North Hills notebook: After slow start, Indians start to find success

By: Josh Rowntree
Saturday, October 18, 2025 | 11:01 AM

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The North Hills football team has found more success following a tough start to the season.

Through Week 7, the Indians sat at 2-6 overall but at 2-2 in the Class 5A Northeast Conference.

North Hills ended a four-game losing streak to begin the season with a 56-7 blowout of Fox Chapel on Sept. 19.

After that, the Indians played a trio of tight games that came down to the wire: a 21-17 nonconference loss to Norwin, a 14-3 win over Plum and a 17-14 loss to Shaler.

Indians quarterback Kelly McCarthy has put up respectable numbers with 619 passing yards, nine touchdowns and five interceptions. McCarthy also has run for 129 yards and three more scores. Against Fox Chapel, McCarthy passed for 209 yards and three scores while rushing for 50 yards and two more touchdowns.

Johnell Edison has anchored the run game with 602 rushing yards and five touchdowns. In the narrow loss to rival Shaler, Edison posted 114 rushing yards, 36 receiving yards and scored two touchdowns.

North Hills closes its season with a conference game at Penn Hills and a nonconference game against Central Valley.

Boys soccer stumbles

Following a decent start to the season, the North Hills boys soccer team struggled since mid-September.

Through Sept. 10, the Indians sat at 6-1-1 with a section win over Butler and a tie in section play against rival North Allegheny.

But a 4-3 overtime loss to one of Class 4A’s top teams, Fox Chapel, seemed to derail the Indians’ season.

North Hills finished its season 1-8-1 in its last 10 games.

The Indians lost five of those games by a single goal, with their lone win coming in nonsection action against Knoch.

North Hills will lose eight seniors to graduation.

Volleyball slumping

The North Hills girls volleyball season was off to a strong start with a 5-2 record in nonsection matches, winning more matches in the early going than it did in all of 2024 when it finished 3-13 overall.

But the realities of playing in one of the WPIAL’s most talented sections have caught up to the Indians.

Through Oct. 14, the Indians sat at 0-9 in Section 2-4A.

That said, it’s not as if the performances have been completely lopsided.

North Hills took a set from the section’s top team, North Allegheny. It won three sets in two matches against perennial power North Catholic and also has set victories against Pine-Richland and Butler.

The Indians are under a new head coach in AnnaLise Shank, who is tasked with turning around a program that has won just five section matches in the past four seasons.

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