Jerin Steele stories, Page 30

Brandon Overton won his second Firecracker 100 on Saturday at Lernerville Speedway, but he had to overcome a close call to do so. While under caution on lap 51, Brent Larson came out of the infield work area and while driving by the field to assume his spot at the...

Lernerville Speedway has plenty of sentimental value for Brandon Overton. He won his first World of Outlaws feature at the Buffalo Township race track in 2016, and it was a launching pad for his career. Overton won the Firecracker 100 in 2017 and recently pocketed $273,000 for winning the 2021...

Brandon Sheppard found his win in Thursday night’s preliminary feature for the Firecracker 100 encouraging for several reasons. For starters, it was just nice to get a win in general after going a month and a half without one on tour. The other reason was that the track was slick,...

Colton Flinner has had a consistent year at Lernerville Speedway with a pair of second- and third-place finishes and is leading the super late model championship point standings. Those are all good things for Flinner, but he wants nothing more than to break through for his first super late model...

In the last few years, Michael Norris has fared pretty well when the World of Outlaws Late Model Series has come to town for the Firecracker 100 weekend. Norris won a preliminary feature in 2018 and ’19, which were special moments for the two-time Lernerville Speedway track champion. Now he...

Kelvin Kohan is in his third full season of racing super late models at Lernerville Speedway in Buffalo Township, and every time he hits the track with his bright red No. 15 car, he’s still learning. That’s the nature of the beast when trying to wrestle an 800-plus horsepower engine...

The Pine-Richland crew team had to navigate plenty of obstacles that came with the covid-19 pandemic like mandated shut downs and having athletes train individually at home, but at the end of the year they finished with some strong results. At the biggest event of the year, the Midwest Scholastic...

With a 6-1 win over Mt. Lebanon in the quarterfinals, the Pine-Richland softball team scored a historic achievement. For the first time in nearly two decades the Rams could say they were a winner in the postseason. It was the cherry on top in a season that featured some memorable...

Pittsburgh Riverhounds coach Bob Lilley was much more pleased with the energy and overall fight his team showed Saturday compared to the first two home games it had this season. The positive that came from the inspired effort was its first home goal of the season. That first home victory,...

North Allegheny boys volleyball coach Dan Schall described this season as “a journey without a road map.” Considering the Tigers hadn’t played for a year and were playing through the covid-19 pandemic, there were a few more obstacles than usual to navigate. In the end, though, they arrived at a...

Before the PIAA tournament started, Michael Mosbacher and his North Allegheny boys volleyball teammates knew if they were going to play for a third consecutive state championship, they would likely have to beat Seneca Valley for a fourth time. Like the three previous meetings, the Raiders proved to be a...

Carson Verszyla got an early birthday present Monday morning when he saw himself on “SportsCenter.” Verszyla, who turned 13 Monday and is a sixth-grader in the Pine-Richland School District, scored a highlight-reel spin-o-rama goal Sunday that was featured as the top play on ESPN’s “SportsCenter” top 10. “It was honestly...

Sewickley Academy led for only 4 seconds Saturday, but it was the last four. Elsa Gordon scored off a pass from Emma DiSantis for what proved to be winning goal to give the Panthers their only lead of the game in an 18-17 comeback victory over Mt. Lebanon in the...

A quartet of Pine-Richland girls lacrosse players spent Memorial Day weekend playing alongside some of the best high school players in the country and came home with an enjoyable and worthwhile experience. Caroline Gentile, Mary Dziubek, Zoe Katres and Erica Hudock played for Team Pittsburgh at the USA Lacrosse Women’s...

Gabrielle Krieger and Abbi Altman grew up on the same street, but their paths didn’t cross until they met while taking novice rowing lessons at Pine-Richland. From there, a friendship started that has grown immensely through the years even though the pair ended up competing at rival schools, Alabama and...

Because of her small stature, Gianna Rotelli feels she is overlooked sometimes when she enters track and field events. After her second-place finish in the javelin at the WPIAL championships, it’s going to be hard for opponents to underestimate her anymore. Rotelli, a sophomore at Pine-Richland, threw a personal- best...

Maddie Griffin threw her 11th no-hitter of the season Thursday, but it wasn’t enough to keep Shenango from making history. The Wildcats used heads-up baserunning to score three runs on two Ligonier Valley errors on the same play Wednesday before heavy rains forced a suspension of the game in the...

Coming into the season, Pine-Richland baseball had injuries to its top two starting pitchers in West Virginia recruit Tommy Beam and Gabe Mustovic and added a couple more to the injured list just a few games in with shortstop Kyle Kimoto and first baseman Chase Vrabel going down against Seneca...

A power failure in the left field light tower at North Allegheny’s baseball field forced Friday’s Class 5A WPIAL quarterfinal between top-seeded Franklin Regional and No. 8 Mars to be suspended with the score tied 5-5 with two outs in the top of the fifth inning. The game will resume...

Jack Kiefer never saw his golden goal hit the back of the net. What he did see was a mob of teammates running at him, which gave him assurance he had propelled Franklin Regional to victory. Kiefer scored with 51.2 seconds remaining in overtime to give the eighth-seeded Panthers an...

Thomas Zbezinski first realized he had a no-hitter going in the fourth inning of Penn State Behrend’s AMCC quarterfinal game with Pitt-Greensburg on May 8. It was a fleeting thought. He went right back into his routine. A couple of innings later, however, the reality of the situation started to...

Angelina and Elizabeth Hunkele love to compete. Growing up in a running family with their dad, Mark, who is the Pine-Richland track coach, the sisters have been on plenty of family runs. They basically have been training together their entire lives. Sometimes they have to race against each other, and...

Members of the Pine-Richland girls lacrosse team knew they had built something special during a seven-game winning streak in April and they wanted to prove it in their much anticipated showdown with Fox Chapel on May 4. The Rams got everything they bargained for in an 8-7 victory that reaffirmed...

Coming into this season Pine-Richland boys lacrosse coach Kevin Welty budgeted for adversity. He expected there to be postponements, some injuries and for it to take time to build chemistry on the field after the canceled 2020 season. In some form or fashion each one has happened, but Welty said...

For the second consecutive year the Alle-Kiski Sports Hall of Fame banquet had to be cancelled because of the ongoing covid-19 pandemic, but board members wanted to organize an event to honor local athletes for their accomplishments. On Saturday at the Quality Inn in New Kensington, the board hosted a...