High School category, Page 555
Sites set for PIAA soccer semifinals; 7 WPIAL teams still in hunt for state title
Seven teams from the WPIAL remain in the hunt for state soccer titles. They will continue postseason runs Tuesday in the PIAA semifinals. The most notable girls matchup for local fans is a WPIAL finals rematch between Moon (22-0) and Mars (19-1). The teams will play at 6:30 p.m. at...
Gateway’s Kefimba Cisse strong cross country season comes to close at PIAA meet
Kefimba Cisse began his cross country season by winning the Gateway Invitational in early September at Boyce Park. The Gateway junior concluded it Nov. 5 in the Class 3A boys race at the PIAA championships in Hershey. It was a season of progress and a breakout effort of sorts for...
Gateway’s Madi Jesih ready to continue soccer career at Robert Morris
Madi Jesih dreamed for many years of an opportunity in soccer beyond high school. The dream was put into action with work on and off the field and play with the Hotspurs club team and with Gateway through her senior season this fall. Now, Jesih said, the work really begins...
State playoff berth caps solid season for Quaker Valley girls volleyball
To the surprise of virtually no one associated with the program, the Quaker Valley girls volleyball team landed a spot in the PIAA Class 2A playoffs. The Quakers finished in the top four in the WPIAL and took a 17-4 record into the state tournament Freeport, Shenango, Avonworth and QV...
Quaker Valley notebook: Junior midfielder develops knack for clutch goals
Game-winning goal scoring is becoming part of Nick Allan’s soccer repertoire. A junior midfielder at Quaker Valley, Allan netted the game’s only goal Oct. 27 in a 1-0 playoff win against Avonworth. Allan’s game-winning heroics began in a big way last year in the state finals when he scored the...
Sewickley Academy baseball standout Adin Zorn takes team-first approach to Penn State
The long-awaited day for the Zorn family finally arrived. Sewickley Academy senior Adin Zorn officially signed his national letter of intent to attend and play baseball at Penn State. Zorn, a talented shortstop/outfielder, was recruited by the Nittany Lions early in his high school career and made a verbal commitment...
Penn-Trafford notebook: Field hockey team falls in PIAA playoffs
A win in the PIAA playoffs is coming for the Penn-Trafford field hockey team. Even though the squad dropped a 2-1 decision to Twin Valley in the opening round of the PIAA playoffs Nov. 8, the Warriors are closing the gap on the teams from the eastern part of the...
Penn-Trafford ends frustrating football season with playoff loss
High school football season at Penn-Trafford ended earlier than expected with a first-round loss to Pine-Richland in the WPIAL Class 5A playoffs Nov. 4. It was an unusual season for the Warriors, the reigning WPIAL and PIAA Class 5A champions. Many felt the Warriors were primed for another run at...
Penn Hills senior takes ‘easy to coach’ attitude to college volleyball ranks
Hard-headed wasn’t the word Amiera Smith was searching for. But there was a time the Penn Hills senior felt she could have had a better attitude about playing volleyball. As she prepares to head to Central State in Wilberforce, Ohio, next season, the Indians senior has seen herself morph into...
Penn Hills runner shows progress with showing at WPIAL cross country meet
Lee Zelkowitz could see that Sawyer Kinney’s performance was climbing in the weeks leading up to the WPIAL Class 3A cross country championships. The Penn Hills junior had made major progress this season and seemed to be figuring things out. “He had a lot of good practices and intervals leading...
Riverview runners finish 5th at PIAA championships
The WPIAL represented itself well in the PIAA Class A boys cross country championship meet in Hershey on Nov. 5. All four qualifying teams, including Riverview, were near the top of the standings. Winchester Thurston was third, followed by Eden Christian, the Raiders in fifth, and Our Lady of the...
After capturing 4 section titles, Plum seniors cap high school careers in PIAA playoffs
For the first time in 17 years, the Plum varsity boys soccer team played in a PIAA tournament game. Mustangs coach Raf Kolankowski said his players gave great effort against District 10 champion Cathedral Prep, but the homestanding Ramblers made enough plays to defeat Plum, 2-0, in the PIAA Class...
High school scores, summaries and schedule for Nov. 12, 2022
High schools Field hockey PIAA playoffs Class 3A Quarterfinals Saturday’s results Conestoga 2, Manheim Township 1 (OT) Wilson 1, Downingtown West 0 Emmaus 7, Honesdale 0 Lower Dauphin 2, Great Valley 1 (OT) Semifinals Tuesday’s schedule Wilson (20-2-1) vs. Emmaus (25-0); Lower Dauphin (20-3-1) vs. Conestoga (21-2) Class 2A Quarterfinals...
Guido: Weather made these games involving A-K Valley teams memorable
Friday’s heavy rainfall was the wettest in WPIAL territory in some time. While all games were played on artificial turf, it was still tough for a teams such as Armstrong that relies on pinpoint passing patterns. Some wanted the WPIAL to delay the games until Saturday, but that wasn’t ideal,...
Westmoreland High School Athletes of the Week: Week ending Nov. 13, 2022
Morgan Gesinski School: Mt. Pleasant Year: Freshman Sport: Soccer Claim to fame: With her team clinging to a one-goal lead, Gesinski was fouled at the top of the box and calmly sank the penalty kick to give Mt. Pleasant some breathing room on the way to a 2-0 victory over...
High school roundup for Nov. 12, 2022: Seneca Valley boys soccer earns state finals rematch
Will Bruno scored twice to lead Seneca Valley to a 3-0 victory over Spring-Ford (15-5-4) in the PIAA Class 4A boys soccer quarterfinals Saturday, setting up a rematch of last year’s state championship game. Cole Kamarec tallied the other goal for Seneca Valley (20-1-1), which will face face Conestoga in...
Hailey Longwell’s hat trick lifts Moon past Plum, sets up rematch with Mars
In rainy and chilly conditions at Peters Township, Moon put a damper on Plum’s attempt to unseat the undefeated Tigers in a PIAA Class 3A girls soccer quarterfinal Saturday afternoon. Moon, the WPIAL champion, broke a halftime tie on a trio of goals from senior midfielder Hailey Longwell and closed...
Dominant Freeport sweeps Quaker Valley, moves one step closer to state title
The Freeport girls volleyball team took one step closer to its ultimate goal of winning the program’s second state title with a dominant performance in the quarterfinals. The Yellowjackets built early leads in each set and rolled to a 3-0 sweep over Quaker Valley on Saturday at North Allegheny. Freeport...
Ligonier Valley has long, strange trip to WPIAL football quarterfinals
Ligonier Valley football players sat quietly in the pitch black of a locker room with no power Friday night at Reeves Field on the campus of Geneva College. “When it’s game time, I take all their cell phones,” Rams coach Roger Beitel said. “So they were sitting in the dark...
Maddie Barrick’s game-winner sends Mt. Pleasant girls soccer to PIAA semifinals
Mt. Pleasant girls soccer coach Rich Garland moved sophomore midfielder Maddie Barrick to the outside of the formation last week, hoping to generate more scoring opportunities. Consider the move a success. Barrick’s goal in the 31st minute on a cold and rainy Saturday afternoon lifted the Vikings to a 1-0...
Greensburg Central Catholic girls top Springdale, reach PIAA semis for 4th straight year
An early deficit might dampen a team’s spirits in the state soccer playoffs. It incentivized Greensburg Central Catholic on Saturday against rival Springdale. The Centurions’ play picked up. Scoring opportunities opened. And they chased down their reward: a fourth consecutive trip to the semifinals. Sophomore Riley Kerr scored two goals,...
A-K Valley athletes of the week: Springdale’s Grace Gent, Fox Chapel’s Mason Heininger
Grace Gent Class: Senior School: Springdale Sport: Soccer Report card: Gent scored both goals as Springdale’s girls soccer team defeated Mercyhurst Prep, 2-0, in the first round of the PIAA Class A playoffs Tuesday night. The senior forward entered Saturday’s PIAA quarterfinal contest against Greensburg Central Catholic with 26 goals...
WPIAL announces playoff sites for semifinal football games
The stadiums of Canon-McMillan and North Allegheny were chosen by the WPIAL to host two of the eight football semifinal matchups scheduled for Friday. Canon-McMillan will host the semifinal between Aliquippa and McKeesport while North Allegheny welcomes Thomas Jefferson and Central Valley from the other side of the Class 4A...
Franklin Regional notebook: Ex-Panthers make mark in college soccer
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...
Norwin notebook: Defender makes all-WPIAL list
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. Norwin senior Reagan Casper was one of 17 defenders to make the list. Mt. Pleasant,...
