Michael Love stories, Page 41
Kiski Area’s Miller shines again at cross country sectional
Kiski Area senior Eliza Miller crushed her own Northmoreland Park course record Wednesday at the WPIAL Division 1, Section 4 cross country championship meet, finishing the 3.1-mile course in 18 minutes, 22.80 seconds. It was her fourth individual section title in as many attempts. She surpassed by 19 seconds her...
A-K Valley football players to watch in 2023 Week 6
Player of the week Jake Cummings Leechburg, Jr., TE/LB Cummings carried the ball seven times for 31 yards and two touchdowns, caught an additional five passes for 91 yards and a score and converted two 2-point conversions Friday in Leechburg’s bounce-back win over Frazier. He also blocked a punt that...
A defensive battle the past 2 seasons, plenty on the line in Valley-Deer Lakes matchup
Points were at a premium in the past two meetings between the Deer Lakes and Valley football teams. The Vikings and Lancers combined for 15 total points as Deer Lakes won 7-2 last year and 6-0 the year before. Vikings coach Mark Adams and Lancers coach Tim Burk expect a...
Freeport volleyball rolls past Deer Lakes, stays perfect in section play
The Freeport girls volleyball team didn’t let visiting Deer Lakes gain any momentum in a Section 5-2A match Tuesday at Freeport Middle School. The Yellowjackets were impressive from the start and swept the Lancers, 3-0, with scores of 25-11, 25-5, and 25-4. “I think tonight was a very clean game...
Plum girls soccer defeats Latrobe in overtime thriller
The Plum and Latrobe girls soccer teams needed overtime to decide their Section 3-3A matchup Monday evening at Plum’s Mustangs Stadium. Freshman Emily Grubich made sure the homestanding Mustangs came away with the crucial three points. She raced down the middle of the field, possessed the ball after passes from...
Deer Lakes girls soccer learning on fly, gaining confidence
Deer Lakes sophomore Bryanna Simonetti spelled out a simple formula for the Lancers’ Section 2-2A clash with section power Freeport last Wednesday. “It just came down to us sticking together as a team and playing solid at both ends,” Simonetti said. “We had been playing pretty well, and I had...
Girls volleyball rankings: Section races heat up for stretch run to WPIAL playoffs
There were no changes at the top in each of the four WPIAL classifications as the Western Pennsylvania Volleyball Coaches Association released its Week 5 polls Monday morning. Staying at No. 1 were North Allegheny in Class 4A, Hampton in Class 3A, Freeport in Class 2A and Serra Catholic in...
Kiski Area Sports Hall of Fame inducts Class of 2023
The Kiski Area athletic community gathered last month to celebrate a group of Cavaliers greats. Their exploits in competition were recognized with enshrinement as the latest class of the Kiski Area Sports Hall of Fame. Lauded during the Sept. 2 banquet and ceremony were Sean Arnold (Class of 1998, soccer,...
A-K Valley high school football notebook: Freeport shows grit despite loss
Despite his team not pulling out a victory in its Allegheny 6 opener against Shady Side Academy, Freeport coach John Gaillot reiterated Saturday the praise he had for his mix of youthful and veteran players in battling through adversity on and off the scoreboard in the 31-28 outcome. The Yellowjackets...
Shady Side outlasts Freeport in Class 3A Allegheny 6 Conference opener
The Class 3A Allegheny 6 Conference was one of two in the WPIAL to have none of its teams play a conference game before Friday night. Shady Side Academy and Freeport hoped to get off to a winning start in conference action after five nonconference contests to start the season....
Leechburg athletic director Angela Franke resigns
Angela Franke’s brief tenure as athletic director at Leechburg has come to a close. Her last day in the position was Friday, high school principal Doug Rodgers confirmed. Rodgers said he believes Franke is leaving for a full-time athletic director position in eastern Pennsylvania. The Leechburg AD job is part...
Top 4 teams in WPISL standings pair off for Sunday doubleheaders
Mt. Lebanon brought previously undefeated Plum back to the pack in a doubleheader sweep of the Mustangs last Sunday in Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Softball League action. The wins bumped the Blue Devils up to 6-2, while Plum fell to 6-2. West Allegheny dominated North Hills over two games to also...
A-K Valley football players to watch in 2023 Week 5
Player of the week Cooper Hornack Burrell, Sr., RB/DB Hornack, the reigning two-time Valley News Dispatch wrestler of the year and the 2023 PIAA Class 2A champion at 127 pounds, was a difference-maker last Friday as Burrell won its third straight game after an 0-2 start. Burrell ran the ball...
Conference title in focus when Knoch, Deer Lakes renew rivalry
Deer Lakes and Knoch waged a frantic, down-to-the wire battle last season at Lancers Stadium to open Allegheny 6 Conference play. The teams combined for 38 points in the fourth quarter — 22 from Knoch and 16 from Deer Lakes — as the Lancers pulled out a 37-36 victory. “Looking...
St. Joseph volleyball keeps improving, sets sights on WPIAL playoff spot
In 2020, the St. Joseph girls volleyball team went 0-12 in section play. It was 0-14 the year before and in 2018. The Spartans won just three section matches in 2021, but things were looking up. Last year, they recorded four victories in section play, and a late-season 3-1 loss...
Serra Catholic ascends to No. 1 in coaches association WPIAL Class A girls rankings
There is a change at the top in Class A as the Western Pennsylvania Volleyball Coaches Association released its Week 4 WPIAL girls rankings Monday morning. Serra Catholic, last year’s WPIAL runner-up, unseated Bishop Canevin. The Eagles improved last week to 6-0 overall and 5-0 in Section 4-A. Defending WPIAL...
Gateway grad Courtney Jackson finding success at Arkansas State
Courtney Jackson is playing his first season with the Arkansas State football team, and on Sept. 16, he hauled in his first touchdown pass for the Red Wolves in a 31-7 victory over Stony Brook. Arkansas State collected 485 yards of total offense with the receiving corps gaining 140 of...
After slow start to season, Gateway offense gets on track in Big East opener
The Gateway football team was in an unfamiliar 0-3 hole after losses to Mt. Lebanon, Woodland Hills and North Hills. But the Gators, who worked through several points of adversity, including the loss of senior tight end/linebacker Remy Bose and not having senior starting quarterback Brad Birch for two weeks,...
Alle-Kiski Valley high school notebook: Allegheny 6 about to enter conference play
The Class 3A Allegheny 6 Conference, of which Freeport, Deer Lakes, Valley and Knoch are members, is one of two in the WPIAL to not have any of its teams play a conference game through five weeks. The other is the Class 3A Interstate Conference with Elizabeth Forward, Mt. Pleasant,...
Plum girls golf team shows improvement in inaugural season
In past fall seasons, female golfers at Plum would get their opportunity to compete, but they would have to share the course with their Mustangs male counterparts and challenge for positions in the starting lineup. That started to change last year when a group of Plum girls gathered to test...
Plum boys soccer passes tests in 1st round of section play
It wasn’t easy — Raf Kolankowski would be the first one to say it never is — but the Plum boys soccer team passed all of its tests in the first cycle of Section 4-3A play and sits at the top of the standings in its quest for another section...
Gateway football makes short work of Plum on road
The Gateway football team is hitting its stride at the right time. The Gators improved to 2-0 in the Big East Conference on Friday at Plum after their three nonconference setbacks to start the season. Brad Birch threw for 358 yards and two touchdowns, Jaquon Reynolds added three short TD...
Top distance runners among field for City of Pittsburgh Great Race
Jennifer Bigham won the City of Pittsburgh Great Race in 2016, 2017, 2019 and last year, and she hopes to add win No. 5 on Sunday. Bigham has become one of the fastest masters runners in the country, winning the 2022 USA Masters Half Marathon Championship and USA Masters One...
Lola Abraham’s 4 goals lift Riverview to dominant win over No. 1 Springdale
The Riverview girls soccer team rode a wave of momentum into its Section 1-A clash with unbeaten rival Springdale on Thursday. The Dynamos came in 6-0 overall and ranked No. 1 by TribLive HSSN, but the homestanding Raiders had won seven in a row. In front of a large homecoming...
Best races are ahead for Freeport junior cross country runner Michael Braun
Michael Braun was the seventh-fastest underclassmen and the third fastest sophomore at last year’s WPIAL Class 2A cross country championships at Cal U (Pa.). The Freeport junior placed 11th overall, an improvement of 20 places from his WPIAL debut in 2021. He also ran at the PIAA championships in Hershey...
