Michael Love stories, Page 31

Deer Lakes sophomore Bryanna Simonetti spelled out a simple formula for the Lancers’ Section 2-2A clash with section power Freeport last Wednesday. “It just came down to us sticking together as a team and playing solid at both ends,” Simonetti said. “We had been playing pretty well, and I had...

There were no changes at the top in each of the four WPIAL classifications as the Western Pennsylvania Volleyball Coaches Association released its Week 5 polls Monday morning. Staying at No. 1 were North Allegheny in Class 4A, Hampton in Class 3A, Freeport in Class 2A and Serra Catholic in...

The Kiski Area athletic community gathered last month to celebrate a group of Cavaliers greats. Their exploits in competition were recognized with enshrinement as the latest class of the Kiski Area Sports Hall of Fame. Lauded during the Sept. 2 banquet and ceremony were Sean Arnold (Class of 1998, soccer,...

Despite his team not pulling out a victory in its Allegheny 6 opener against Shady Side Academy, Freeport coach John Gaillot reiterated Saturday the praise he had for his mix of youthful and veteran players in battling through adversity on and off the scoreboard in the 31-28 outcome. The Yellowjackets...

The Class 3A Allegheny 6 Conference was one of two in the WPIAL to have none of its teams play a conference game before Friday night. Shady Side Academy and Freeport hoped to get off to a winning start in conference action after five nonconference contests to start the season....

Angela Franke’s brief tenure as athletic director at Leechburg has come to a close. Her last day in the position was Friday, high school principal Doug Rodgers confirmed. Rodgers said he believes Franke is leaving for a full-time athletic director position in eastern Pennsylvania. The Leechburg AD job is part...

Mt. Lebanon brought previously undefeated Plum back to the pack in a doubleheader sweep of the Mustangs last Sunday in Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Softball League action. The wins bumped the Blue Devils up to 6-2, while Plum fell to 6-2. West Allegheny dominated North Hills over two games to also...

Player of the week Cooper Hornack Burrell, Sr., RB/DB Hornack, the reigning two-time Valley News Dispatch wrestler of the year and the 2023 PIAA Class 2A champion at 127 pounds, was a difference-maker last Friday as Burrell won its third straight game after an 0-2 start. Burrell ran the ball...

Deer Lakes and Knoch waged a frantic, down-to-the wire battle last season at Lancers Stadium to open Allegheny 6 Conference play. The teams combined for 38 points in the fourth quarter — 22 from Knoch and 16 from Deer Lakes — as the Lancers pulled out a 37-36 victory. “Looking...

In 2020, the St. Joseph girls volleyball team went 0-12 in section play. It was 0-14 the year before and in 2018. The Spartans won just three section matches in 2021, but things were looking up. Last year, they recorded four victories in section play, and a late-season 3-1 loss...

There is a change at the top in Class A as the Western Pennsylvania Volleyball Coaches Association released its Week 4 WPIAL girls rankings Monday morning. Serra Catholic, last year’s WPIAL runner-up, unseated Bishop Canevin. The Eagles improved last week to 6-0 overall and 5-0 in Section 4-A. Defending WPIAL...

Courtney Jackson is playing his first season with the Arkansas State football team, and on Sept. 16, he hauled in his first touchdown pass for the Red Wolves in a 31-7 victory over Stony Brook. Arkansas State collected 485 yards of total offense with the receiving corps gaining 140 of...

The Gateway football team was in an unfamiliar 0-3 hole after losses to Mt. Lebanon, Woodland Hills and North Hills. But the Gators, who worked through several points of adversity, including the loss of senior tight end/linebacker Remy Bose and not having senior starting quarterback Brad Birch for two weeks,...

The Class 3A Allegheny 6 Conference, of which Freeport, Deer Lakes, Valley and Knoch are members, is one of two in the WPIAL to not have any of its teams play a conference game through five weeks. The other is the Class 3A Interstate Conference with Elizabeth Forward, Mt. Pleasant,...

In past fall seasons, female golfers at Plum would get their opportunity to compete, but they would have to share the course with their Mustangs male counterparts and challenge for positions in the starting lineup. That started to change last year when a group of Plum girls gathered to test...

It wasn’t easy — Raf Kolankowski would be the first one to say it never is — but the Plum boys soccer team passed all of its tests in the first cycle of Section 4-3A play and sits at the top of the standings in its quest for another section...

The Gateway football team is hitting its stride at the right time. The Gators improved to 2-0 in the Big East Conference on Friday at Plum after their three nonconference setbacks to start the season. Brad Birch threw for 358 yards and two touchdowns, Jaquon Reynolds added three short TD...

Jennifer Bigham won the City of Pittsburgh Great Race in 2016, 2017, 2019 and last year, and she hopes to add win No. 5 on Sunday. Bigham has become one of the fastest masters runners in the country, winning the 2022 USA Masters Half Marathon Championship and USA Masters One...

The Riverview girls soccer team rode a wave of momentum into its Section 1-A clash with unbeaten rival Springdale on Thursday. The Dynamos came in 6-0 overall and ranked No. 1 by TribLive HSSN, but the homestanding Raiders had won seven in a row. In front of a large homecoming...

Michael Braun was the seventh-fastest underclassmen and the third fastest sophomore at last year’s WPIAL Class 2A cross country championships at Cal U (Pa.). The Freeport junior placed 11th overall, an improvement of 20 places from his WPIAL debut in 2021. He also ran at the PIAA championships in Hershey...

Player of the week Derek Burk Deer Lakes, Sr., QB Deer Lakes won its third in a row with a 48-14 nonconference win over Greensburg Salem last Friday, and Lancers senior Derek Burk’s influence was all over the victory. Burk completed 11 of 12 passes for 251 yards and five...

Leechburg returns home Friday hoping to add a second Eastern Conference victory. The Blue Devils, 3-1 overall after last week’s 48-25 victory at Springdale, also hope to add a first-ever win over a team that has been a dominant force in the conference. Clairton has won 28 of the 29...

A decade before Jon LeDonne became a head football coach in the WPIAL, he made an impact on the field at Robert Morris University. The four-year Colonials letterman finished his career as one of the all-time RMU leaders in career tackles with 256. LeDonne, an Aliquippa native, earned numerous athletic...

The Springdale girls soccer team is the hunted this season coming off of what it did last year as a WPIAL Class A finalist and a PIAA quarterfinalist. The Dynamos, the No. 1 team this week in the TribLive HSSN Class A rankings, also is a team with a target...

Plum swept Baldwin in a doubleheader Sunday to remain the lone unbeaten slow-pitch team in the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Softball League. The Mustangs scored a combined 37 runs in the two games against the Highlanders and have outscored their opponents 104-24 through six games. North Allegheny and Mt. Lebanon split...