Michael Love stories, Page 39
After strong finish, Highlands, Kiski Area ready for tough tests in WPIAL playoffs
Highlands and Kiski Area took care of business in their final two Greater Allegheny Conference games to punch their tickets to the WPIAL Class 4A playoffs. The Golden Rams (6-4) and Cavaliers (5-5) joined fellow Alle-Kiski Valley postseason qualifiers Knoch (Class 3A), Deer Lakes (Class 3A), Burrell (Class 2A) and...
Deer Lakes blanks Freeport to clinch playoff spot; Derek Burk sets A-K Valley passing record
All Deer Lakes needed to do to qualify for its fourth trip to the WPIAL playoffs was to defeat rival Freeport in the teams’ Allegheny 6 Conference (Class 3A) finale Friday. The Lancers did just that. Deer Lakes scored three touchdowns in the first half while holding Freeport off the...
Mark Duriancik named athletic director at Leechburg
Leechburg again has an athletic director. Mark Duriancik, a technology teacher in the school district, will assume the athletic director duties after the school board approved him Wednesday evening. In addition to his teaching role at Leechburg, the North Apollo resident has experience coaching various high school sports, including football...
A-K Valley WPIAL soccer playoff capsules: Games for Saturday, Oct. 28, 2023
WPIAL soccer playoffs Boys Class 4A Semifinals 5-Fox Chapel (11-4-2) at 4-Upper St. Clair (14-1-2) 1 p.m. Saturday Winner plays: Winner of 1-Seneca Valley (13-0-3)/8-Norwin (12-5-1) in semifinals Oct. 31 Players to watch: Pablo Linzoain, Fox Chapel; Joe Donnelly, Upper St. Clair Throw-ins: Fox Chapel finished fourth in Section 1...
Kiski Area’s Miller, A-K Valley’s top runners ready for WPIAL cross country meet
Kiski Area senior Eliza Miller sounded an optimistic tone on the eve of her final WPIAL Class 3A cross country championship race. After taking 10th last year at Cal (Pa.) and making a return trip to the PIAA championships in Hershey, Miller is one of eight top-10 finishers back among...
A-K Valley football players to watch in 2023 Week 9
Player of the week Jayden Floyd Leechburg, Jr., QB/DB With his 138 passing yards and 134 rushing yards on 23 carries last week, Floyd became just the 16th player in WPIAL history to pass and rush for 1,000 yards in a single season. He has 1,261 passing yards and eight...
Freeport, Deer Lakes face off with WPIAL playoff berth in the balance
The regular season and the race for a WPIAL Class 3A playoff spot in the Allegheny 6 Conference is down to one head-to-head matchup for Deer Lakes and Freeport. The Yellowjackets and Lancers will renew their rivalry Friday at Deer Lakes’ Lancers Stadium in a matchup rife with playoff scenarios....
A-K Valley WPIAL soccer playoff preview capsules: Games for Thursday, Oct. 26, 2023
WPIAL girls soccer playoffs Class 4A Quarterfinals 6-Fox Chapel (10-4-2) at 3-Peters Township (14-1-2) 7 p.m. Thursday Winner plays: Winner of 7-Butler (10-6-1)/2-Upper St. Clair (15-1) Monday in semifinals Players to watch: Emily McKee, Fox Chapel; Camryn Klein, Peters Township Throw-ins: The Foxes missed the WPIAL playoffs last season, but...
Plans taking shape for return of Plum Sports Hall of Fame
The Plum Sports Hall of Fame is coming back in 2024. From 2005-2017, Mustangs athletic greats were celebrated and enshrined each November. In 2018, the hall of fame committee decided to make the induction of classes a biennial occurrence. Because of a number of factors, including the covid pandemic, the...
Springdale girls earn emphatic victory over Sewickley in WPIAL Class A 1st round
Springdale junior Briana Ross was denied three times by Sewickley Academy goalkeeper Marie Bigi in a 45-second span in the first half of Tuesday’s WPIAL Class A first-round playoff game at Freeport Area Athletic Stadium. But her fourth and fifth shots were not stopped. Ross’s two goals in the 17th...
Plum girls net early goal, add on in defeating Kiski Area in soccer 1st-round game
The Plum girls soccer team scored in the eighth minute to open its WPIAL Class 3A first-round game against Kiski Area on Monday at Plum’s Mustangs Stadium. The No. 2 Mustangs added on from there. Plum had four goals at halftime and cruised to a 6-1 victory over a youthful...
A-K Valley WPIAL soccer playoff preview capsules: Games for Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2023
WPIAL soccer playoffs Girls Class A First Round 16-Aquinas Academy (5-6-1) at 1-Riverview (16-2) 7 p.m. Tuesday Winner plays: Winner of 9-Eden Christian (8-5-1) at 8-Chartiers Houston (13-3) Saturday in quarterfinals (site/time TBD) Players to watch: Lola Abraham, Riverview; Abigail Stalder, Aquinas Academy Throw-ins: Riverview is led by Abraham, and...
Montour claims 4th WPISL championship
The Plum slow-pitch softball team pulled off the upset of the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Softball League tournament. The No. 8 Mustangs took down No. 1 seed and four-time league champion North Allegheny, 3-1, on Saturday in the quarterfinals. Plum then toppled No. 4 Bethel Park in the semifinals. But No....
Freeport girls soccer team hopes 11th straight playoff appearance is a long one
The Freeport girls soccer team is no stranger to preparing for the WPIAL playoffs. No matter what talent is lost from the year before, the returning group refocuses and makes a run. Freeport captured the Section 2-2A title two weeks ago on the way to securing its 11th straight WPIAL...
A-K Valley WPIAL soccer playoff capsules for Oct. 23, 2023
Boys Class 2A First round 10-Elizabeth Forward (10-6-1) at 7-Knoch (11-7) 7 p.m. Monday Winner plays: Winner of 2-Quaker Valley (14-3)/15-Jeannette (10-7-1) on Thursday in quarterfinals Players to watch: Will Sinay, Elizabeth Forward; Mason Nebel, Knoch Throw-ins: Elizabeth Forward tied for third in Section 1 with East Allegheny at 9-4-1....
Gateway notebook: Gators to cap regular season against Central Catholic
Gateway’s football team is winless in four nonconference games in 2023 and will cap the regular season with another nonconference matchup against Class 6A power Central Catholic on Friday at Antimarino Stadium. But where it has counted in the race for a spot in the WPIAL Class 5A playoffs, the...
With 10 starters returning, Gateway girls soccer looks toward promising future
The Gateway girls soccer team finished eight points out of a playoff spot in Section 3-3A. The Gators ended up 3-8-1 in the section. However, looking within the record, coach Caleb Kyper noted the strong and competitive play from his team throughout the season, especially in a couple of games...
Alle-Kiski Valley high school football notebook: Final week has playoff implications galore
Playoff spots are coming down to the wire in the Class 3A Allegheny 6 Conference. East Allegheny, which knocked off Knoch, 14-13, in overtime Friday, captured the conference title and improved to 4-0, 7-2 overall. Even before the game, the Knights, based on their 3-0 conference record coming in, had...
Floodgates finally open for Burrell in playoff-opening win over Greensburg Central Catholic
The Burrell boys soccer team delivered numerous shots and scoring chances in last year’s WPIAL Class A first-round game against Serra Catholic at Buccaneer Stadium. But the Eagles got the game’s only goal in what was a frustrating final contest for the Bucs in the 2022 season. Burrell again found...
School-record rushing effort part of special season for Riverview’s Carlo Buzzatto
It was a bittersweet feeling for senior tailback Carlo Buzzatto on Oct. 14 after Riverview football’s heartbreaking 29-28 loss to Leechburg in a rivalry game at Riverside Park that had huge playoff ramifications. The Raiders rallied from a 29-14 deficit in the fourth quarter and had a two-point conversion play...
After series of tough losses, Plum football aims to finish strong
The Plum football team, for the second year in a row, will cap its season Friday with a nonconference matchup against Indiana. The Mustangs last year went out with a bang in a 46-27 victory over Indiana which saw the now-graduated Eryck Moore set the career-yards record for a Plum...
Derry outlasts Burrell, clinches playoff spot
Derry and Burrell both were held off the scoreboard in the third quarter of Friday’s Allegheny Conference clash on senior night at Burrell’s Buccaneer Stadium. But the Trojans and Bucs erupted for a combined 31 points over the final 12 minutes. Derry led by a single score heading to the...
4 schools selected as WPIAL Sportsmanship Award recipients
Armstrong, Elizabeth Forward, Our Lady of the Sacred Heart and South Fayette have been honored by the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League as the recipients of the WPIAL Sportsmanship Awards for the 2022-23 school year. It is the program’s 27th year. This is the first selection for Armstrong, the 70th...
North Allegheny, Hampton, Freeport, Serra Catholic receive No. 1 seeds for WPIAL girls volleyball playoffs
The section and nonsection matches have concluded, and invitational tournaments are in the past. The WPIAL girls volleyball postseason is here, and the WPIAL playoff pairings committee on Friday assembled and released the brackets. North Allegheny, Hampton, Freeport and Serra Catholic drew No. 1 seeds. The Talbots are the only...
A-K Valley football players to watch in 2023 Week 8
Player of the week Carlo Buzzatto Riverview, Sr., RB/LB The Raiders didn’t score a home win against rival Leechburg last Saturday, but they witnessed an all-time performance by their standout senior running back last week. Buzzatto finished the game with 36 carries for 418 yards and touchdown runs of 69,...
