 20-win seasons at Duquesne for the first time since 1971 and ’72, Dixon dreams of yet another run at success....

If Penn-Trafford running back Tasso Whipple was playing as though it would be his last high school football game against archrival Gateway, that’s because it was. And Whipple left everything on the field Friday night, running every which way against the Gators. The 6-foot-1, 205-pound senior gained 249 yards and...

After No. 4 South Allegheny’s hiccup last week against No. 3 South Park derailed the Gladiators’ early season momentum, they got back to their winning ways Friday night, surviving another Allegheny Conference challenge — this time from unheralded Ligonier Valley. Ryan Cortes threw for 186 yards and two touchdowns to...

Jake Nulph has had Saturday circled on his calendar from the moment he took over as football coach at Edinboro in 2020. Chris King isn’t surprised one bit. After all, Robert Morris’ athletic director figures that when you get a chance to return to your alma mater, you’re bound to...

The sound of crickets in the cool evening air as dew was settling on the grass served as a reminder of the annual rite of fall ball. With it, high school sports teams were getting into the swing. At a recent practice in the Carbon section of Hempfield Township, coach...

Luis Ortiz is quietly building a scoreless streak during the Pittsburgh Pirates’ free fall in the second half of the season. Ortiz enjoyed his second strong start in a row and a rattled bullpen ended a string of disappointing performances as the Pirates beat the AL Central-leading Cleveland Guardians, 3-0,...