Jerin Steele stories, Page 6

Vaughn Spencer became a two-time WPIAL wrestling champion in style March 2, at Canon-McMillan. Spencer breezed his way through the Class 3A 172-pound bracket, earning a pin in the second period over Latrobe’s Hunter Snyder in the final. He had three pins in his four bouts. Spencer won by fall...

There wasn’t much separation in PIHL Class 3A with four teams finishing within one point of each other, but Pine-Richland has a couple traits that helped them eke into the top seed in the Penguins Cup playoffs. The Rams boast the top-ranked power play and have been exceptional at closing...

In the last couple of seasons, Deer Lakes has won playoff games in a variety of ways, and Saturday they turned to their inside game. And their domination in the paint helped put another one in the win column. The Lancers scored 46 of their points in the paint in...

Fin Hutchison knows his teammates believe in him every time he takes a shot. With two of the Panthers’ leading scorers, Cooper Rankin and Cam Rowell, on the bench in foul trouble, Hutchison had the confidence to put the team on his back to put away a pesky Warwick team....

Coming off a historic year in which the Pittsburgh Riverhounds won its first USL Championship Players’ Shield as the top team in the regular season, there will be changes. Key members of last season’s club Albert Dikwa, the USL Player of the Year, and Arturo Ordonez, the USL Defender of...

Pine-Richland football coach Jon LeDonne will face his alma mater, Aliquippa, next fall. It’s a scenario that seems crazy with Aliquippa’s Class 2A enrollment, but due to the PIAA competitive balance rules, the Quips will be bumped up to Class 5A next year and are in a conference with the...

The Deer Lakes boys basketball team had three goals at the beginning of the season: win a section title, repeat as WPIAL champs and get back to Hershey for the state finals. After Friday’s 55-49 win over Alle-Kiski Valley rival Burrell in the WPIAL Class 3A championship, the Lancers can...

Billy Schaeffer couldn’t quite put into words what it meant for Deer Lakes to win back-to-back WPIAL boys basketball titles and this time do so against rival Burrell. But the wide smile on his face told the story. “I don’t know what to say, so I’m just going to keep...

At the beginning of section play, Deer Lakes and Burrell were the top two teams in the Trib HSSN Class 3A boys basketball rankings. Each team took a different path through January and February with the Lancers keeping their place as the top seed and the Bucs entering the tournament...

The most exciting time of the year is nearing for local high school swimmers with the WPIAL championships kicking off and Pine-Richland will be well represented. Defending 100 breaststroke champion Sarah Anne Shaffer leads the way, but Pine-Richland coach Pete Barry believes there’s potential for multiple district medal winners and...

As the public address announcer at North Allegheny was reading the names of the winners at the inaugural WPIAL girls wrestling tournament, Pine-Richland junior Tiffany Gathers heard a phrase that put the day in perspective. “As they were going through the weights, he kept saying ‘This is the first-ever WPIAL...

With a last-second shot, Collin Rodgers kept Deer Lakes’ hopes of defending its WPIAL Class 3A boys basketball championship alive. Rodgers scored after Nathaniel Moore stole an inbounds pass in the final seconds, and the top-seeded Lancers survived an upset bid by No. 9 Ellwood City in a 39-38 overtime...

Knoch became the latest in a long line of WPIAL basketball opponents the last couple of years to try to stop the titan that is Lincoln Park. Led by their NCAA Power 5 recruits Brandin Cummings and Meleek Thomas, the Leopards again proved to be too tough to tame. Thomas...

Every player who took the floor for North Hills on Tuesday night was playing in her first playoff game. They were also carrying the burden of breaking a postseason victory drought that dated to 1979. That could understandably lead to some nerves, but this group had ice water flowing through...

Leading up to Monday’s first-round playoff game, the past week was all about defense for Deer Lakes coach Albie Fletcher. He felt the team had lost its identity a bit on that side of the ball, which became their calling card on their run to last year’s WPIAL Class 3A...

With a 12-1 win over Trinity on Feb. 8, Deer Lakes officially clinched a spot in the PIHL Division 2 playoffs. The Lancers will be the fourth-place team out of the Gold Division, but after battling against the top three teams ahead of them — Bishop Canevin, Burrell and Neshannock...

The Pine-Richland boys basketball team needed a tiebreaker, but the Rams will return to the playoffs after a one-year absence. The Rams received the No. 8 seed in the WPIAL Class 6A bracket and will travel to play top seed Mt. Lebanon on Feb. 23. Pine-Richland finished in a tie...

The Pine-Richland gymnastics team brought little green foam fingers with “We’re No. 1” written on them to the WPIAL championships. After an unbeaten regular season, it was a sign of confidence that they could get the job done in the biggest meet of the year. As each team’s position was...

The bitter disappointment of the heartbreaking first-round loss to North Hills last season is something Isaiah Gonzalez and the rest of his Kiski Area boys basketball teammates have not forgotten. It wasn’t just that their season had ended, but it was how they lost. As a double-digit seed, the Cavaliers...

Sarah Anne Shaffer has been fielding questions from her younger teammates about different aspects of the WPIAL swimming championships. She’s a good source for information because she was in a similar position to theirs just one year ago. Shaffer was a sophomore hoping to reach her goals and accomplished them...

Heading into the playoffs, the Pine-Richland girls basketball team has embraced an underdog mentality. That’s an understandable position to take given their circumstances. The Rams have only 10 girls on the roster, and nine that are healthy. They played the entire season without a JV team, had some injuries along...

Brady Sullivan said his favorite spot to shoot from is the right wing but admitted he likes to put up shots from everywhere. He certainly proved that Friday night with Freeport’s season on the line. Sullivan sank seven 3-pointers and scored a career-high 33 points to lead Freeport past Indiana,...

The final night of WPIAL boys basketball section play could provide a wide array of outcomes for Alle-Kiski Valley teams. Fox Chapel is playing for a share of the Section 2-5A title, and three other teams — Springdale, Freeport and St. Joseph — have win-and-in scenarios. There are also some...

Mac Miller and Vaughn Spencer took the final two bouts as Pine-Richland wrestling rallied to win its first playoff dual meet since 2020 with a 38-35 win over Hempfield in a WPIAL Class 3A preliminary round match Jan. 29. It was the fourth postseason win in program history. The Rams...

On this Groundhog Day, the Knoch boys basketball team was looking to avoid a repeat of last Friday, when it was upset at home by Freeport. The Knights were dragged into a rock fight by visiting Indiana through two quarters, but, led by Jackson Bauman, they hit their stride in...