Bill Beckner stories, Page 136
Jeannette transfers lead Greensburg Central Catholic to win over Jayhawks
Talk about a U-turn. Greensburg Central Catholic has four players with Jeannette ties: senior Taishaun Jamison (WR/DB), and juniors Ryan Kimmel (OL/DL), Jaydin Canady (RB/DB) and Amari Mack (WR/DB). So it must have been an interesting 24 hours for the transfers, who left Jeannette on Friday morning to go to...
Westmoreland WPIAL soccer playoff capsules: Games of Oct. 23, 2021
Saturday’s games Boys Class 3A first round 8-Mars (12-4-2) at 9-Belle Vernon (13-4) 2 p.m. at James Weir Stadium, Belle Vernon Winner plays: Winner of 16-Indiana (10-8)/1-West Allegheny (18-0) at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday (site TBD) Mars is the defending WPIAL and PIAA champion. The Fightin’ Planets have overcome key graduation...
Westmoreland County high school football notes: Southmoreland preps for massive game
Southmoreland coach Dave Keefer and his staff have prepared for some meaningful games since they took over in 2018. “There were some big ones that first year,” Keefer said. “We had a big one (against McGuffey) two years ago. This one Friday ranks right up there.” Southmoreland (6-2, 3-1 Class...
16 players get 2-game suspensions for Valley-Yough fight
A second-half brawl last week looks like it will cost 16 players the rest of the football season. Nine players from Valley and seven from Yough will serve a two-game suspension for their involvement in a fight Friday night at Valley Memorial Stadium. PIAA rules say players who get ejected...
Derry dismisses football coach Vince Skillings
Vince Skillings said he doesn’t believe he did anything to warrant a dismissal, but Derry apparently saw otherwise. While neither Skillings nor Derry would go into detail about what transpired, Skillings was relieved of his duties as head football coach Wednesday with two games remaining in the season. Derry is...
Greensburg CC soccer teams land No. 1 seeds in WPIAL playoffs; Norwin boys, Latrobe girls have a bye
Greensburg Central Catholic’s soccer teams seemed to follow each other around last fall during the WPIAL postseason, figuratively and physically. The boys and girls teams won WPIAL Class A championships and reached the PIAA finals, finishing runners-up in Hershey. The Centurions shared Norwin as a home field throughout the playoffs,...
Westmoreland County don’t miss high school football matchups for 2021 Week 8
Class 6A Canon-McMillan (4-4, 2-3) at Norwin (2-6, 0-5) 7 p.m. Friday, Norwin Knights Stadium After winning two straight, Canon-McMillan takes a two-game losing streak into Friday after falling to Seneca Valley and North Allegheny in consecutive weeks. Mike Evans threw for 114 yards and a touchdown and Ryan Angott...
Breaking down the 2021 WPIAL girls soccer playoffs
Here’s a look at the 2021 WPIAL girls soccer playoffs: Class 4A Favorite: Two-time defending champion North Allegheny has a 22-game unbeaten streak against WPIAL competition and has not lost since last year’s PIAA championship, 1-0, against Pennridge. The Tigers (15-0-1), led by top goal scorer Lucia Wells, are ranked...
Breaking down the 2021 WPIAL boys soccer playoffs
Here’s a look at the 2021 WPIAL boys soccer playoffs: Class 4A Favorite: Seneca Valley impressively negotiated a challenging Section 1 schedule and won the title by three games. The Nathan Prex-led Raiders (15-0-1), ranked third in the state, registered 11 shutouts and their one tie came against Fox Chapel....
Yough girls soccer team spoils Mt. Pleasant’s night
Finally, a one-goal finish Yough can get behind. In a girls soccer game that carried more importance in the Section 3-2A standings for Mt. Pleasant, it was Yough that showed greater urgency down the stretch Tuesday evening at sun-splashed Cougar Mountain Stadium. The fourth-ranked Cougars delivered a tight, 2-1 victory...
Westmoreland campus clippings: Hempfield grad Michelle Burns returning to Point Park for 5th year
At Point Park, the fire still Burns. Star point guard Michelle Burns (Hempfield) is back for a fifth basketball season after averaging 20.8 points as a senior last winter, and she is expected to be one of the best again in the River States Conference, She has a full-time job...
State soccer rankings for Oct. 18, 2021
Fifteen boys teams and nine girls teams from the WPIAL are among the best in Pennsylvania soccer according to the latest state rankings. Three girls teams are ranked No. 1 in the final Pennsylvania Soccer Coaches Association top 10 poll of the regular season — North Allegheny (14-0-1) in 4A,...
Mt. Pleasant girls soccer team has eye on 1st section title in 5 years
Mt. Pleasant’s motivation for Tuesday’s 5 p.m. Section 3-2A girls soccer finale comes prepackaged and free of charge. “The girls are all well aware,” said Mt. Pleasant coach Rich Garland, whose third-ranked Lady Vikings (12-4, 8-1) need to win or tie at No. 4 Yough (11-3-1, 6-2-1) to take their...
Westmoreland County campus clippings: Pitt-Greensburg women’s tennis wins 1st AMCC title
Pitt-Greensburg is headed to the NCAA Division III women’s tennis tournament. The Bobcats won the first Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference championship in program history over the weekend. Top-seeded UPG defeated No. 2 Penn State Behrend, 5-4, to complete a sweep — AMCC regular-season and tournament titles — while avenging a...
Area standouts can get caught between high school, club soccer
Morgan Einodshofer is piling up goals for the Belle Vernon girls soccer team. She also is piling up frequent flyer miles. “Over the next eight weeks, we have tournaments in Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio,” the senior midfielder said. “It’s going to be a lot.” Einodshofer plays for the Century United...
WPIAL soccer rankings: Week of Oct. 18, 2021
Girls Class 4A Rank Team Record Last rank 1. North Allegheny (14-0-1) 1 2. Latrobe (12-0-1) 2 3. Moon (13-1-1) 3 4. Peters Township (9-3-3) 4 5. Seneca Valley (10-0-2) NR OUT: Butler (12-1-2) 5 Watch: Norwin (11-3) Class 3A 1. Mars (11-0-1) 1 2. Plum (15-1) 2 3. Hampton...
Westmoreland high school notebook: Local soccer teams punch tickets
The local WPIAL soccer playoff field is set. The top four teams in each girls and boys section qualify. Area girls qualifiers are Latrobe, Norwin and Penn-Trafford in Class 4A; Belle Vernon, Franklin Regional and Kiski Area in 3A; Burrell, Mt. Pleasant, Southmoreland and Yough in 2A; and Greensburg Central...
Penn-Trafford’s Schlessinger brings intensity to multiple sports
Maybe it’s the football player in him. Or the dek hockey player, for that matter. Penn-Trafford’s Nathan Schlessinger plays both sports — one for fun when he gets free time, the other on Friday nights as the Warriors’ placekicker — with unbridled force, effort and concentration. But Schlessinger’s main game...
Westmoreland football notebook: Penn State coaches come to watch Belle Vernon’s Martin
Belle Vernon had a couple of special guests on campus Friday. For the second week in a row, major college football coaches stopped by to check in on standout Quinton Martin, the coveted sophomore recruit who began collecting Division I offers as a freshman. Penn State coach James Franklin and...
Improbable comeback something Franklin Regional ‘will always remember’
A couple of key plays led to Franklin Regional’s improbable second-half comeback Friday night at Latrobe, perhaps the greatest rally in the football program’s history. The Panthers, ravaged by injuries, overcame a 40-14 deficit to beat the Wildcats, 41-40, in a pulsating Class 5A Big East matchup with playoff implications....
Norwin alum McCauley to lead Saint Vincent men’s volleyball
Kate McCauley brings a wealth of experience to her new position at Saint Vincent College. McCauley, a Norwin and SVC grad, was named the head men’s volleyball coach at her alma mater. She currently is a third-year assistant with the women’s volleyball team and works as positions manager of operations...
Norwin notebook: Norwin football has long night
Several area football teams had to sit through delays Oct. 8 as lightning and storms moved through Allegheny County. Norwin was one of the teams subjected to an unsual Friday night. In McCandless, Norwin and North Allegheny were cruising along when lightning struck and forced the teams into the locker...
Franklin Regional beats Latrobe with 27 unanswered points
It may only take two conference wins to get into the WPIAL Class 5A football playoffs, so Friday’s matchup between Franklin Regional and Latrobe — teams that began the night with one conference win apiece — was soaked in importance. It may have taken a comeback for the ages to...
Fox Chapel boys, girls sweep Class 3A titles at WPIAL team golf competition
Cedarbrook has two 18-hole golf courses: the Red and the Gold. There was a lot of red chasing gold at Thursday’s WPIAL team finals as Fox Chapel pulled off a championship double. The Foxes boys and girls won Class 3A titles for the first finals sweep in the league’s largest...
Westmoreland County football notebook: No. 4 GCC prepared for test at No. 1 Clairton
Greensburg Central Catholic might be new to the Trib HSSN Class A football rankings this week, but playing Clairton is nothing new to the Centurions. It is, though, to their coach. The Class A Eastern Conference game against the top-ranked Bears looks to be the toughest challenge so far for...
