High School category, Page 753
Trib HSSN Football Team of the Week for Nov. 29, 2021
From 2012-2016, the Serra Catholic football team was a combined 10-38 in five seasons with one playoff appearance. After Jose Regus was hired before the 2017 campaign, the Eagles have gone 38-17, have reached the district playoffs all five years with a postseason record of 6-4 and are now WPIAL...
Promising Kiski Area girls team coming together
Kiski Area girls basketball coach Nick Dizon likened his team learning and growing to building a puzzle. Once one piece is in place, it’s time to work on fitting in the next one. It’s the theme for the season for a young Cavaliers team rife with freshmen and sophomores that...
With 4 starters returning, Latrobe girls basketball planning winning encore
Four starters return this season to the Latrobe girls basketball team, which looks to defend its section title after a mad scramble for first place saw the Class 5A Wildcats come out on top last year by the thinnest of margins in the WPIAL Section 4 standings. Latrobe, whose 9-1...
New Kiski Area boys coach has visions of turnaround
The excitement of his first season as the Kiski Area boys basketball coach hasn’t waned an ounce for Corey Smith since the day he was hired back in April. He’s accepted the task of restoring his Alma Mater’s hoops program into a formidable one after some lean years. The Cavaliers...
Young Latrobe boys basketball roster looks to overachieve again
Ask Latrobe boys basketball coach Brad Wetzel to name something his teams do well from year to year. The answer might surprise you. They “overachieve.” Take last year’s squad. That group quite possibly outdid them all, according to Wetzel, who enters his 19th season as coach of the Wildcats. “Those...
Franklin Regional’s Anthony DiFalco earns 3rd All-America honor; 10 from WPIAL make all-region
Franklin Regional senior Anthony DiFalco was hoping to cap his brilliant high school soccer career with another WPIAL championship and a PIAA title. While he fell short of his expectations, he was lauded just the same with his third All-American nod. DiFalco was named a United States Soccer Coaches Region...
Plenty of highlights for Kiski Area football despite challenging 2nd half
The going got tougher as the season rolled on for the Kiski Area football team this year. The Cavaliers started out 5-0 for the first time since 2002. But the second half was a challenge for Kiski Area as a couple of narrow conference losses and some injuries took their...
Westmoreland Senior Spotlight: Hempfield’s Brandon Coughlin
Last season, Hempfield’s baseball team had an historic year, reaching the WPIAL Class 6A finals for the first time. With several seniors graduating, Hempfield will look much different this year. But that doesn’t worry senior Brandon Coughlin. “We’ve got a lot of young guys that are pretty talented,” Coughlin said....
After heartbreaking finish, Thomas, GCC reflect on football season
A couple of weeks removed from an unthinkable, devastating end to the 2021 football season, Greensburg Central Catholic coach Marko Thomas has had some time to reflect on the heartbreak he and his team went through. Within a four-day span, the Centurions had to deal with the deaths of two...
Strong finish provides optimism for future of Burrell football
The Burrell football season changed in a flash — literally. In the middle of a gusty downpour, Burrell scored the go-ahead touchdown with 2 minutes remaining against rival Deer Lakes. The moment senior kicker Ethan Croushore’s extra point sailed through the uprights, lightning struck and the game went into a...
A-K Valley senior spotlight: Kiski Area’s Emerson Johngarlo
Emerson Johngarlo Kiski Area soccer A year after having soccer taken away from her, Emerson Johngarlo made it official that the sport she loves will be a major part of her future. The Kiski Area senior signed a national letter of intent earlier this month to continue her soccer career...
High school sports schedules for Nov. 29, 2021
High schools Football PIAA playoffs Semifinals Class 6A Saturday’s schedule Garnet Valley (14-0) vs. St. Joseph’s Prep (10-2) at Ridley, 7 p.m.; State College (8-5) vs. Mt. Lebanon (13-0) at Altoona’s Mansion Park, 1 p.m. Class 5A Friday’s schedule Imhotep Charter (10-1) vs. Strath Haven (13-1) at Ridley, 7 p.m.;...
Trib HSSN Football Player of the Week for 2021 Week 13
Penn-Trafford started as hot as the weather in its much anticipated WPIAL Class 5A football championship game against top-seeded and unbeaten Moon. Heinz Field was cold and turning white, with snow flurries falling throughout the evening Saturday. Despite the slow start after falling behind 14-3 in the second quarter, the...
After seamless coaching change, Highlands boys basketball team has high expectations again
Of the nearly dozen coaching changes among Alle-Kiski Valley basketball schools, perhaps the final one was the most seamless transition. The Highlands School District elevated former assistant Corey Dotchin to head boys coach shortly after nine-year coach Tyler Stoczynski resigned in October. Dotchin was Stoczynski’s right-hand man as is ready...
2021-22 PIHL standings through Nov. 28, 2021
Here are the latest PIHL high school hockey standings through Sunday: Team, Wins – Losses – Overtime/Shootout Loss = Total Points Class 3A North Allegheny, 8-1-0 = 16 Peters Township, 7-3-0 = 14 Central Catholic, 5-4-0 = 10 Baldwin, 4-1-2 = 10 Mt. Lebanon, 4-4-1 = 9 Pine-Richland, 4-2-0 =...
Explosive plays carry Penn-Trafford football past Moon in WPIAL title game
Moon football coach Ryan Linn said earlier in the week that the team that it the big pass play would probably win. He was partially right. Sure Penn-Trafford connected on a 92-yard touchdown pass from Carter Green to Cade Yacamelli, but it came down to the Warriors’ explosive plays in...
Westmoreland notebook: Franklin Regional grad Lorenz lands at Division I Sacred Heart
Former Franklin Regional soccer standout Zach Lorenz parlayed a year at a prep school into a Division I opportunity. Lorenz played this year as Woodstock Academy (Conn.), a first-year program. Interest began to pick up for Lorenz and he decided to further his career at Sacred Heart of the Northeast...
25 WPIAL soccer players make all-state teams
With the district and state playoffs complete, the Pennsylvania Soccer Coaches Association announced its boys and girls all-state teams. The WPIAL had a number of representatives with 14 boys selections and 10 players picked for the girls list. The girls are Penn-Trafford senior forward Malia Kearns, Plum junior forward Kaitlyn...
Highlands girls basketball team ready to take next step under new coach
After finishing .500 and in fourth place last season in Section 1-4A, the Highlands girls basketball team is ready to make a jump toward the top. With practically everybody back and two newcomers on the scene, the team feels ready. Jason Kerr has taken over as coach, and former Burrell...
New Jeannette girls basketball coach Flow wants team to be competitive after recent struggles
When Bill Flow was hired as Jeannette’s girls basketball coach in June, he inherited a team that hasn’t had much success the past three seasons. The Jayhawks were 0-19 in 2020-21 and have been 8-54 the past three seasons. But Flow, 39, comes back to Westmoreland County after spending the...
Jeannette boys basketball team using extra time to prepare for season
When the Jeannette boys basketball team opens the 2021-22 on Dec. 10 at the West Mifflin tournament, the team will be ahead of the game. In previous seasons, Jeannette coach Adrian Batts had to wait for the football season to end before he got most of his players in the...
PIAA announces sites for football semifinals
With the WPIAL football playoffs and the Highway to Heinz in the rearview mirror, the focus now turns to the PIAA postseason and the Road to Hershey. The state playoffs have reached the final four as six WPIAL champions are one win away this weekend from heading to Hershey in...
Injury woes changed course of Pine-Richland football season
Coaches never want to use injuries as an excuse, and Pine-Richland football coach Steve Campos is no different in that regard. But what the Rams went through in terms of key players going down this season was something that Campos had never experienced in his long coaching career. The Rams...
Junior goalie stands tall for Pine-Richland hockey team
Most days after arriving home from elementary school, Dan Mooney would hop off the bus, drop his backpack and jump right into the middle of a pickup hockey game. “My older brother (Tommy) and his friends would always be playing in the driveway,” Mooney said. “They didn’t have a goalie,...
Gateway girls basketball players adjusting to new roles
The Gateway girls basketball team didn’t start out the way it had hoped last year amidst the atmosphere of overall uncertainty in the wake of the covid pandemic. The Gators were 0-6 before defeating Section 4-5A foe Greensburg Salem. They righted the ship and went 7-4 over the final 11...
