Chris Harlan stories, Page 108
5 takeaways from Week 6: Southmoreland snaps cold spell
Southmoreland coach Dave Keefer saw no reason to hide the team’s 40-year playoff drought from his players. “I said, ‘You weren’t part of the past,’ ” said Keefer, who’s in his second season. “We can’t be embarrassed by what’s happened, but we can change it.” Consider it changed. The WPIAL’s...
WPIAL football rankings through Week 6
WPIAL Football Class 6A 1. North Allegheny, 7-0, 1 2. Central Catholic, 6-1, 2 3. Pine-Richland, 6-1, 3 4. Mt. Lebanon, 5-2, 4 5. Seneca Valley, 3-4, 5 Out: none Class 5A 1. Penn-Trafford, 6-1, 1 2. Gateway, 6-1, 3 3. Bethel Park, 5-1, 5 4. Penn Hills, 6-1, 4...
Thomas Jefferson slows Central Valley’s big-play offense in nonconference clashVideo
Central Valley has the type of athlete-heavy spread offense that’s caused Thomas Jefferson trouble in recent years. See TJ’s season-ending losses to Erie’s Cathedral Prep in 2015, ’16 and ’17, or South Fayette’s win last November in the WPIAL finals. But this year’s TJ defense has taken a new approach,...
PIAA tightens competitive balance formula for football, basketball transfers
Adding one transfer could force a basketball team into a higher PIAA classification. The PIAA board this week voted to tighten its competitive balance formula by reducing the number of transfers required to trigger an increase in classification. The threshold in football was reduced from five transfers to three, and...
PIAA might ease co-op rules for small schools struggling to fill rosters
With many small districts struggling to fill rosters, the PIAA might make it easier for two schools to form a combined sports team. Currently, for schools to create a shared team, the districts must be “contiguous,” meaning they share a border. But the PIAA board waived that rule this week...
5 things to watch in Week 6 of the high school football season
Thomas Jefferson coach Bill Cherpak likes this week’s matchup but not necessarily the timing. The Jaguars take a break from their Big Eight schedule to visit undefeated Central Valley, the second-ranked team in WPIAL Class 3A. With the playoffs fast approaching, how should a team tackle a tough nonconference matchup...
Central Valley, Thomas Jefferson rekindle rivalry from their Class AAA days
It wasn’t long ago that Thomas Jefferson and Central Valley were linked in a budding rivalry. The WPIAL contenders met three times in the Class AAA playoffs between 2010 and 2015. Central Valley won the first two and Thomas Jefferson won the third. That short-lived rivalry included two semifinals and...
Gateway junior Derrick Davis adds another Top 25 football offerVideo
Derrick Davis’ long list of scholarship offers is starting to resemble the Top 25 polls. The Gateway junior added sixth-ranked Oklahoma on Wednesday, giving Davis scholarship offers from nine of the top 12 teams in the country. Davis, who can’t sign until December 2020, has become one of the WPIAL’s...
PIAA cross county champion Patrick Anderson commits to North Carolina
Mt. Lebanon senior Patrick Anderson, the defending state cross country champion, committed to North Carolina. He announced his decision Wednesday on Twitter. Anderson, a contender to defend his title this fall, recently won the PIAA Foundation XC Invitational meet Sept. 21 at Hersheypark. He won the Red, White & Blue...
Baseball coach Steve Bucci leaves South Park for alma mater Baldwin
Baseball coach Steve Bucci, who owns both WPIAL and state titles, is leaving South Park for Baldwin, his alma mater. Bucci coached South Park for 16 seasons over two stints, the most recent beginning in 2011. He also coached at Bethel Park and Canon-McMillan, and celebrated a state title with...
Avonworth’s Kyros Thorpe among 3 denied postseason eligibility by PIAA
Avonworth football standout Kyros Thorpe was among three transfers left ineligible for the postseason after the PIAA upheld earlier WPIAL decisions Wednesday. Carmichaels transfers Sydney Kuis (volleyball) and Jackson Machesky (basketball, baseball) also had their appeals denied Wednesday when the PIAA board met in Mechanicsburg, WPIAL president Scott Seltzer said....
Chartiers Valley sophomore Perri Page adds Duquesne offerVideo
Chartiers Valley sophomore Perri Page added a Duquesne basketball offer Monday, making her the third returning player from last year’s state championship lineup with Division I options. Page announced her offer on Twitter. The 5-foot-11 forward averaged 4.5 points per game as a freshman but she topped double digits four...
PCN will re-air Darrelle Revis’ 5-touchdown performance in PIAA championship
Sixteen years later, high school football fans still marvel over Darrelle Revis’ performance in the 2003 state championship. If you missed it the first time, the Pennsylvania Cable Network will revist the game at 7 p.m. Saturday. The future NFL star scored five touchdowns as Aliquippa defeated Northern Lehigh, 32-27,...
Central Catholic quarterback Dom Pieto commits to play Division I baseballVideo
A day after quarterbacking Central Catholic’s football team to a win over then-No. 1 Pine-Richland, Dom Pieto announced his college commitment. However, he won’t be throwing footballs in college. Pieto committed Saturday to play baseball at Long Island University, a Division I program that competes in the Northeast Conference. Pieto...
Gateway basketball standout Lexi Jackson commits to Kent State
All-section center Lexi Jackson, who averaged a double-double for Gateway’s girls basketball team, committed Saturday to Kent State. The 6-foot-3 senior averaged 16 points, 18 rebounds and five blocks last season for the Gators, who went 19-4 and reached the WPIAL Class 5A quarterfinals. Her best performance last winter was...
5 takeaways from Week 5: WPIAL working overtime
Not many WPIAL football teams have worked overtime this season, but regulation wasn’t enough for three games Friday night. That equals the number of WPIAL overtime games in the previous five weeks combined. In maybe the most dramatic, West Allegheny defeated Woodland Hills, 21-20, in an Allegheny Eight matchup decided...
WPIAL football rankings through Week 5
WPIAL Football Class 6A Rk., Team, Rec., Last 1. North Allegheny, 6-0, 2 2. Central Catholic, 5-1, 3 3. Pine-Richland, 5-1, 1 4. Mt. Lebanon, 4-2, 4 5. Seneca Valley, 2-4, 5 Out: none Class 5A 1. Penn-Trafford, 5-1, 1 2. Peters Township, 6-0, 2 3. Gateway, 5-1, 3 4....
Dramatic win holds special meaning for Ringgold football, Rosensteel familyVideo
Ringgold’s student section rushed onto the field as time expired Friday night, overcome with excitement when a last-second field goal by Clayton Rosensteel gave the football team its first win in two years. That alone made the moment emotional. But for the junior kicker, his family, teammates and coach, there’s...
No. 3 Central Catholic leans on talented line, Eddy Tillman to defeat No. 1 Pine-RichlandVideo
A’meer Allen noticed a troubling trend in recent years. “Every single team that won the coin toss deferred,” the Central Catholic lineman said. “They wanted our offense to get on the field first because they felt they could stop us.” It’s no secret that Central’s offense has at times been...
Will Pine-Richland vs. Central Catholic predict WPIAL champion once again?
Central Catholic and Pine-Richland have a shared history that few recent rivalries can match. In each of the past six seasons, the team that won their regular-season matchup went on to win the WPIAL title. It’s served as a midseason championship barometer for the WPIAL’s largest classification. Pine-Richland won the...
5 things to watch in Week 5 of high school football
Central Valley traveled 13 miles to play its first conference road game this season and only nine miles for its second, matchups with Beaver County rivals Blackhawk and Beaver Falls. This week, they’re road Warriors. A 70-mile drive each way awaits Central Valley on Friday night. The Warriors have reserved...
WPIAL postpones hearing for Allderdice, Connellsville boys soccer teams
A WPIAL hearing scheduled Wednesday for the Allderdice and Connellsville boys soccer teams has been postponed. The hearing was delayed at Allderdice’s request, WPIAL executive director Tim O’Malley said. A new date wasn’t immediately set. The WPIAL board voted unanimously last week to investigate allegations that the two boys soccer...
Shady Side Academy will forfeit football game against Apollo-Ridge
Citing a lack of healthy players, Shady Side Academy notified Apollo-Ridge on Monday that it will forfeit this week’s football game. Shady Side athletic director Gene Deal called the decision heartbreaking. The Indians started the season with 23 names on the roster but finished last week’s game with only 14...
Burgettstown lineman Riley Kemper commits to Robert MorrisVideo
Burgettstown lineman Riley Kemper, a reigning WPIAL wrestling champion, committed Sunday to play football at Robert Morris. Kemper announced his decision on Twitter. The 6-foot-4, 275-pound senior earned first-team all-conference honors on the offensive line last season. He’s an anchor up front for a Burgettstown team that’s 4-0 this season...
5 takeaways from Week 4: Northern Conference continues to roil
Is there a WPIAL conference more volatile than the Northern? Even defending WPIAL and PIAA Class 5A champion Penn Hills has felt its share of close calls this season. The Indians remain undefeated in the conference, but they’ve won the past two weeks by 11 points combined. After rallying to...
