Mars

Hampton captured three district championships and one state title this past school year, with three of those four coming during the fall sports season. Consistent success throughout all three seasons, however, was a big part of the Talbots showing plenty of bark in winning the Trib HSSN Cup for Class...

WEST GOSHEN — With a plaque to win and a burden to shed, the Mars boys lacrosse team this weekend accepted a 294-mile journey into history. By Saturday evening, the return ride was a pleasure trip. Behind three goals from Austin Cote, two apiece from Enzo Grieco and Jack Durham,...

Welcome to Championship Saturday in three spring sports state postseasons. The PIAA will host the 2022 boys volleyball championships at Penn State, as well as the boys and girls lacrosse finals at West Chester East High School. The WPIAL has two teams playing for state crowns Saturday. Kings of the...

For the second straight season, Mars will get a chance to become the first WPIAL team to win a state championship in boys lacrosse. Enzo Grieco and Austin Cote scored four goals apiece to lead the Fightin’ Planets to a 16-8 victory over Penncrest in the PIAA Class 2A semifinals...

Welcome to Semifinals Tuesday in both the PIAA boys volleyball and lacrosse state playoffs. Much is quiet on the western front, though, as only two WPIAL teams remain to fight in the final four. There are no district teams left in the PIAA girls lacrosse playoffs. In fact, only five...

Around these parts, “one for the thumb” was a popular rallying cry for a couple of decades. The Mars boys lacrosse team already took care of that last season. This year, the goal for the Fightin’ Planets was sixth consecutive WPIAL championship, and they reached that goal with a dominant...

If Chartiers Valley raised a few eyebrows with an upset win over top-seeded Blackhawk in the semifinals, the remaining eyebrows are now up. The Colts used a couple of runs in each half to defeat second-seeded Mars, 17-6, to win the school’s first WPIAL girls lacrosse championship in the Class...

Last spring, Mars became the most decorated boys lacrosse program in WPIAL history with a fifth consecutive Class 2A championship. On Thursday, the Fightin’ Planets hope to start a second hand of title rings. Top-seeded Mars faces Quaker Valley in the WPIAL 2A boys lacrosse championship at 8 p.m. at...

The district gold starts to flow Wednesday with two WPIAL boys volleyball and three district lacrosse title matches. In boys volleyball, could there be a changing of the guard in Class 3A? North Allegheny has completely dominated the 3A landscape with 21 WPIAL boys volleyball championships, four straight crowns and...

Welcome to Semifinals Monday in the 2022 WPIAL baseball playoffs. Unless your team is in classes 6A or 4A, then it’s Welcome to Quarterfinals Monday. Whether it’s the second or third round, the recurring theme is rematches. Of the 16 scheduled games, 11 are matchups between teams that faced each...

Welcome to the final week of the WPIAL baseball and softball regular season. With weather not an issue, several district baseball teams hope to join the long list of schools that have qualified for the 2022 WPIAL baseball playoffs with a victory Monday. *Kiski Area can clinch a playoff berth...

Win and you’re in. Those four words are sweet music to the ears of any high school team on the bubble as section play winds down. In district softball, several teams can earn a playoff berth with a victory Wednesday — weather permitting, of course. • In Section 1-6A, Baldwin...

Welcome to May, where the regular season continues to wind down, and the postseason is two weeks away. Most WPIAL baseball teams will close out their sectional series schedule this week. In five of those sections, the top two teams are deadlocked for first place and will meet in a...

Monday will be a quiet day around the district with most schools enjoying one more day of their Easter break. However, one of the few WPIAL baseball games on the slate is a big one in Class 5A. Top-ranked Bethel Park will battle No. 3 Peters Township in the first...

Only four miles separate the football stadiums of Pine-Richland and Mars, but the journey that took Eric Kasperowicz from one to the other followed a winding road. The Mars school board voted Tuesday night to hire Kasperowicz as football coach, bringing him back to a WPIAL sideline one year after...

Weather permitting, Wednesday is lined up and down with WPIAL section softball games still in the early days of the 2022 season. However, it’s not too early to point out some of the key games in each classification. • Section 2-6A, North Allegheny visits Norwin. The Tigers and Knights are...

Most WPIAL baseball teams will get a week of nonsection play in this week before starting their “section series” schedule next week. However, there are five sections that have a bloated seven teams. For those sections, there is no warm-up. Section play for those teams begins this week. The sections...

Kiski Area coach Corey Smith has come full circle with the Cager Classic. He was the East MVP in 2002, an assistant under Greg Hutcherson and now the head coach for the East as the Cager Classic returns after a two-year hiatus brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. The event...

LEWISBURG — Ligonier Valley senior Nick Roddy missed out on a chance to dive at the Class 2A state championships as a sophomore in 2020 as the PIAA canceled the entire Class 2A meet at the onset of the covid-19 pandemic. Last year, as the pandemic continued to toy with...

Gateway was only a couple of minute away from upsetting No. 3 seed Mars, but for the Gators, those final moments seemed to last forever. This was a big moment for a team that hasn’t reached the WPIAL semifinals in a decade. “That last two minutes felt like an hour,”...

This was a playoff win built on the bedrock of team basketball. Latrobe made extra passes to enhance shot opportunities, fought through screens to get people open and helped on defense. In the end, it was enough to push the No. 7 Wildcats past No. 10 Mars, 67-62, in a...

Tuesday’s games Girls First round Class 5A 15-Greensburg Salem (15-7) at 2-South Fayette (18-4) 8 p.m. Winner plays: Winner of 10-Mars (17-5)/7-Latrobe (17-3) 7 p.m. Friday in quarterfinals Layup lines: Greensburg Salem is back in the postseason after losing in the first round last year. The Golden Lions are seeking...

Class 6A Favorite: North Hills went undefeated and ran away with the Section 1 title, putting the Indians in position to maybe win their first WPIAL title. They’re led by a trio of double-digit scorers, including 6-foot-7 sophomore Royce Parham (20.9 ppg) and 6-3 senior guards Alex Smith (18.6) and...

Dana Petruska started her coaching career at Mars in 1986. After the 2005 season, she took over at her alma mater and coached Deer Lakes for nearly a decade before returning to coach the Fightin’ Planets in 2015. Now she is in elite company after picking up her 500th career...

Because he’s better known as a lacrosse player, the Mars coaching staff didn’t know whether Austin Cote would come out for basketball. The Planets are glad he did. With Highlands cutting a 13-point deficit to five in the fourth period, Cote scored a pair of 3-point baskets and a two-point...