Bill Beckner stories, Page 105

Mt. Pleasant’s motivation for Tuesday’s 5 p.m. Section 3-2A girls soccer finale comes prepackaged and free of charge. “The girls are all well aware,” said Mt. Pleasant coach Rich Garland, whose third-ranked Lady Vikings (12-4, 8-1) need to win or tie at No. 4 Yough (11-3-1, 6-2-1) to take their...

Pitt-Greensburg is headed to the NCAA Division III women’s tennis tournament. The Bobcats won the first Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference championship in program history over the weekend. Top-seeded UPG defeated No. 2 Penn State Behrend, 5-4, to complete a sweep — AMCC regular-season and tournament titles — while avenging a...

Morgan Einodshofer is piling up goals for the Belle Vernon girls soccer team. She also is piling up frequent flyer miles. “Over the next eight weeks, we have tournaments in Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio,” the senior midfielder said. “It’s going to be a lot.” Einodshofer plays for the Century United...

Girls Class 4A Rank Team Record Last rank 1. North Allegheny (14-0-1) 1 2. Latrobe (12-0-1) 2 3. Moon (13-1-1) 3 4. Peters Township (9-3-3) 4 5. Seneca Valley (10-0-2) NR OUT: Butler (12-1-2) 5 Watch: Norwin (11-3) Class 3A 1. Mars (11-0-1) 1 2. Plum (15-1) 2 3. Hampton...

The local WPIAL soccer playoff field is set. The top four teams in each girls and boys section qualify. Area girls qualifiers are Latrobe, Norwin and Penn-Trafford in Class 4A; Belle Vernon, Franklin Regional and Kiski Area in 3A; Burrell, Mt. Pleasant, Southmoreland and Yough in 2A; and Greensburg Central...

Maybe it’s the football player in him. Or the dek hockey player, for that matter. Penn-Trafford’s Nathan Schlessinger plays both sports — one for fun when he gets free time, the other on Friday nights as the Warriors’ placekicker — with unbridled force, effort and concentration. But Schlessinger’s main game...

Belle Vernon had a couple of special guests on campus Friday. For the second week in a row, major college football coaches stopped by to check in on standout Quinton Martin, the coveted sophomore recruit who began collecting Division I offers as a freshman. Penn State coach James Franklin and...

A couple of key plays led to Franklin Regional’s improbable second-half comeback Friday night at Latrobe, perhaps the greatest rally in the football program’s history. The Panthers, ravaged by injuries, overcame a 40-14 deficit to beat the Wildcats, 41-40, in a pulsating Class 5A Big East matchup with playoff implications....

Kate McCauley brings a wealth of experience to her new position at Saint Vincent College. McCauley, a Norwin and SVC grad, was named the head men’s volleyball coach at her alma mater. She currently is a third-year assistant with the women’s volleyball team and works as positions manager of operations...

Several area football teams had to sit through delays Oct. 8 as lightning and storms moved through Allegheny County. Norwin was one of the teams subjected to an unsual Friday night. In McCandless, Norwin and North Allegheny were cruising along when lightning struck and forced the teams into the locker...

It may only take two conference wins to get into the WPIAL Class 5A football playoffs, so Friday’s matchup between Franklin Regional and Latrobe — teams that began the night with one conference win apiece — was soaked in importance. It may have taken a comeback for the ages to...

Cedarbrook has two 18-hole golf courses: the Red and the Gold. There was a lot of red chasing gold at Thursday’s WPIAL team finals as Fox Chapel pulled off a championship double. The Foxes boys and girls won Class 3A titles for the first finals sweep in the league’s largest...

Greensburg Central Catholic might be new to the Trib HSSN Class A football rankings this week, but playing Clairton is nothing new to the Centurions. It is, though, to their coach. The Class A Eastern Conference game against the top-ranked Bears looks to be the toughest challenge so far for...

You couldn’t tell who was more stunned at first, Norwin or Penn-Trafford. But you could tell who was more upset. Senior Caleb Yuricha scored a controversial goal with 36 seconds left in the first overtime to lift No. 3 Norwin to a sudden 1-0 win over rival Penn-Trafford on Wednesday...

Staying healthy is a key to any successful sports team. As an extension of that, conditioning and staying in game-shape can be what separates the contenders. But the way a team plays also can dictate its overall well-being. Take Franklin Regional girls soccer. “This is always our first priority,” coach...

First he took down the career record for goals. Now, Daniel Sassak has the all-time points mark, too. The senior forward continued his assault on the program record book at Belle Vernon by breaking Markello Apodiakos’ career mark for points (212) when he notched a goal and an assist in...

WPIAL team golf championships 10 a.m. Thursday, Cedarbrook Golf Course, Rostraver (Gold Course, boys; Red Course, girls) Boys breakdown Class 3A Teams: Central Catholic, Fox Chapel, Mars, Mt. Lebanon, Peters Township, Seneca Valley. Players to watch: Blake Bertolo, Jr., Mars; Aidan Burchianti, Jr., Central Catholic; Zach Dyke, Sr., Mt. Lebanon;...

If Kason Harrell is nothing else he’s grateful. Thoughtful. Humble. He literally stops to take inventory of his blessings, and playing basketball is always high on his list. “God is good,” said Harrell, a Hempfield and Purdue Fort Wayne grad who is back in Ireland playing professionally. Harrell, 24, has...

Southmoreland’s offense tends to attract all the headlines, but the Scotties showed they can play some defense, too. Like, really good defense against a threatening opponent. In a must-win game to keep their hopes of back-to-back section titles alive, the second-ranked Scotties limited Mt. Pleasant’s opportunities and turned away the...

Regular season champions for the second straight season. That was the title bestowed on the Pitt-Greensburg women’s tennis team after an 8-1 win over Penn State Altoona capped a 6-0 run through AMCC play and improved the Bobcats to 8-2. The doubles teams of Cathryn Rossi and sophomore Isabella Lane;...

Coming out of high school, Gamal Marballie had small-college interest for football, but he seemed to disappear from the recruiting landscape. That is because he did. Marballie, a two-sport standout at Yough who also was a 1,000-point scorer in basketball, took a year off to rehab a knee injury he...

Seton Hill running back Logan Wiland needed an ice bath Sunday morning. The grad student carried the football 38 times and gained 178 yards Saturday in Erie as the Griffins rallied past Mercyhurst, 19-17, for another grind-it-out victory, its first of the season in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference. Wiland...

Five years ago, Belle Vernon’s boys soccer team had a smothering defense — and confidence to match. The Leopards looked in the mirror and what they saw impressed them so much they gave their defensive unit a nickname: “Border Patrol.” This year’s girls team at Belle Vernon might need a...

Spectators are surprised by what they’re seeing on Cougar Mountain this season: a Yough boys soccer team making a steep climb back to respectability. “I had some parents come up to me and say, ‘What Yough team is this?’ ” Cougars coach Dave Vilchek said. “We’re playing well. We’re possessing...

Greensburg Central Catholic is climbing the stairway to seven. The girls golf team will go for its seventh consecutive WPIAL championship Thursday at Cedarbrook Golf Course in Rostraver. The Centurions will have to beat only three teams: Central Valley, Elizabeth Forward and Mt. Pleasant. Last year, GCC won by 99...