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WPIAL Mourns Jim Collins
March 29, 2016
Administrators, athletic directors, coaches and long time associates of the WPIAL are morning the loss of Assistant to the Executive Director Jim Collins, who unexpectedly passed away early Monday morning at the age of 74. Collins spent Easter Sunday with family before retiring to bed early because he was not feeling well. He was taken to Allegheny Valley hospital overnight where he later passed away. WPIAL Executive Director Tim O'Malley said Collins would be impossible to replace because he did so many things for the district and did them all with great passion.
2016 PIAA BOYS BASKETBALL PLAYOFFS Results
March 20, 2016
last year was a banner year for District 12 as the Philadelphia are schools swept all our PIAA boys basketball championships. This year, the West earned a split with District 12. While Roman Catholic and Neumann-Goretti repeated on the state stage, Kennedy Catholic from District 10 in Class A and Aliquippa from District 7 in Class AA also earned state gold. The Quips finished a perfect 30-0 as they became only the 13th WPIAL boys hoops team to go undefeated and only the 33rd team overall in 97 years of state basketball postseason play. Here are ALL of the final results from the Road to Hershey and the 2016 PIAA Boys Basketball Playoffs. All scores followed with (MSA) are games that can be heard archived on the MSA Sports Network.SRU’s John Papa Named Atlantic Region Women’s Track & Field Coach of the Year
March 17, 2016
Slippery Rock University head track and field coach John Papa was named Tuesday as the Atlantic Region Women's Coach of the Year by the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association. The honor marks the 16th Regional Coach of the Year recognition in Papa's 29-year career at Slippery Rock. He has also been named the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Coach of the Year 19 times over that stretch. Papa earned the top honor in voting by his peers among all coaches in the PSAC, the Mountain East Conference and the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association.
Norwin Comes Back To Repeat Girls AAAA Title In Overtime
February 27, 2016
“Don’t ever underestimate the heart of a champion” has often become a cliché in the world of sports. That adage proved fitting at the Petersen Events Center on Saturday night, however, as the reigning champion Norwin Knights scored a 63-57 overtime victory against North Allegheny in the Class Quad-A title game. Top-seeded Norwin overcame a seemingly insurmountable fourth-quarter deficit against North Allegheny to not only keep its undefeated season in tact, but to repeat as champion. Pitt recruit Alayna Gribble led the Knights with a game-high 22 points, with 17 points in the second half, while teammate Dominique Petach contributed 13 points, including five points in overtime.
South Fayette Edges Trinity for First WPIAL Basketball Title
No. 1 South Fayette (22-3) returned to the Peterson Events Center for a second consecutive year to the WPIAL Girls AAA Championship Game. This time, however, the Lions would survive a thrilling victory over section rival Trinity (21-4), claiming their first WPIAL basketball title, 59-52. In their third meeting of the season, South Fayette would see No. 2 Trinity battle back from a 17-point deficit to one-point game in the final minutes. In section play, South Fayette won both meetings, including a 43-40 game in which the Lions overcame an eight-point halftime deficit. But in this matchup, the Lions did not need to mount a second-half comeback and led by five after the first quarter.
Aliquippa Makes WPIAL History In Class AA Title Win
Senior Kaezon Pugh has been in a number of pressure situations as a member of the Aliquippa Quips football team, but he found himself in a tight spot on the basketball floor on Saturday afternoon. The Pitt recruit shined once again as he nailed two free throws in the final seconds to place No. 1 Aliquippa (25-0) in the WPIAL history books once again with a 49-45 victory over No. 2 Lincoln Park (22-4) at the Petersen Events Center. The victory in the Class AA championship is the 12th basketball title in school history. The Quips become only the second team in the 100-plus year history of the league to win back to back undefeated championships. The other was New Castle, which won three straight titles with an undefeated record from 2012-2014.
Vincentian Wears the Girls A Gold Crown For Fifth Straight Year
Cardinal Weurl North Catholic and Vincentian Academy are far from strangers. The two have met twice already this season, this time though – there was much more on the line. The Trojans were looking for revenge after falling to the Royals in last year’s WPIAL championship. When the final buzzer sounded, though, Vincentian Academy again stood tall, as the Royals brought home the school's fifth straight WPIAL Class A championship, prevailing 68-54.Path to the Pete Recaps From Monday 2/22
February 23, 2016
OK, so technically this second year of consolation games to determine PIAA playoff berths from the WPIAL is not the Path to the Pete. That ended in the district Quarterfinals for these teams. who bounced back to keep their season alive into Thursday or into the PIAA postseason and which teams ended their season on a two game skid? Here are recaps from the the two Consolation Semifinals game from each playoff bracket. A special thanks to Mark Uriah, Kyle Dawson, Rob Matzie, Dennis Fischer, Bob Orkwis, Paul Paterra, Brandon Showers, Bob Gregg, Nate Regotti, Josh Rowntree, T.J. DiStefano, Sean Meyers and Don Rebel for their help on these recaps. BOYS WPIAL CLASS AAAA Consolation Semifinals:Path to the Pete Recaps From Saturday 2/20
February 20, 2016
Two WPIAL defending champions were bounced in the opening round and two more were eliminated on Saturday as the Final Four were finalized, as were the Consolation Semifinals in all eight brackets set for Monday. After Indiana boys in AAA and Seton-LaSalle girls in AA were dethroned in the First Round, Saturday brought then end of the one year title run of Chartiers Valley boys in AAAA and the two year run of Blackhawk in girls AAA. Here are the summaries from Quarterfinals Saturday in Boys AAAA, Boys AA, Girls AAA and Girls A along with an update on a health scare for one head coach that puts all of these games in perspective.Pgh Obama Turns Over Allderdice for City League Girls Crown
Obama Academy (20-4) used a smothering 2-2-1 press defense to help run away with a 64-33 win over Allderdice (11-13) on Saturday afternoon at the Peterson Events Center. Michaela Porter, daughter of former Pitt star Darrell Porter, scored a game-high 21 points and snagged 13 rebounds, leading the Eagles to their third straight Pittsburgh City League Girls Basketball Championship win over the Dragons. The win was not as easy for Obama Academy as the final score indicated. The Eagles would hop out to a 19-3 lead, but see the Dragons end the first half on a 16-3 run. After 16 minutes, Obama Academy would lead 22-19. But the Eagles outscored Allderdice 42-14 in the second half due, in large part, to 37 forced turnovers in the game.Allderdice Scorches Obama for Boys City League Title
James Jackson scored 24 of his game-high 28 points in the first half, leading Allderdice (23-1) to a decisive 74-47 win over Obama Academy (14-7) on Saturday afternoon at The Peterson Events Center. The win gives the Dragons, Pennsylvania’s #1 Class AAAA ranked team, their third straight City League title and sixth in the last seven years. It is the third straight year that Allderdice has defeated Obama Academy in the title game. “We’ve been in the big venues,” said Allderdice head coach Buddy Valinsky on his team’s hot start and dominance throughout. “When they’re turned up and focused, they’re a very good team.”Path to the Pete Recaps From Thursday 2/18
February 19, 2016
After four days of action on the court and an extra day of wait thanks to Mother nature, the First Round of this years Path to the Pete is finally in the books with very few surprises. Only four double digit girls seeds are on their way to the Quarterfinals while even fewer double digit seeds...three, are moving on to this weekend in the boys postseason. Here are summaries from the final night of Round One in Boys AAAA, Boys AA, Girls AAA and Girls A on another night when nearly all of the favorites took care of business.This Week on the MSA Sports Network – 12/28/2015
December 28, 2015
We prepare to turn the page from 2015 to 2016 with plenty of holiday tournament basketball and wrestling this week here on the MSA Sports Network. We have the last of the WPIAL and District 6 boys and girls high school basketball action for 2015 along with start of high school hoops for 2016 along with two day coverage of the 2015 PowerADE Wrestling Tournament, plus the PIHL Power Play Show and The WPIAL Roundball Report ALL here at MSAsports.net Monday, December 28th: WPIAL High School Boys Basketball - Latrobe vs Plum at 2:00pm on WCNS-AM 1480 WPIAL High School Boys Basketball - Knoch vs Avonworth at 6:00pm on WISR-AM 680
MSA SPORTS ELITE ELEVEN
December 24, 2015
The MSA Sports Elite 11 all-star team is quite offensive. This year’s team has a handful of players who either put up record offensive numbers this season, or had statistics that put them in an elite class. Among those are quarterbacks Phil Jurkovec of Pine-Richland and Zach Chandler of Avonworth, Woodland Hills running back Miles Sanders, Aliquippa running back Kaezon Pugh and Armstrong running back Zane Dudek. The team is picked by the MSA Sports staff and is made up of the top 11 players in the WPIAL, regardless of position. Eight of the players are seniors, two juniors and one sophomore. Three of the players were on WPIAL championship teams. Here is a look at this years Elite 11.PIAA Plays of the Week – Championships
December 22, 2015
After nearly four months of incredible action, the high school football season in Pennsylvania finally came to an end over the weekend in Hershey. While Aliquippa came up short in the title game after a tremendous season, the Central Catholic Vikings brought gold back to the WPIAL, as they captured the Quad-A PIAA Championship against the Parkland Trojans. Here are the plays that helped catapult Central Catholic to its fourth PIAA title. 1. Central Catholic 21, Parkland 18
