Norwin notebook: Knights trying to stay on even keel despite exciting start to football season

By: Bill Beckner Jr.
Saturday, September 20, 2025 | 11:01 AM

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The stage was set for Norwin’s biggest home football game in years.

The fourth-ranked Knights (3-1) dominated No. 5 Seneca Valley on the road in Week 3, 56-13, to win their Class 6A conference opener and give themselves a massive boost of confidence going into a showdown with No. 2 North Allegheny (4-0).

All eyes shifted to the matchup as fans looked for much of the same from perennial power North Allegheny or something new from perpetual underdog Norwin.

Knights coach Mike Brown, however, took a level-headed approach.

Brown has had a we’re-supposed-to-be-doing-this mindset since the summer when he knew what he had returning: healthy, experienced players who want to change a culture. He wants to stop and enjoy the wins but doesn’t want the Knights to be shocked when they get them.

“They are starting to see their hard work pay off and have success, but they understand it’s a long season and there’s a lot of football still to play,” he said of his team. “We still are going into each week with the same work ethic no matter the outcome from the previous week.”

Senior quarterback Tristyn Tavares threw for three touchdowns and ran for two others in Week 3 to lead the Knights, who also saw budding sophomore Potter Brozeski take a kickoff back 96 yards at Seneca Valley’s NexTier Stadium.

Senior Josh Lenart opened the scoring with a 14-yard TD reception for Norwin, which was a questionable call against Penn-Trafford away from being 4-0.

“We’re just taking one game at a time,” Lenart said. “This will definitely give us momentum for this week. We are really looking forward to (North Allegheny).”

Seniors Jake Knight and Zack Pawling also had TD catches, and junior Giovanni Rothrauff ran for a score for the Knights.

Lenart said camaraderie and synergy are working for Norwin.

“We are playing as a team and this team is the tightest group of boys that I have ever been a part of,” he said. “We are starting games off fast and playing to the echo of the whistle every play. There is a new mindset this team has this year.”

North Allegheny defeated Hempfield (3-1), which was flying high with an unbeaten start, 56-13.

Knights on a roll

A five-game unbeaten streak had the Norwin boys soccer team primed for a Section 1-4A showdown with rival Plum.

The teams were tied atop the section at 2-0-1.

Norwin (3-3-2 overall) tied North Allegheny (0-0), then posted a win over Hempfield (6-2), tied Central Catholic (2-2), and beat Gateway (8-0) and Penn-Trafford (5-1).

In the Penn-Trafford win, Caleb Maddock netted a pair of goals, and Tanner Johnson assisted on two scores.

Other goals came from Ryan Schoemer, Joey Walton and Obaara Owolabi.

Big win for girls soccer

Norwin’s girls soccer team leaned on its bench — and some position changes — to finally bat away Latrobe for a 3-1 victory in a Section 1-4A matchup Sept. 10.

Norwin has 36 players on its roster. Latrobe has 19.

Still, it was a game for much longer than the Knights wanted.

Despite numerous near misses in the opening half, Norwin (5-2, 3-0) took a precarious 1-0 lead into intermission before the Wildcats (1-5, 1-2) tied it with just more than 14 minutes remaining.

A defensive lapse prompted Norwin coach Ashley DeVito to shuffle her lineup. The move revealed, among other things, maturity in a team that stretched its winning streak to four.

Norwin has since moved into the Trib HSSN Class 4A rankings at No. 5.

“The team we had a year ago would not have responded and recovered,” DeVito said. “There were 20 minutes of soccer that were not good. But the girls pulled through.”

Junior Nailah Schade moved to forward, and senior defender Alexa Kobus and junior midfielder Siena Ali slid to center back.

“We moved Neilah up top, and she was spectacular,” DeVito said. “We had trouble building out of the back. We made some substitutions, and the girls did their jobs.”

Sophomore Neeve Graham gave the Knights an early lead, dribbling at three defenders and sending a 25-yard shot off the crossbar that pinged off Latrobe senior goalkeeper Gianna Trunzo’s back and into the net.

With neither team forcing offense in the second half, Norwin caught a break as its retooled lineup found rhythm.

Freshman McKenzie Carpenter, who scored in a 1-0 win at Armstrong, sent a shot at Trunzo, who initially was in position to stop it. But the ball hopped away from the keeper and in for a 2-1 lead with 7:56 to play.

Ali sent a long cross in front, and Carpenter sidekicked it toward the net.

“I just wanted to make my parents and family proud; they were all here to watch me, my mom-mom and pap-pap (on both sides) and my uncles,” Carpenter said. “We weren’t connecting on passes, and we tried to skip levels. We wanted to tire them out with our passes.”

The Knights’ insurance score came in the 78th minute when sophomore Tatum Casper took on two defenders and chipped it over Trunzo for a 3-1 lead.

Five Norwin girls have two or more goals for the season.

“The kids are showing they are bigger than the moment,” DeVito said. “The moment is no longer bigger than them. We were better in the second half, but Latrobe is a team that fights.”

It takes a Vilage

Norwin tennis player Bayleigh Vilage qualified for the WPIAL Class 3A singles championship by finishing fourth in the Section 1-3A tournament at Franklin Regional.

Vilage defeated Sofia Palombo of Franklin Regional in the first round, 10-1, then knocked off Ella Barras of Hempfield, 10-0, in the quarters.

Vilage lost to eventual champion Mia Williams of Penn-Trafford in the semifinals, 6-1, 6-0. She then fell to Michelle Yan of Franklin Regional, 6-4, 6-2, in the third-place match.

Bargiel honored

A plaque on a new youth football building at St. Agnes in Irwin memorializes Colin Bargiel, the former Norwin football player who was killed in a dirt bike crash in 2024.

The plaque was unveiled at a recent event with Norwin youth and high school football players, cheerleaders and parents.

A message on the plaque reads: “Be the teammate who stays after practice, who lifts others up, who never gives up – no matter the score. … Stand for something bigger than yourself. That’s what Colin did. … Let his legacy light your path.”

Bill Beckner Jr. is a TribLive reporter covering local sports in Westmoreland County. He can be reached at bbeckner@triblive.com.

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