Michael Love stories, Page 76

Things couldn’t have started any better for Franklin Regional and new coach Lance Getsy on Friday against Plum at Franklin Regional Stadium in Murrysville. A Caden Smith interception, his first of three picks, on the first play from scrimmage led to a Connor Donnelly 2-yard touchdown run. With less than...

Last year, Logan Dexter and Dmitri Fritch led the Springdale receiving corps with a combined 53 catches for 841 yards and 10 touchdowns. Not to be forgotten in the passing game mix, John Utiss made his opportunities count. The wideout/running back hybrid in the Dynamos offense hauled in 10 passes...

Nonconference Burrell vs. Mt. Pleasant 7 p.m. Friday, Mt. Pleasant Viking Stadium, Mt. Pleasant Burrell looks to be a running team as it prepares to replace quarterback Alex Arledge, who threw for 3,619 yards in his career. Burrell has four players vying for the quarterback spot. The Bucs threw little...

Derek Burk Deer Lakes, So., QB/DB Burk and the Lancers took their lumps in 2020 with a winless record. But things are looking up for the team, and Burk expects to help lead the charge. The 6-foot-1, 190-pound quarterback and defensive back threw for 537 yards and three scores in...

Springdale is coming off its second straight winning season after just two victories in 2018. The Dynamos navigated the covid waters and all of the imposed restrictions and schedule changes to finish 5-3 overall and 5-2 in Eastern Conference play. It gave perennial power Jeannette all it could handle before...

The Riverview football team took its lumps last season as it navigated its way through a WPIAL-wide truncated season with restrictions and schedule changes brought on by the covid pandemic. The Raiders went 0-8 overall and 0-7 in the Eastern Conference. But second-year coach Trevor George said things are looking...

Anthony Mazur came into Riverview’s preseason football camp in 2018 as a fullback on offense as he hoped to make an impact in his first varsity season. However, change was on the horizon for Mazur, then a 5-foot-7, 175-pound freshman. Injuries to the offensive line brought opportunity and a challenge...

Thomas Jefferson reigned again in Class 4A last season, winning its 10th WPIAL championship followed by its fifth PIAA title. It seems like every year the same question is asked: Can the Jaguars do it again? Veteran coach Bill Cherpak hopes so. But as with other seasons, he sounds the...

After 38 years, Allegheny College athletics will return to the Presidents’ Athletic Conference, the college and the PAC announced Monday. Allegheny will be the league’s 11th full-time member and will officially join July 1, 2022. Gators athletics will finish its commitment to the NCAA Division III North Coast Athletic Conference....

The Western Pennsylvania Youth Football League has returned after a year hiatus because of the covid pandemic, and the 2021 season kicked off this past weekend. The WPYFL’s 40 members stretch across seven counties and nearly 3,000 square miles in Southwestern Pennsylvania, making it the largest youth football organization in...

Paul Doonan sees a youth movement with his Gateway boys golf team. There is just one senior, with two juniors, eight sophomores and five freshmen on the Gators roster. “We’re very young,” Doonan said. “We graduated four or five kids from last year’s team who really carried the load. I...

Apollo-Ridge was an experienced team in 2020. That experience helped the Vikings navigate the covid landscape and truncated season to a 6-1 overall record and a rout of perennial Class 2A contender Washington in the WPIAL playoffs. Graduation took away many of those main players — names such as Jake...

Knoch girls tennis players pulled off a rare WPIAL trifecta last year. Laura Greb captured her fourth WPIAL singles title, sisters Brooke and Ally Bauer brought home doubles gold and the Knights snapped Sewickley Academy’s three-year reign for their first team title after three straight runner-up finishes to the Panthers....

Keegan Fraser is on multiple missions entering football season. The Knoch senior running back, H-back and free safety hopes to be a major factor on both sides of the ball to help the Knights rebound from a winless 2020. To do that, a personal crusade Fraser is hoping to accomplish...

Brandon Lawhorn Moore doesn’t mind that his Kiski Area teammates and coaches call him “Beef.” It is a nickname that has stuck since sixth grade. “My history teacher had these beef jerky days every Friday, and I would be the only one who would bring in the beef jerky,” said...

Anyone who plays football at Kiski Area is bound to receive a nickname from head coach Sam Albert and his coaching staff. For Brayden Dunmire, his ability to deliver the goods early in his varsity career earned him the moniker “Stick.” “When he was a freshman, I put him in...

There is optimism in Saxonburg. Knoch football coach Brandon Mowry said his players — including nine starters back on both offensive and defense — carry the experiences of a challenging 2020 season with them and are using it to propel themselves this fall. “We played a lot of underclassmen last...

Chandler Thimons enters his third year as the Highlands starting quarterback hoping to help snap the Golden Rams’ five-year playoff drought. The 6-foot-3, 215-pound signal caller said he developed a high degree of optimism through the team’s work in the offseason. “This team has a really special bond this year,”...

Last year, a Highlands offensive line that included four seniors opened holes for the run game and protected the passer who averaged 300 yards a game as the Golden Rams finished 4-3 in the Greater Allegheny Conference and challenged for a WPIAL playoff spot through the final week of the...

Matt Hilty is hoping this season at Kiski Area can start and remain normal after a 2020 fall that was anything but. The senior two-way starter and second-team Class 5A Northeast Conference all-star at linebacker was part of a Cavaliers team that had to make do without much preseason preparation...

Colton Otterman is not the biggest dog in the fight. But the Freeport sophomore wide receiver and outside linebacker wants to make sure opponents experience his bite. After a breakout freshman season in which he had 33 tackles and a team-leading six sacks, the 5-foot-10, 162- pounder is ready to...

Five years have gone by since R.J. Umberger last laced up his skates in an NHL game. “Time sure has flown by,” said the Plum native who played 11 years in the NHL with the Columbus Blue Jackets and Philadelphia Flyers. “Before I know it, it will be 10 and...

In-person racing for the Dick’s Sporting Goods Pittsburgh Marathon returns in 2022, and registration for the weekend of races and events officially opened Wednesday. More than 40,000 runners of all ages and abilities are expected to participate. The Pittsburgh Marathon will be the weekend of April 29 to May 1....

Numerous age-group swimmers, including those from the Alle-Kiski Valley, hope to make a splash for Allegheny Mountain Swimming this weekend at the USA Swimming Eastern Zones long course championship meets in Buffalo, N.Y., (ages 15 and up) and Richmond, Va. (14 and under). Many of them posted qualifying times for...

The Century West U15 girls soccer team put it all together throughout the spring and into summer and brought home the championship trophy from the U.S. Youth Soccer National Presidents Cup tournament last month in Des Moines, Iowa. “It just came down to a total commitment from the group,” coach...