Michael Love stories, Page 41

The Gateway boys soccer team had designs, as the No. 12 seed, of taking down No. 5 Kiski Area in a WPIAL Class 3A first-round game Saturday at Kiski Area’s Richard Dilts Stadium. But the veteran Cavaliers, with eight seniors in the starting lineup, didn’t let their opportunity to advance...

Saturday’s games Boys Class 3A First round 12-Gateway (10-7-1) at 5-Kiski Area (14-3) 2 p.m., Richard Dilts Stadium, Allegheny Township Winner plays: Winner of 13-Montour (9-4-4)/4-Franklin Regional (14-4) in quarterfinals at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday (site TBD) Players to watch: Brendan Strawser, MF, Gateway; Anders Bordoy, MF, Kiski Area Corner kicks:...

The Freeport girls volleyball team isn’t technically defending a WPIAL championship. The Yellowjackets moved back to Class 2A after winning the Class 3A crown last year, but the goal remains the same as they begin a quest for a seventh WPIAL title since 2010. Freeport, as expected, was selected as...

North Allegheny, North Catholic, Freeport and Serra Catholic drew No. 1 seeds as the WPIAL released the four girls volleyball playoff brackets Friday afternoon. North Allegheny will attempt to win its fifth Class 4A title in six years as it begins play Thursday at home in the quarterfinals against the...

The Knoch girls tennis team is back on top in WPIAL Class AA. And the Knights defeated a familiar foe to get there. Knoch and Sewickley Academy, the top seeds in the Class AA bracket, met Thursday to decide the WPIAL championship for the sixth year in a row. The...

After three years away from serving as a head basketball coach at the high school level, Shawn Bennis is back. The Highlands School Board last week hired Bennis as its next varsity girls coach. He replaces Jason Kerr, who suddenly stepped down from the position Sept. 7 after one season...

Despite temperatures in the low 40s Wednesday accompanied by rain and wind, 16 Alle-Kiski Valley boys and girls soccer teams felt the warmth of discovering the whos, whens and wheres of the upcoming WPIAL playoff tournaments. “There’s always conjecture about what the bracket is going to look like, and then...

Chase Fenner Burrell, sr., QB/LB He doesn’t throw the ball much, but that doesn’t mean he can’t sling it if needed. Fenner has contributed 70 carries for 317 yards and eight touchdowns in a run game that averages 291 yards a game. Landon Harmon Apollo-Ridge, sr., RB/DE Harmon hopes to...

Class 5A Big East Hempfield (5-3, 1-2) at Plum (3-5, 1-3) 7 p.m. Friday, Mustangs Stadium, Plum The Spartans try to end a three-game losing streak to save their playoff hopes. Plum saw its playoffs hopes end with a 35-21 loss at Penn-Trafford. The Mustangs have dropped four consecutive games...

Kiski Area girls soccer coach Dave Anderson said his team played several must-win games down the stretch as it fought to keep its WPIAL playoff-appearance streak intact. That included Monday’s win-or-go-home Section 1-3A matchup at Indiana. “For us, the playoffs started early with that game,” Anderson said. It ended up...

The Plum girls soccer team controlled its own destiny Monday to finish off its fourth straight section championship. The Mustangs didn’t let the visiting Penn-Trafford Warriors play the role of spoiler. Seniors Cam Rogers and Kaitlyn Killinger each scored a goal and provided an assist in the first half as...

Parker Sterlitz made his first visit to West Virginia University about a year ago. The senior swimming standout at Kiski Area said he immediately fell in love with the campus and the Mountaineers swimming program. Since then, Sterlitz said, he looked at other schools and found himself comparing them to...

It’s about that time. The regular season for WPIAL girls volleyball concludes with the end of section play Thursday and a couple of nonsection matchups Friday and Saturday. The road to the four WPIAL championship games Nov. 5 begins next week. There are section championships and playoff qualifiers to be...

Montour, North Allegheny, Bethel Park, Baldwin and Shaler each recorded doubleheader sweeps Sunday as the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Softball League nears the conclusion of its regular season and prepares for its playoff tournament. Before the playoff brackets can be finalized, there is one more regular-season game to be played. Baldwin,...

Anna Yourish looked on a couple of years ago as her older brother, Josh, represented Deer Lakes at the PIAA championships in track and field. Josh now is a senior on the men’s track team at Division I George Mason. Anna, too, wanted the opportunity to compete at a state...

Gateway led Penn-Trafford, 14-3, in the fourth quarter of their Victory Bell rivalry game Oct. 7, at Gateway’s Antimarino Stadium. The Warriors were driving near midfield as they attempted to rally. But 6-foot-1, 220-pound junior inside linebacker Remy Bose would have none of it. Bose dissected a P-T screen, intercepted...

The Gateway boys soccer team enters the WPIAL Class 3A playoffs hoping to make some noise, and senior forward Colton Corrie says the Gators are set up to do just that. “We’ve seen so many different styles in the regular season that we are ready for anything in the playoffs,”...

Leechburg senior running back and Pitt commit Braylan Lovelace needed 217 yards against Riverview on Friday in an Eastern Conference matchup to become just the fifth Alle-Kisk Valley runner to eclipse the 4,000-yard mark for a career. Lovelace accomplished that, and then some, against the Raiders, totaling five touchdowns and...

It’s time for a postseason rumble, and the Plum boys soccer team is ready, coach Raf Kolankowski said. The Mustangs again are a favorite to challenge for the WPIAL title in Class 3A, but Kolankowski said they will be entering a bracket with a stacked field. “Obviously, it’s not going...

The Plum girls soccer team is no stranger to postseason pressure and opportunity, and the Mustangs will get a chance in the coming days to prove it. Plum coach Jamie Stewart said his team, which expected to garner one of the top seeds among the likes of defending WPIAL and...

The Penn-Trafford football team got that winning feeling back Friday after last week’s tough loss to rival Gateway. The Warriors churned out 377 yards on the ground, compiled 499 yards of total offense and produced a 35-21 victory over Plum in a Big East Conference Class 5A game at Warrior...

The Deer Lakes girls soccer team was in must-win mode Wednesday as it hosted Valley in a Section 2-2A game at Lancers Stadium. And a win is what the Lancers got. Freshman Bryanna Simonetti scored with 29 minutes, 57 seconds left in the second half off an assist from senior...

Tyler Bender Highlands, sr., OL/DL The veteran lineman helped create defensive havoc for the Golden Rams against Woodland Hills last week. He made five tackles, recorded one of Highlands’ 11 sacks and intercepted a pass in a 38-23 victory. For the season, Bender is second on the team in tackles...

Class 5A Big East Plum (3-4, 1-2) at Penn-Trafford (4-3, 1-2) 7:30 p.m. Friday, Warrior Stadium, Harrison City Plum dropped its third straight game, falling 20-6 at South Fayette. The Mustangs scored first on a short touchdown pass from Sean Franzi to Jerome Brazell but gave up 20 unanswered points....

The Freeport girls volleyball maintained its two-game lead on the rest of Section 5-2A Tuesday evening with a dominant 3-0 victory over Derry at Freeport Middle School. “We just played how we know we can,” senior setter Cassidy Dell said. “We played very loose, very relaxed, and we had some...