Chris Harlan stories, Page 50

The sound of a train horn punctuates Hampton home games, thanks to an ardent Talbots fan at a nearby home. It’s one of the WPIAL’s loudest touchdown traditions. “I didn’t know about it my first year and it scared the hell out of me,” said coach Jacque DeMatteo, who’s in...

Days after winning WPIAL titles, the Pine-Richland, Penn-Trafford and Shady Side Academy field hockey teams had another reason to celebrate Wednesday. Combined, the three WPIAL champions had 15 players honored as WPIAL all-stars. The all-stars were chosen by a vote of coaches, who also identified an All-WPIAL team. Class 3A...

No Western Pennsylvania field hockey team has reached the PIAA finals in the sport’s 47-year history, but three WPIAL squads will try as they start their state tournament quest Tuesday. The PIAA on Sunday announced sites and times for first-round games in the three classifications. All first-round games are Tuesday....

The North Allegheny girls volleyball team will begin its quest for a fifth consecutive state title at home Tuesday. The PIAA on Sunday revealed brackets for the upcoming state tournament, which includes a dozen WPIAL teams in the four classifications. All first-round games are Tuesday. North Allegheny, a four-time defending...

The PIAA revealed sites and times for first-round matchups in the state soccer playoffs and all eight WPIAL champions have home games. All first-round games are Tuesday. Among the boys matchups, Seneca Valley will host Hempfield of District 3 at 5 p.m., Hampton hosts Hollidaysburg at 6:30 p.m., Grove City...

There are high school football stadiums in Western Pennsylvania where visiting teams rarely win. New Brighton walked into one of those daunting places Friday night and confidently won. The Lions, seeded 13th in the WPIAL Class 2A bracket, celebrated a dramatic victory over No. 4 Washington, 21-20, in overtime. As...

The starting line at a cross country championship can be a stressful scene for first-timers, yet North Allegheny’s freshmen clearly weren’t fazed. With five ninth-graders making their WPIAL championship debuts, the NA boys and girls swept the Class 3A team titles Oct. 28 at Cal (Pa.). In fact, two of...

Byes, byes, byes. The WPIAL football playoff brackets have a different look this season with the addition of 15 first-round byes. Which begs the question: Do coaches want a week off at this time of year? With a laugh, Clairton coach Wayne Wade said he’d answer that question after next...

The No. 11 is listed next to Peters Township’s name on the WPIAL football brackets, but the Indians sure don’t feel like a double-digit seed. “If you look at the No. 1 seed, we went toe to toe with them,” coach T.J. Plack said. “And the No. 2 seed, we...

The WPIAL’s largest football classification — 6A — is likely getting smaller again. The PIAA released updated classification parameters Tuesday for the 2022-23 and 2023-24 school years, and the numbers indicate the WPIAL will have only seven football teams in 6A next season. The PIAA parameters list the top and...

Class 6A Favorite: Mt. Lebanon hasn’t won a WPIAL title or reached the finals since 2000, but the Blue Devils seem ready to end that drought. The senior trio of QB Joey Daniels, WR Eli Heidenreich and RB Alex Tecza lead an offense that averages 37.6 points — best in...

In the span of a year, Steel Valley went from a one-win season to the No. 1 seed in the WPIAL football playoffs. The Ironmen rebounded from a 1-5 record a year ago to win the Allegheny Conference title this fall with an undefeated record. That comeback story earned Steel...

Who decided that the running backs and wide receivers are called skill-position players? North Allegheny line coach Mike Buchert strongly disagrees. “When we divide up, they’ll say, ‘Skill guys over here and linemen over there.’ I get my guys together and say, ‘There are no if, ands or buts about...

For the second year in a row, football coaches won’t crowd into a Green Tree ballroom to see the WPIAL playoff brackets announced. Instead, the brackets will be revealed in a video livestream at 6 p.m. Saturday on TribLive HSSN. While we wait for the official brackets to be released,...

WPIAL rushing leader Nijhay Burt was averaging 2 yards a carry on his first 10 tries Friday night, yet nobody this season has frustrated the Steel Valley star for an entire game. Serra Catholic tried to be the first. “I know a lot of people on the team look up...

Serra Catholic hasn’t celebrated a conference title since 2007, and the 14 seasons since included some lean years for the Eagles. The team went winless in 2012 and endured one-win seasons in 2013 and ’14. Yet, with the program turned around in coach Jose Regus’ fifth season, Serra Catholic is...

Laurel Highlands’ Rodney Gallagher has delivered many times before in must-win situations, but those often had him holding a basketball in his hands. Friday’s challenge was a little different for the star junior. If Laurel Highlands intended to make the WPIAL football playoffs, the Mustangs had to win at Trinity....

Class 6A Rk, Team, W-L, Last 1. Mt. Lebanon, 9-0, 1 2. Central Catholic, 7-2, 2 3. North Allegheny, 6-3, 3 4. Seneca Valley, 6-3, 4 5. Canon-McMillan, 4-5, 5 Out: none Class 5A Rk, Team, W-L, Last 1. Moon, 9-0, 1 2. Penn-Trafford, 7-2, 2 3. Pine-Richland, 5-4, 3...

Leaving WPIAL football was an idea Brownsville athletic director Scott Roebuck once was adamantly against, but now he agrees that drastic move is the best chance to save the program. With the team mired in a 21-game losing streak, the Brownsville school board voted Thursday to follow the lead of...

The winning streak had stood at 57 section victories when the North Allegheny girls volleyball team saw its unbeaten run stunningly end this season. Yet, that 3-0 loss to Shaler in late September might be exactly what the defending WPIAL and PIAA champion Tigers really needed, said their first-year coach,...

Moon has a fondness for physical football, clock-consuming drives and 225-pound running backs. It’s a combination that worked again Friday night. But with their usual big-bodied back limited by an injury, tight end/defensive end Ben Bladel became the team’s battering ram and scored the first points in a 30-0 victory...

There’s no place like home, especially in the playoffs. This fall that home-field advantage is a bigger factor than usual since the WPIAL decided to extend that perk to higher-seeded teams for both first-round and quarterfinal games. The WPIAL informed schools this week. So, a matchup like Friday’s between Fox...

A year after going winless, the Bethel Park football players have a chance this week to call themselves champions of the Allegheny Six. This, without question, is the team’s biggest game in quite a while when No. 1-ranked Moon (8-0, 3-0) hosts Bethel Park (5-3, 3-0) at 7 p.m. Friday,...

Using Jaerone Parker as a wildcat quarterback was a new wrinkle Allderdice added to its game plan this week while preparing to face Brashear for the second time in eight days. Last time, Parker largely played only defense. “They didn’t know what they were going to get this week,” said...