Greg Macafee stories, Page 5

Heading into this season, Fox Chapel baseball coach Jim Hastings wasn’t sure how his roster would shape up after a year off due to the coronavirus pandemic. He only had one player returning with varsity experience, but he knew that he had a few players with talent and he had...

It didn’t take long for Indiana to take control Wednesday in its PIHL Class A semifinal matchup with Freeport. The Indians peppered Freeport freshman goaltender Tyler Lang with shots from the first whistle and took a lead six minutes into the game with a goal from Tanner Agnello. They added...

During the first weekend in April, youth wrestlers from around the state converged on Monroeville Convention Center for the Keystone State Championships, and a few young A-K Valley wrestlers came away with medals around their neck. The Hutcherson brothers, Marco and Mario, from Kiski Area, earned top-three finishes in their...

Knoch senior Brayden Hageter got more than enough run support Monday at Pullman Park as the Knights took on Section 1-4A opponent Burrell for the first time this season. But, as it turned out, he needed only one. Hageter was one walk away from throwing a four-inning perfect game and...

The coronavirus pandemic might have stopped the Valley baseball team from playing last season, but head coach Jim Basilone and assistant coach Brad Wood took advantage of the downtime in a big way and gave the Vikings’ home field a makeover. Over the course of the past year and a...

The Quaker Valley boys tennis team went on a run to the PIAA tournament in 2019 and finished with an overall regular season record of 10-2. Before the coronavirus pandemic canceled their season last year, the Quakers were hoping to do it again. Now, for a third straight season, the...

The Sewickley Academy girls lacrosse team started the 2021 season with back-to-back wins over Peters Township and Shaler, and both wins came in different ways. The win over Peters Township, a tight three-goal victory, came in a typical grind-it-out game as the Panthers battled adversity with the weather and their...

Shady Side alum Sam Miller took over the school’s boys tennis program before last year and was two weeks into his tenure before the coronavirus pandemic canceled the spring sports season. A change in leadership and lost season haven’t stopped the Bulldogs from getting off to a hot start in...

Leading up to last season, the Fox Chapel boys tennis team had put together a dominant run, winning four straight WPIAL team titles. But with a canceled season last year because of the coronavirus pandemic and an influx of new players, the Foxes have found themselves resetting in 2021. With...

The Shaler Area softball team has been showing off its power, but after a one-run loss to West Allegheny earlier this week, coach Tom Sorce said the Titans were going to do whatever they could to push runs across the plate. With the score tied 1-1 in the bottom of...

Robert Morris is still finishing up its 2021 spring football season, but its fall schedule is one step closer to being complete after the Colonials announced three nonconference opponents Friday. Before playing eight Big South opponents between Oct. 2 and Nov. 20, the Colonials will kick off their 2021 fall...

With a few big bats and some dominant pitching from juniors Justin Brannagan and Jacob Danka, the Deer Lakes Lancers have gotten off to a hot start in 2021. Two of their four wins have come by 10 runs and their other two victories came by a combined nine runs....

In 2021, pitching will come at a premium as teams will be forced to dive deep into their rotations for back-to-back section games each week. While some teams may not have the depth to keep up with the demand, the Valley Vikings (5-1, 2-0) have showcased they’ll have plenty of...

One close game is nice, but back-to-back tight wins is even better. Thanks to junior middle infielder Seth Helgert, Highlands earned its second straight Section 1-4A triumph Wednesday, rallying for a 3-2 walk-off victory over Knoch. Trailing 2-1 in the bottom of the seventh inning, Helgert stepped to the plate...

Valley senior John Luke Bailey didn’t find himself in many tough situations Tuesday as the Vikings hosted Derry in their first Section 3-3A game of the season. When he did, though, his defense had his back. The Vikings (4-1, 1-0) battled out of two tough spots against the Trojans (1-1,...

Kelly Mason took over the Freeport hockey program three years ago, and the Yellowjackets have been searching for a playoff win ever since. On Monday, in the quarterfinals of the Class A Penguins Cup Playoffs, No. 5 Freeport (15-3-1) finally broke through. Sophomore Caleb Hoffman scored in the second period,...

The Sewickley Academy softball team will look to build in 2021. After losing four-year starting pitcher Alexis Barlock, along with four other starters, the Panthers won’t have any seniors this season and co-head coaches Heather Border and Shannon Rankin are looking to build the program back up. “We’re just focusing...

Two years ago, with a team that was filled with experienced talent, Quaker Valley boys lacrosse earned a third-place finish in the WPIAL tournament and punched its ticket to the PIAA playoffs. But after a canceled season due to the coronavirus pandemic and the graduation of a talented group, the...

Throughout their high school wrestling careers, Burrell’s AJ Corrado and Ian Oswalt often have been intertwined. As teammates, they’ve helped the Bucs capture four straight WPIAL team titles and led them to a third-place finish at the PIAA team tournament this season. They combined to win six WPIAL individual titles...

Valley News Dispatch Boys Basketball Player of the Year Eli Yofan, Fox Chapel 6-2, Jr., Guard Heading into this season, the Fox Chapel boys basketball team was set to replace four senior starters from a team that went 21-2 the previous year and earned the No. 2 seed in the...

Two years ago, the Shady Side Academy girls lacrosse program won its first WPIAL championship in historical fashion. In a game that stretched over 24 hours because of weather conditions, Shady Side Academy’s Molly Walsh scored with three minutes left in the second overtime of their WPIAL championship match with...

Shady Side Academy senior Melissa Riggins had her sights set on becoming the first girl to win state medals in the 800- and 1600-meter races in four straight years. She was halfway there heading into her junior season when the coronavirus pandemic brought an end to that goal after the...

Western Pennsylvania is known for its wrestling, and Friday night at the 47th annual Pittsburgh Wrestling Classic, WPIAL wrestlers showed they can stack up against some of the best in the country. In the first match of the evening, a team made up of WPIAL all-stars dominated a Maryland all-star...

For the past two seasons, Deer Lakes senior defender Colton Spence has been the backbone of the Lancers defense on the soccer field and now he’s taking his talents to Robert Morris. Earlier this week, Spence announced he was signing with the Colonials to continue his soccer career after helping...

It’s not often WPIAL legends have the opportunity to get together and give back to their respective communities, but since 2018, Wilkinsburg alum Taz Williams and co-organizer Drew Schifino have brought some of the best basketball players in WPIAL history together. In 2018, an alumni game between Wilkinsburg and Penn...