High School category, Page 205
Playoff season rejuvenates Norwin girls soccer program
After 110 minutes of playoff soccer and one round of penalty kicks, Norwin girls soccer players were wrung out with emotion. They cried. They hugged each other. They didn’t want to leave the field as exhaustion collided with finality. “It’s OK, girls,” first-year coach Ashley DeVito said. “Listen, it’s OK....
Bittersweet ending for North Allegheny field hockey seniors
When North Allegheny field hockey coach Michelle Kessler asked her seniors in August what they hoped to accomplish this season, their answer was short and sweet. “Have fun.” “They definitely held true to that,” Kessler said. “Even at times when we may not have gotten the outcome that we wanted...
State champion North Allegheny boys golf team reflects on ‘epic’ season
The greatest season in North Allegheny boys golf began three months ago with a practice and a premonition. At the Tigers’ first workout, assistant coach Bill Medwick inhaled the early August breeze and declared, “I smell a state title is in the air.” The nose knew. North Allegheny capped its...
Franklin Regional notebook: Panthers keep finding ways to rally
Call the 2024 Franklin Regional football team ‘The Comeback Kids” the way they played in games this season. The Panthers (7-3) qualified for the WPIAL playoffs for the third consecutive season and 19 of the past 20 seasons by rallying to defeat Armstrong, 29-26, in the regular-season finale. The only...
Franklin Regional boys string together upsets in WPIAL playoffs
Franklin Regional’s boys are making a habit out of upsetting teams in the WPIAL playoffs. The seventh-seeded Panthers did it again in the quarterfinals, clipping No. 2 Thomas Jefferson, 2-1, to reach the 3A semifinals for the sixth time in seven years. The momentum carried into the semifinals as the...
Reliable goalkeeper always delivers for Shady Side Academy girls soccer, earns Division I scholarship
Shady Side Academy girls soccer coach Mary Lynch knows she can count on junior goalkeeper Maria Ravotti. The Bulldogs needed Ravotti, a 5-foot-11 junior, to play well, especially since she was the only goalie on the roster this season. “What stands out is how focused she is,” Lynch said. “She...
There was no catching Fox Chapel’s Ethan Vaughan at WPIAL cross-country meet
At one point during the WPIAL Class 3A cross-country championship race, Fox Chapel senior Ethan Vaughan felt a moment when he thought people may be catching up. But on that day at White Oak Park, there would be no catching Vaughan. He smashed his previous personal best by 12 seconds,...
High school scores, summaries and schedules for Nov. 1, 2024
High schools Football WPIAL playoffs Class 6A Semifinals Nov. 8 schedule Seneca Valley (3-6) vs. Central Catholic (8-2) at West Mifflin, 7 p.m. Mt. Lebanon (3-7) at North Allegheny (9-1), 7 p.m. Class 5A First round Friday’s results Bethel Park 42, Latrobe 7 Franklin Regional 17, North Hills 16 Penn...
No. 7 Penn Hills guts out WPIAL playoff win over Moon
Penn Hills football coach Charles Morris approached senior running back/linebacker Naytel Mitchell before the season with a request to play a physical brand of football on both sides of the ball. Mitchell accepted and was hard on conditioning to be ready for the rigors of a long season and handle...
Eric Kasperowicz’s 6 TD runs in 2nd half rally Mars to upset of Montour
Big players make big plays at big times, and for Mars senior Eric Kasperowicz, that moment came with just 14 seconds left in Friday’s WPIAL Class 4A quarterfinal against Montour. With his team trailing 42-41, Kasperowicz scored his sixth second-half touchdown to give Mars a 48-42 victory at Thomas J....
McKeesport beats Belle Vernon in physical showdown
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...
Trib HSSN’s 2024 Week 10 top performers for passing, rushing, receiving
Top performers for Week 10 of high school football in Western Pennsylvania. Passing 281 - Trey Hopper, Montour (13 of 19) 270 - Brody Chismar, Greensburg Salem (18 of 24) 261 - Joey Felitsky, North Catholic (25 of 38) 247 - Vann Kavals, OLSH (13 of 31) 236 - Kelly...
Tyler Eber runs for 238 yards, 2 TDs as No. 1 Thomas Jefferson rolls past West Allegheny
Thomas Jefferson’s Tyler Eber wasn’t counting his carries, and neither was his coach, so they were a little surprised to hear he’d run the ball nearly 50 times. Forty-eight to be exact. “Forty-eight?” said TJ coach Bill Chepak. “Holy … .” “I had no idea,” said Eber, who rushed for...
High school football roundup for Nov. 1, 2024: Kymon’e Brown helps Jeannette upset No. 4 Neshannock
Kymon’e Brown threw for 101 yards and ran for 156 yards and two touchdowns to lead 13th-seeded Jeannette to a 23-7 upset victory over No. 4 Neshannock (9-2) in a WPIAL Class A first-round matchup Friday night. Quarterback Jino Mozzocio scored on a 15-yard run in the first quarter and...
4th-quarter touchdown pass lifts Franklin Regional past North Hills
Franklin Regional’s late-game heroics on a Chase Lemke pop pass on a fake quarterback keeper pushed the Panthers to a 17-16 victory over North Hills in the WPIAL Class 5A first round Friday night at Martorelli Stadium. It was Franklin Regional’s first playoff win since 2018. Franklin Regional was on...
Penn-Trafford runs over South Fayette in football playoffs
Back-to-back losses to open the WPIAL football playoffs the last two seasons did not sit well with Tasso Whipple and his Penn-Trafford teammates. “We really wanted to end that streak,” Whipple said. “It’s something we wanted to forget about.” Whipple won’t soon forget the win that turned it around. The...
Samir Crosby, GCC outlast Monessen in wild Class A playoff opener
It was quite a show by two of the top juniors in Westmoreland County on Friday during the opening round of the WPIAL Class A playoffs. They were as advertised. Greensburg Central Catholic quarterback Samir Crosby threw four touchdown passes, rushed for a touchdown and returned a 70-yard kickoff return...
Fox Chapel finds winning goal in 70th minute to get past Plum, win 1st WPIAL title since ’95
It has been close to three decades since the last time the Fox Chapel boys soccer program could call itself the WPIAL champion. From the opening minute of the WPIAL Class 4A championship game Friday night at Highmark Stadium, the Foxes put pressure on Plum’s defense but couldn’t find the...
Avonworth uses ground game to pull away from stubborn Greensburg Salem in 2nd half
Fifth-seeded Avonworth opened Friday night’s WPIAL Class 3A first-round matchup with a flurry, going up three scores, but still had to hold off pesky, 12th-seeded Greensburg Salem before coming out on top 43-27 thanks to a dominant running attack. It was all Antelopes in the first 12 minutes, 47 seconds....
Cornell makes big plays in second half to pull away from Leechburg
Many playoff matchups featuring the eighth and ninth seeds are close and exciting. Friday night’s WPIAL Class A first-round contest at Leechburg between No. 9 Cornell and the eighth-seeded Blue Devils was certainly that. Cornell used two late scores to break a 20-20 tie and defeat Leechburg, 34-20, at Memorial...
Drew Ross accounts for 5 TDs as Freeport returns to playoffs by beating Mt. Pleasant
Freeport made an impactful return to the WPIAL playoffs Friday. After a one-year postseason hiatus, the Yellowjackets returned to the WPIAL quarterfinals by rolling past Mt. Pleasant, 44-20, in a Class 3A first-round matchup at Freeport Area Athletic Stadium. “I am really proud of the kids, especially from where we...
North Catholic holds on to beat Deer Lakes in 1st round
Listed at 5-foot-4, Will Waskiewicz is the smallest player on North Catholic’s roster, but he made the biggest play of the night. With less than 15 seconds remaining, Waskiewicz leaped high in the air to intercept a pass in the end zone and preserve a 21-14 upset victory for No....
Peters Township prevails in penalty kicks to beat Seneca Valley for WPIAL Class 4A crown
Peters Township sophomore defender Cailin Martin didn’t score a goal in the regular season, but she delivered two huge goals for the Indians in the WPIAL Class 4A playoffs. On Monday, Martin scored the golden goal against North Allegheny in the semifinals to send top-seeded Peters Township to the Class...
Highlands dominates short-handed Southmoreland in 1st round
A football playoff victory and an eight-win season have eluded Southmoreland for years. Against Highlands in Friday’s WPIAL Class 3A first-round playoff game, the Scotties were impacted by a variety of maladies. Southmoreland had eight players inactive for illness, injury or ineligibility. Quarterback Anthony Smith was cleared from concussion protocol,...
WPIAL singles champ, 2 doubles teams move into state tennis semifinals
The WPIAL Class 2A singles champion and two pairs of district doubles champs are two wins away from a state title. Gabriella Dusi of Belle Vernon and the teams of Jackie Tang and Michelle Yang of Mt. Lebanon and Kirsten Close and Avery Allan of Quaker Valley won two matches...
