Michael Love stories, Page 61
Plum, Springdale among top seeds from A-K Valley focused on 1st-round WPIAL playoff foes
Despite temperatures in the low 40s Wednesday accompanied by rain and wind, 16 Alle-Kiski Valley boys and girls soccer teams felt the warmth of discovering the whos, whens and wheres of the upcoming WPIAL playoff tournaments. “There’s always conjecture about what the bracket is going to look like, and then...
A-K Valley football players to watch in 2022 Week 8
Chase Fenner Burrell, sr., QB/LB He doesn’t throw the ball much, but that doesn’t mean he can’t sling it if needed. Fenner has contributed 70 carries for 317 yards and eight touchdowns in a run game that averages 291 yards a game. Landon Harmon Apollo-Ridge, sr., RB/DE Harmon hopes to...
A-K Valley don’t miss high school football matchups for 2022 Week 8
Class 5A Big East Hempfield (5-3, 1-2) at Plum (3-5, 1-3) 7 p.m. Friday, Mustangs Stadium, Plum The Spartans try to end a three-game losing streak to save their playoff hopes. Plum saw its playoffs hopes end with a 35-21 loss at Penn-Trafford. The Mustangs have dropped four consecutive games...
Kiski Area girls soccer has been in playoff mode
Kiski Area girls soccer coach Dave Anderson said his team played several must-win games down the stretch as it fought to keep its WPIAL playoff-appearance streak intact. That included Monday’s win-or-go-home Section 1-3A matchup at Indiana. “For us, the playoffs started early with that game,” Anderson said. It ended up...
Plum girls soccer wins at home to clinch section crown
The Plum girls soccer team controlled its own destiny Monday to finish off its fourth straight section championship. The Mustangs didn’t let the visiting Penn-Trafford Warriors play the role of spoiler. Seniors Cam Rogers and Kaitlyn Killinger each scored a goal and provided an assist in the first half as...
Kiski Area senior swimmer chooses West Virginia
Parker Sterlitz made his first visit to West Virginia University about a year ago. The senior swimming standout at Kiski Area said he immediately fell in love with the campus and the Mountaineers swimming program. Since then, Sterlitz said, he looked at other schools and found himself comparing them to...
North Allegheny, Hampton, Freeport, Serra Catholic atop final coaches association volleyball rankings
It’s about that time. The regular season for WPIAL girls volleyball concludes with the end of section play Thursday and a couple of nonsection matchups Friday and Saturday. The road to the four WPIAL championship games Nov. 5 begins next week. There are section championships and playoff qualifiers to be...
Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Softball League teams ready for playoff tournament
Montour, North Allegheny, Bethel Park, Baldwin and Shaler each recorded doubleheader sweeps Sunday as the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Softball League nears the conclusion of its regular season and prepares for its playoff tournament. Before the playoff brackets can be finalized, there is one more regular-season game to be played. Baldwin,...
Deer Lakes’ Yourish leads A-K Valley contingent into PIAA golf championships
Anna Yourish looked on a couple of years ago as her older brother, Josh, represented Deer Lakes at the PIAA championships in track and field. Josh now is a senior on the men’s track team at Division I George Mason. Anna, too, wanted the opportunity to compete at a state...
Big-play potential part of the process for Gateway linebacker Remy Bose
Gateway led Penn-Trafford, 14-3, in the fourth quarter of their Victory Bell rivalry game Oct. 7, at Gateway’s Antimarino Stadium. The Warriors were driving near midfield as they attempted to rally. But 6-foot-1, 220-pound junior inside linebacker Remy Bose would have none of it. Bose dissected a P-T screen, intercepted...
Gateway players confident ahead of WPIAL boys soccer playoffs
The Gateway boys soccer team enters the WPIAL Class 3A playoffs hoping to make some noise, and senior forward Colton Corrie says the Gators are set up to do just that. “We’ve seen so many different styles in the regular season that we are ready for anything in the playoffs,”...
Leechburg’s Braylan Lovelace passes 4,000-yard mark
Leechburg senior running back and Pitt commit Braylan Lovelace needed 217 yards against Riverview on Friday in an Eastern Conference matchup to become just the fifth Alle-Kisk Valley runner to eclipse the 4,000-yard mark for a career. Lovelace accomplished that, and then some, against the Raiders, totaling five touchdowns and...
Plum boys soccer team ready for postseason
It’s time for a postseason rumble, and the Plum boys soccer team is ready, coach Raf Kolankowski said. The Mustangs again are a favorite to challenge for the WPIAL title in Class 3A, but Kolankowski said they will be entering a bracket with a stacked field. “Obviously, it’s not going...
Plum girls aim to make another long run in WPIAL soccer playoffs
The Plum girls soccer team is no stranger to postseason pressure and opportunity, and the Mustangs will get a chance in the coming days to prove it. Plum coach Jamie Stewart said his team, which expected to garner one of the top seeds among the likes of defending WPIAL and...
Penn-Trafford football team rebounds to beat Plum
The Penn-Trafford football team got that winning feeling back Friday after last week’s tough loss to rival Gateway. The Warriors churned out 377 yards on the ground, compiled 499 yards of total offense and produced a 35-21 victory over Plum in a Big East Conference Class 5A game at Warrior...
Deer Lakes girls soccer gets crucial win vs. Valley
The Deer Lakes girls soccer team was in must-win mode Wednesday as it hosted Valley in a Section 2-2A game at Lancers Stadium. And a win is what the Lancers got. Freshman Bryanna Simonetti scored with 29 minutes, 57 seconds left in the second half off an assist from senior...
A-K Valley football players to watch in 2022 Week 7
Tyler Bender Highlands, sr., OL/DL The veteran lineman helped create defensive havoc for the Golden Rams against Woodland Hills last week. He made five tackles, recorded one of Highlands’ 11 sacks and intercepted a pass in a 38-23 victory. For the season, Bender is second on the team in tackles...
A-K Valley don’t miss high school football matchups for 2022 Week 7
Class 5A Big East Plum (3-4, 1-2) at Penn-Trafford (4-3, 1-2) 7:30 p.m. Friday, Warrior Stadium, Harrison City Plum dropped its third straight game, falling 20-6 at South Fayette. The Mustangs scored first on a short touchdown pass from Sean Franzi to Jerome Brazell but gave up 20 unanswered points....
Freeport girls volleyball rolls past Derry to remain undefeated in Section 5-AA
The Freeport girls volleyball maintained its two-game lead on the rest of Section 5-2A Tuesday evening with a dominant 3-0 victory over Derry at Freeport Middle School. “We just played how we know we can,” senior setter Cassidy Dell said. “We played very loose, very relaxed, and we had some...
Valley girls soccer closes in on rare playoff berth
The Valley girls soccer team has a chance to set a record and do what only one other team has done in the program’s 20 years. With a win or a tie Wednesday at Deer Lakes, the Vikings (6-6 overall, 5-5 Section 2-2A) will clinch a WPIAL playoff spot for...
Burrell girls volleyball ready for regular season’s pivotal closing stretch
The Burrell girls volleyball team visits Deer Lakes and hosts Freeport next week to close out Section 5-2A play. The Bucs seek to avenge their only two section losses, a 3-1 setback to the Lancers and a 3-0 defeat at the hands of the Class 2A No. 1 Yellowjackets a...
Serra Catholic new No. 1 in coaches association’s WPIAL Class A volleyball rankings
A dominant run atop the Western Pennsylvania Volleyball Coaches Association’s Class A top-10 rankings has come to an end. Bishop Canevin, the five-time defending WPIAL Class A champion, suffered its first section loss Thursday with a 3-0 setback to No. 8 Eden Christian in Section 3 play. It was the...
Slow-pitch softball teams enter final week of WPISL regular season
Bethel Park, Baldwin, Mt. Lebanon, Shaler, Penn-Trafford and North Hills each recorded doubleheader sweeps in game play from last Wednesday to Sunday as teams jockey for position in the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Softball League. The regular season is to conclude Sunday with seven scheduled doubleheaders. As of Monday, one doubleheader...
Team play helps Gateway girls volleyball with turnaround season
A key goal for the Gateway girls volleyball team at the start of the 2022 season was to improve on last year’s 2-10 record in section play. So far this fall, that goal has been reached, and then some. Through last week’s 3-0 victory over West Mifflin, the Gators stood...
Gateway runners tune up for WPIALs at Section 4 championships
Members of the Gateway girls cross country team tested their mettle at the Division I, Section 4 championships Oct. 5 at Northmoreland Park, and the Gators took fourth in the team standings as a pair of runners earned medals for top-15 performances. Under sunny skies and warm temperatures in the...
