Bill Beckner stories, Page 67

Latrobe senior lineman Daniel Calabrace was the NFL Way to Play Award recipient for Week 8. Calabrace’s defensive technique, particularly one play where he rips through a double-team and wraps up a running back near the line of scrimmage against Trinity, was lauded by Playfootball.nfl.com. NFL analyst Brian “Baldy” Baldinger...

Ligonier Valley celebrated its first WPIAL playoff win last Friday night — on the bus ride home. It was loud. It was a good time. The bus was rocking as it pulled out of the parking lot at Offutt Field in Greensburg and made its way eastbound on Route 30....

JOHNSTOWN — Maddie Barrick could see the ball come to her. She could see the ball go into the net. And she could see her team celebrate its first-ever win in the state playoffs. About a month ago, the Mt. Pleasant sophomore midfielder could barely see at all. She was...

The World Series had a nice ring to it for JJ Matijevic. The former Norwin star who had multiple call-ups from Triple-A to the major leagues this season, was a member of the World Champion Houston Astros’ taxi squad. That meant he was in the building during home games and...

Scoring on a trio of set pieces, the Pitt-Greensburg women’s soccer team became conference champions for the second time in three years. UPG defeated Penn State Behrend in overtime, 3-2, to claim the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference title. The Bobcats (15-3-1, 7-0) receive an automatic bid into the NCAA Division...

Class 3A First round Latrobe (12-4-2) at Moon (20-0) 7 p.m. Tuesday, Moon Stadium, Moon Winner plays: Winner of Warren (9-9)/Plum (17-2) Saturday in quarterfinals (time, site TBD) District seeds: Latrobe 7-4; Moon 7-1 Last year’s PIAA finish: Latrobe DNQ; Moon Class 4A champion Throw-ins: Latrobe will continue its historic...

Colleges have a soccer pipeline going to Franklin Regional and the recruits are producing at the next level. Sophomore Blake Cooper has been one of the top offensive threats in the AMCC for Penn State Behrend. The midfielder had a team-best 10 goals and six assists for 26 points through...

The PIAA announced opening-round pairings, times and sites for the state soccer playoffs, which are set to begin Tuesday. The matchups involving WPIAL teams are as follows: Boys First round Class 4A 3-4 Warwick (11-7-2) at 7-1 Pine-Richland (15-4-1), 5:30 p.m. 7-2 Seneca Valley (18-1-1) at 6-1 State College, 6...

For one local girls soccer team, the PIAA playoffs are old hat. For two others, the experience is new. Perennial state qualifier Greensburg Central Catholic (Class A) will join newcomers Mt. Pleasant (2A) and Latrobe (3A) in the PIAA playoffs beginning Tuesday with first-round games. All three teams will be...

Bailey Snowberger likes to work in silence. Take a random week night at Norwin High School. There is an event going on at Knights Stadium, and Snowberger is running hill sprints up to the middle school, hustling up and down the stadium bleachers and cooling off around the parking lot....

Girls soccer talent is bubbling over in Westmoreland County, as evidenced by postseason playoff runs, career scoring milestones and Division I commitments. The proof also lies in the All-WPIAL list, which was released last week. Mt. Pleasant, which made the WPIAL Class 2A final for the first time, had five...

On a cold February night, the high school cafeteria at Norwin buzzed with voices of youngsters who represented the future of varsity football at the school. Dozens of bright-eyed players who one day will carry the football, block and tackle and sacrifice for one another as members of the Knights,...

Norwin had two teams playing for titles at the Western Pennsylvania Youth Football League championships Oct. 30 at Norwin Knights Stadium. Norwin defeated Trinity, 19-13, in the Division 3 (K-second grade) game to finish with a 10-0 record. Santino Gorski ran for a touchdown and finished with more than 2,000...

Ava Hershberger School: Penn-Trafford Sport: Field hockey Class: Junior Claim to fame: Hershberger helped lead the Warriors to their seventh straight WPIAL Class 2A championship. The Lady Warriors claimed the title with a 4-1 win over Latrobe. Hershberger, an Ohio State commit, scored her 40th goal in the victory, breaking...

Bryce Butler took the Mountain East Conference and NCAA Division II Atlantic Region by storm last season. What will the former Latrobe standout do for an encore? A West Liberty junior swingman who is as surefire a bet to get a double-double as anyone in the country, Butler was the...

As he walked off the practice field one day last week, Latrobe football coach Ron Prady was asked if he thought his team had a chance against higher-seeded Highlands in the first round of the WPIAL Class 4A playoffs. “I do,” he said with a sly smile. “Our kids have...

For Mt. Pleasant girls soccer, the thrill of the hunt was invigorating. And while the team’s first trip to the WPIAL championship was met with disappointment, it could be the start of something special for a budding program. “There was no intimidation on this field,” Vikings coach Rich Garland said....

Ligonier Valley drove two-and-a-half hours to its playoff game last year. Playing a little closer to home Friday night, the Rams were more focused on long drives to the end zone. Behind a power rushing attack that wore down their opponent and chipped away at the clock, the seventh-seeded Rams...

A pair of of WPIAL student-athletes are striking the Heisman pose today. Belle Vernon’s Viva Kreis and Grady Smith of Ellwood City are Pennsylvania’s winners of the annual High School Heisman Scholarship, given to a senior male and female from each state “who understand that the most important victories happen...

WPIAL girls soccer preview Class 2A championship 5-Avonworth (18-3) vs. 2-Mt. Pleasant (19-1) 11 a.m. Saturday, Highmark Stadium Video livestream: TribHSSN.triblive.com Tickets: $10 (general admission); Parking $10 (cash only) Coaches: JC Mahan, Avonworth; Rich Garland, Mt. Pleasant Players to watch: Fiona Mahan, MF, Avonworth; Morgan Gesinski, F, Mt. Pleasant WPIAL...

To some people, a scoreless soccer game that goes into overtime might be a yawner. But to coaches like Mt. Pleasant’s Rich Garland, a soccer purest who appreciates sound, structured play, games like that can be glorious. “It was an extremely fun game to watch,” Garland said of his team’s...

Search the downtown streets or the outskirts of the Chestnut Ridge. Check the terminal of Arnold Palmer Regional Airport or the campus of Saint Vincent College. You can try, but you aren’t going to find anybody happier to see the Latrobe football team winning again than Jim Feather. The man...

Inclusion is no longer a goal for Ligonier Valley, which has warmed up to the WPIAL after rejoining District 7 in 2020. The team clearly looks like it belongs here. What the Rams want now is postseason success to follow their torrid runs through District 6. For years, playoff time...

Class 5A 7-Penn-Trafford (6-4) at 2- Pine-Richland (7-3) 7 p.m. Friday at Pine-Richland Stadium, Gibsonia Winner plays: Winner of 6-Woodland Hills (5-5) at 3-Franklin Regional (6-3) in semifinals at 7 p.m. Nov. 11 The reigning WPIAL and PIAA Class 5A champions rallied to defeat Franklin Regional, 28-21, to qualify for...

With WPIAL soccer finals weekend approaching, league coaches came up with this year’s All-WPIAL girls soccer list. Here are their selections (alphabetical by school): Ella Shorkey, Sr., MF, Allderdice Isabella Hite, Sr., MF, Aquinas Academy Mylea Riggle, Jr., MF, Armstrong Gianna Babusci, Jr., F, Avonworth Fiona Mahan, So., MF, Avonworth...