Michael Love stories, Page 11

The Springdale girls soccer team suffered its first loss of the season last Saturday against Class 2A power Burrell. But the Dynamos got that winning feeling back Thursday evening with a convincing 3-0 triumph over rival Riverview in a Section 4-A clash under the lights at Riverside Park in Oakmont....

Player of the week Carson Heinle Kiski Area, sr., QB/DB The veteran signal caller helped put his team in position to grab a victory Friday against Big East rival Franklin Regional. Heinle completed 16 of 27 passes for 209 yards and two touchdowns and added 91 yards and a TD...

Valley assistant football coach Jason Ballard attended Burrell and graduated in 1994. He knows exactly what the Battle of the Bypass rivalry between the schools is all about. While he does hold an affinity for his alma mater, he said he will work to make sure his current team comes...

Temperatures hovered in the low 80s with sunny skies at last year’s WPIAL Division I, Section 4 cross country championship meet at Northmoreland Park. It wasn’t nearly as warm Wednesday — low 60s — when runners from Armstrong, Fox Chapel, Kiski Area, Gateway, Plum, Penn Hills, Woodland Hills, and Franklin...

When Dana Petruska retired from coaching high school girls basketball in the spring of 2023, she thought that probably was it after 35 seasons. But that lasted just 15 months. Her love of the game and love of coaching keeps her going. Petruska, who owns a 518-325 career record, will...

Gateway was one of only two programs in the Big East Youth Football League — Penn-Trafford was the other — to have all four of its teams make the playoffs in 2023. The Gators’ flag (ages 5-6), Termites (7-8), Mites (9-10) and Midgets (11-12) teams turned in successful regular seasons...

The Gateway boys soccer team finds its in solid position to reach the WPIAL playoffs for the fifth consecutive season. Coach Mike Rugh said the Gators, who were 6-4 overall and 3-2 in Section 1-4A heading into the start of the second cycle of section play, are hitting their stride...

Burrell is well-known as a run-first football team. On Friday against East Allegheny, the Bucs were a run-only team, and it worked well for them as they broke into the win column for the first time this season. Burrell, now 1-5 overall and 1-1 in the Allegheny 7 Conference, ran...

The Plum Midget Football Association was on the move after the 2023 season. Playing in the Allegheny Youth Football League for the past several years, the PMFA board and coaches felt it was in the best interest of the organization to move back to the Big East Youth Football League...

Something had to give as the Burrell and East Allegheny football teams met Friday in an Allegheny 7 Conference matchup at Burrell’s Buccaneer Stadium. The Bucs and Wildcats struggled through the first five weeks without a win. But that changed for Burrell as it used a big game from sophomore...

Jennifer Bigham won last year’s Richard S. Caliguiri City of Pittsburgh Great Race 10K for her second back-to-back triumph in eight years. One of the fastest masters runners in the country, she also won in 2016 and 2017 and finished first in 2019. Bigham’s five Great Race 10K titles are...

Player of the week Amos Glenn Freeport, jr., RB/DB Glenn is making the most out of a breakout season for the Freeport football team. The shifty and speedy tailback again was a big factor in the Yellowjackets’ offensive game plan last Friday as he contributed to a 42-0 rout of...

The Deer Lakes and Highlands football teams have met four times, with the most recent matchup coming in 2015 when the Lancers and Golden Rams competed in the Class 2A Allegheny Conference. Highlands got the better of Deer Lakes in 2014 and 2015 as well as the games in 2000...

Deer Lakes girls soccer coach Frank Accetta said he, his coaches and his players were surprised when the new two-year cycle alignments came out in the winter. and the Lancers no longer would be facing familiar opponents Freeport, Knoch, Shady Side Academy and Burrell. Instead, they were grouped with unfamiliar...

Plum hadn’t allowed a goal in seven games before Montour tallied the only score in a nonsection victory over the Mustangs last Thursday. Determined to get back in the win column Monday in a Section 4-3A clash with rival Franklin Regional, Plum had to withstand a charge from an upset-minded...

When Derrick Davis Jr. was in the huddle before what turned out to be Pitt’s game-winning touchdown in the 107th Backyard Brawl between Pitt and West Virginia on Sept. 14 at Acrisure Stadium, he had one simple thought in mind. “I had to score. I had to get in that...

When Tom LaBuff retired from teaching English at Gateway High School several years ago, he continued to coach the Gators track and field and cross country teams. He knew that someday he would end his five-decades long tenure with both programs, but his dedication and passion for mentoring and guiding...

Leechburg senior quarterback Jayden Floyd rushed for 209 yards and five more touchdowns Friday in a 35-13 victory over Jeannette, giving him 10 rushing scores over the past two weeks for a Blue Devils team that is 5-0 for the first time since 1981. Floyd tallied 157 of his yards...

The Plum boys and girls cross country teams have run three meets so far in the 2024 season, and coach Brent Kennedy and his coaching staff have seen good things from the mix of returning runners and those new to varsity and junior varsity competition. The Mustangs put their skills...

Plum senior wide receiver and linebacker Darian Nelson said that despite the tough start to the season, with losses to Franklin Regional, Latrobe and Gateway, he and his Mustangs teammates had to concentrate on going 1-0 when they faced Shaler in their Northeast Conference opener on Sept. 13 at Mustangs...

Freeport rallied but came up just short in its Allegheny 7 Conference opener last week at Deer Lakes. But there was no hangover from that game for the Yellowjackets on Friday at home against rival Burrell. Freeport led by four touchdowns at halftime and added on in the second half...

Round one goes to Plum. In a physical and spirited battle for first place in Section 1-4A, the Mustangs scored three first-half goals, which stood up through a Norwin second-half rally in a 3-2 win Thursday evening at Mustangs Stadium. Plum, ranked No. 3 in WPIAL Class 4A by Trib...

Player of the week Nick Odom Plum, sr., RB/DL Plum was looking for a spark to its season as it was 0-3 heading into its Northeast Conference opener against Shaler last Friday. Odom helped provide that lift. He carried the ball 21 times for 123 yards and two touchdowns in...

Separated by classification the past two years, the Freeport and Burrell football teams have reunited in the Class 3A Allegheny 7 Conference and are set to resume a rivalry that extends to the 1960s and a pair of WPIAL playoff clashes. The Bucs won the first two meetings in the...

Eighty minutes weren’t enough to decide Monday’s WPIAL Section 2-2A girls soccer clash between rivals Freeport and Burrell at Buccaneer Stadium. Freeport sophomore Cam Woods scored the winner with 8 minutes, 14 seconds left in the first overtime to end a game rife with dazzling scoring chances and equally dazzling...