Michael Love stories, Page 29

Player of the week Jayden Floyd Leechburg, Jr., QB/DB With his 138 passing yards and 134 rushing yards on 23 carries last week, Floyd became just the 16th player in WPIAL history to pass and rush for 1,000 yards in a single season. He has 1,261 passing yards and eight...

The regular season and the race for a WPIAL Class 3A playoff spot in the Allegheny 6 Conference is down to one head-to-head matchup for Deer Lakes and Freeport. The Yellowjackets and Lancers will renew their rivalry Friday at Deer Lakes’ Lancers Stadium in a matchup rife with playoff scenarios....

WPIAL girls soccer playoffs Class 4A Quarterfinals 6-Fox Chapel (10-4-2) at 3-Peters Township (14-1-2) 7 p.m. Thursday Winner plays: Winner of 7-Butler (10-6-1)/2-Upper St. Clair (15-1) Monday in semifinals Players to watch: Emily McKee, Fox Chapel; Camryn Klein, Peters Township Throw-ins: The Foxes missed the WPIAL playoffs last season, but...

The Plum Sports Hall of Fame is coming back in 2024. From 2005-2017, Mustangs athletic greats were celebrated and enshrined each November. In 2018, the hall of fame committee decided to make the induction of classes a biennial occurrence. Because of a number of factors, including the covid pandemic, the...

Springdale junior Briana Ross was denied three times by Sewickley Academy goalkeeper Marie Bigi in a 45-second span in the first half of Tuesday’s WPIAL Class A first-round playoff game at Freeport Area Athletic Stadium. But her fourth and fifth shots were not stopped. Ross’s two goals in the 17th...

The Plum girls soccer team scored in the eighth minute to open its WPIAL Class 3A first-round game against Kiski Area on Monday at Plum’s Mustangs Stadium. The No. 2 Mustangs added on from there. Plum had four goals at halftime and cruised to a 6-1 victory over a youthful...

WPIAL soccer playoffs Girls Class A First Round 16-Aquinas Academy (5-6-1) at 1-Riverview (16-2) 7 p.m. Tuesday Winner plays: Winner of 9-Eden Christian (8-5-1) at 8-Chartiers Houston (13-3) Saturday in quarterfinals (site/time TBD) Players to watch: Lola Abraham, Riverview; Abigail Stalder, Aquinas Academy Throw-ins: Riverview is led by Abraham, and...

The Plum slow-pitch softball team pulled off the upset of the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Softball League tournament. The No. 8 Mustangs took down No. 1 seed and four-time league champion North Allegheny, 3-1, on Saturday in the quarterfinals. Plum then toppled No. 4 Bethel Park in the semifinals. But No....

The Freeport girls soccer team is no stranger to preparing for the WPIAL playoffs. No matter what talent is lost from the year before, the returning group refocuses and makes a run. Freeport captured the Section 2-2A title two weeks ago on the way to securing its 11th straight WPIAL...

Boys Class 2A First round 10-Elizabeth Forward (10-6-1) at 7-Knoch (11-7) 7 p.m. Monday Winner plays: Winner of 2-Quaker Valley (14-3)/15-Jeannette (10-7-1) on Thursday in quarterfinals Players to watch: Will Sinay, Elizabeth Forward; Mason Nebel, Knoch Throw-ins: Elizabeth Forward tied for third in Section 1 with East Allegheny at 9-4-1....

Gateway’s football team is winless in four nonconference games in 2023 and will cap the regular season with another nonconference matchup against Class 6A power Central Catholic on Friday at Antimarino Stadium. But where it has counted in the race for a spot in the WPIAL Class 5A playoffs, the...

The Gateway girls soccer team finished eight points out of a playoff spot in Section 3-3A. The Gators ended up 3-8-1 in the section. However, looking within the record, coach Caleb Kyper noted the strong and competitive play from his team throughout the season, especially in a couple of games...

Playoff spots are coming down to the wire in the Class 3A Allegheny 6 Conference. East Allegheny, which knocked off Knoch, 14-13, in overtime Friday, captured the conference title and improved to 4-0, 7-2 overall. Even before the game, the Knights, based on their 3-0 conference record coming in, had...

The Burrell boys soccer team delivered numerous shots and scoring chances in last year’s WPIAL Class A first-round game against Serra Catholic at Buccaneer Stadium. But the Eagles got the game’s only goal in what was a frustrating final contest for the Bucs in the 2022 season. Burrell again found...

It was a bittersweet feeling for senior tailback Carlo Buzzatto on Oct. 14 after Riverview football’s heartbreaking 29-28 loss to Leechburg in a rivalry game at Riverside Park that had huge playoff ramifications. The Raiders rallied from a 29-14 deficit in the fourth quarter and had a two-point conversion play...

The Plum football team, for the second year in a row, will cap its season Friday with a nonconference matchup against Indiana. The Mustangs last year went out with a bang in a 46-27 victory over Indiana which saw the now-graduated Eryck Moore set the career-yards record for a Plum...

Derry and Burrell both were held off the scoreboard in the third quarter of Friday’s Allegheny Conference clash on senior night at Burrell’s Buccaneer Stadium. But the Trojans and Bucs erupted for a combined 31 points over the final 12 minutes. Derry led by a single score heading to the...

Armstrong, Elizabeth Forward, Our Lady of the Sacred Heart and South Fayette have been honored by the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League as the recipients of the WPIAL Sportsmanship Awards for the 2022-23 school year. It is the program’s 27th year. This is the first selection for Armstrong, the 70th...

The section and nonsection matches have concluded, and invitational tournaments are in the past. The WPIAL girls volleyball postseason is here, and the WPIAL playoff pairings committee on Friday assembled and released the brackets. North Allegheny, Hampton, Freeport and Serra Catholic drew No. 1 seeds. The Talbots are the only...

Player of the week Carlo Buzzatto Riverview, Sr., RB/LB The Raiders didn’t score a home win against rival Leechburg last Saturday, but they witnessed an all-time performance by their standout senior running back last week. Buzzatto finished the game with 36 carries for 418 yards and touchdown runs of 69,...

The last time Knoch won a football conference title was in 2011, when the Knights went 6-0 and captured the Class AAA Greater Allegheny Conference crown. They advanced to the WPIAL title game before falling to Montour at Heinz Field and ended the season 12-1 overall. East Allegheny has had...

The Deer Lakes boys soccer team lost just once in Section 2-2A play and finished the regular season 14-2. That means the Lancers have put themselves in prime position to defend their WPIAL championship and go after a third title in four years. The WPIAL soccer selection committee released its...

The Riverview girls soccer team clinched a share of the Section 1-A championship when Springdale lost to Greensburg Central Catholic on Saturday. But the Raiders were not willing to share the title with anyone, let alone the section rival Dynamos. Lola Abraham tallied a hat trick, and Riverview held off...

Bradyn Foster is looking forward to the final few weeks of preparation for the upcoming Highlands boys basketball season. But the 6-foot-8 senior forward also can look to his future after he graduates from Highlands in May. Foster verbally committed to the Penn men’s basketball team in the Division I...

North Allegheny, Hampton, Freeport and Bishop Canevin finish at the top of their respective rankings in the final Western Pennsylvania Volleyball Coaches Association WPIAL girls top-10 polls released Monday morning. Bishop Canevin debuted at the top of the Class A poll in Week 1, but recently had slipped to No....