Penn Hills notebook: Girls soccer team finds new section daunting

By: Josh Rizzo
Sunday, October 16, 2022 | 11:01 AM

This season, section realignment wasn’t kind to the Penn Hills girls soccer team.

With some of the added powers from the East suburbs coming into the picture, the Indians had difficulty keeping up. However, Penn Hills has found a way to pick up a few wins down the stretch.

Goals from Carolien McDevitt and Naomi Dordal helped propel the Indians to a 2-0 win over Brashear last Tuesday night. Penn Hills will see its streak of consecutive postseason appearances ended at two seasons.

The Indians are 4-12 this year, including a 1-10 mark in Section 3-3A.

Penn Hills boys miss out

The Indians never quite found a way to build off the momentum of consecutive Section 3-4A wins over McKeesport and Latrobe in late September. Penn Hills dropped its last four section matches to fall to 6-9 overall and 5-8 in section play.

Dugger contributes

Georgetown defensive back Jaden Dugger has found a way to contribute for the Hoyas as a freshman. Dugger has appeared in five games so far this season. He has made six tackles and broken up a pass.

The Hoyas are 1-5 overall, 0-2 in the Patriot League. Georgetown’s lone win this season was a 43-12 decision over Marist.

Penn Hills runs at section meet

The Indians cross country team had a pair of solid finishes at the WPIAL Section 4-3A championships at Northmoreland Park last Wednesday. Austin Schul and Sawyer Kinney placed 13th and 16th.

Avin Keller (21:59.6), Xavier Nicholas (23:08.4) and Adam Rosemeyer (24:19.4) were also in the field.

On the girls’ side, Larissa Lockridge led the team by placing 31st. Freshman Amanda Heide finished with a personal best by turning in a time of 32:49.4. Talia Russell and Neveah Mosley also competed.

Tiebreaker ahead?

Good luck figuring out the Northeast Conference for WPIAL Class 5A football. After Penn Hills, which was 4-3 overall and 2-1 in conference play, Pine-Richland and North Hills tied for the crown last season, there could be another logjam coming this year. Only one team, Fox Chapel, had more than one conference loss heading into Week 7.

The Indians, who were scheduled to play a nonconference game against Central Catholic, didn’t have to worry about section play last week. Penn Hills will have two section games left against Shaler and Woodland Hills to try to claim its second straight section title.

Penn Hills’ loss to North Hills, which also only has one section loss, will mean Penn Hills will need help to win the conference outright.

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