Sports
Scholastic Notebook – 11/04/2016
November 4, 2016
When Ron Sciarro became Riverside’s coach this year, he changed the playing style of the Panthers. They went from a pass-happy team to one that throws only 13 times a game. But there has been one other drastic change for Riverside. It deals with the number in the wins column. After going 3-6 last year, Riverside is 7-2 this season and headed to the WPIAL Class AA playoffs. They don’t throw nearly as often, but the Panthers win much more often.North Allegheny Wins WPIAL Boys 4-A Soccer Crown in OT
The North Allegheny Tigers won their first WPIAL championship since 1999 with a 2-1 overtime triumph over the Seneca Valley Raiders at Highmark Stadium on Thursday night. Senior Sean Atwater, who scored his first goal of the season in overtime to beat Pine-Richland in the semifinals on Saturday, again connected for the game-winning marker to sink the Raiders in an exciting title tilt. The championship is North Allegheny’s eighth in program history.WPIAL Girls Volleyball Semifinals Recaps 2016
There have been very few surprises in the district girls volleyball postseason as three #1-seeds and all four #2-seeds have reached the championship finals. The lone exception is 4-A's #8-seed, defending champion Baldwin, who is joined by fellow 2015 champs Freeport and Bishop Canevin in the title matches on Saturday. Here are the summaries from Semifinals Thursday in the 2016 WPIAL Girls Volleyball Playoffs. Special thanks to Sean Meyers, Kevin Zielmanski, Steve Nagler, Rob Longo, Sam Hall, Josh Rowntree and James Dotson for their help on these recaps. WPIAL CLASS 4-A Semifinals:
Freedom Wins First WPIAL Soccer Gold With Win Over Freeport
November 3, 2016
The #1 seeded Freedom Bulldogs got two goals each from sophomores Michaela Watkins and Myla Sharpless to defeat #2 seed Freeport 4-1 Thursday night at Highmark Stadium to capture the 2016 WPIAL 2A Girls Soccer Championship. Freedom entered the game undefeated, having given up only 8 goals all season, none in the playoffs, and continued their unbeaten streak with a stifling defense and opportunistic offense that saw 4 goals scored on only 7 shots on net. Michaela Watkins started the scoring at the 30:54 mark of the first half as she took a lead pass and broke in alone on Freeport keeper Cassie Suran, beating her with a quick shot to make it 1-0 Freedom.Chicks Picks for Week Ten
Welcome to Week 10 of the high school football season. Chick’s Picks attended the annual Playoff Pairings meeting on Monday night. After witnessing so much joy from the teams that punched their tickets to the postseason, Chick’s Picks couldn’t help but feel bad for those that missed out – especially those with only a few losses on the year. The situation reminded Chick’s Picks of a time when the MSA Sports crew got together for pick-up game of dodgeball. The Boss and world-renowned broadcaster Sam Hall were the team captains. Based on her athletic prowess, Chick’s Picks was sure that she would be drafted in the early rounds.Big Game Hunting for Week Ten
As we embark on the ‘Highway to Heinz’ or the Road to RMU I feel like we should all wear helmet decals in the postseason to honor the Beaver Bobcats, who in one Friday night; go from the number one team in the state of Pennsylvania in 3 A, to not in the playoffs. We need to keep a “Captain’s pick” spot open like they do in golf for the Ryder Cup team. Now we make our way towards the championships on the MSA Sports Network, huge games every week, as always send your complaints about those not included in BGH to @JohnnyLee@msasports.net as he takes over the complaint department for all playoff moaning. So with that out of the way we can get set to go postseason Big Game Hunting.
Fox Chapel Beats Pine-Richland to Repeat as WPIAL 3-A Champs
November 2, 2016
The Fox Chapel Foxes used a dominant possession and attacking offense in the 3A WPIAL Field Hockey Championship game to defeat the Pine-Richland Rams 3-1 and capture the gold medal for the second consecutive season. After an early opportunity at the near post for Pine-Richland’s Alora Sharron which deflected away from the goal, the Foxes picked up the attack and dominated the offense for most of the game. The hard work paid off for Fox Chapel when sophomore forward Sydney Condron scored the game’s first goal at (24:32) of the first half. Condron was working down low along the left end line when she centered the ball and it deflected passed Rams goalkeeper Kierstin Coup to give Fox Chapel a 1-0 lead.
Ellis School Three-Peats in WPIAL 1-A Field Hockey
For the third straight year, the Ellis School Tigers and the Shady Side Academy Indians met in the 1A WPIAL Field Hockey Championships. And for the third straight years the Tigers came away with the gold medal, besting the Indians 3-1 at North Allegheny High School. After a scoreless first half, things broke open in a 4:31 span of the second half with all four goals being scored. The Tigers got the game’s first goal when Angie Scheurmann took a feed from sophomore forward Leah Ewers and beat Shady Side goalkeeper Clara McCormick from the left wing inside the circle at (12:09) to put Ellis up 1-0. The goal for Scheurmann, who scored the only goal in last season’s title game, was the 22nd goal of the year for the junior forward.WPIAL Girls Volleyball Quarterfinals Recaps 2016
When the higher seeds win a lot in a tournament, they refer to it as 'chalk'. Thus far, there has been chalk talk a plenty as the postseason continues to be void of upsets except for a few exceptions. 16 of the 16 teams headed to the district Final Four were top four seeds in their class. One big exception is the top-seed in Class 4-A was ousted in Round Two. Here are summaries from the 16 Quarterfinals on Tuesday with all of the matches available on archive on The Network. A special thanks to Andy Stanko, Cory Campano, Mike Azadian, Kevin Zielmanski, Sam Hall, James Dotson, Sean Meyers, Lou Rood, Greg Kuntz, Lee Mohn, Randy Gore, Sean Saputo, Rob McKinney and Kyle Dawson for their help on these recaps. WPIAL CLASS 4-A Quarterfinals:WPIAL Plays of the Week – Week Nine 2016
November 1, 2016
This past weekend already marked the conclusion of the 2016 WPIAL football regular season. This campaign brought about massive changes courtesy of the realignment, which produced both positive and negative outcomes. Still, Week 9 had significant meaning to the dozens of teams in playoff contention, as well as to the teams and players who took the field for the final team this year. This week's batch of plays includes a game-sealing interception in the closing seconds in a battle of neighboring schools, a long run that broke open a matchup of top teams in 1A, another tight bout in the Beaver Valley Conference with a playoff spot on the line, and a pick-6 in a key matchup in 5A. 1. Franklin Regional 24, Gateway 19
WPIAL Alum Q&A – Kelly Reynolds
October 31, 2016
While the Upper St. Clair girls volleyball team was capturing a playoff victory last week, a former Panther continued her historic run at Juniata College. Kelly Reynolds, previously a stalwart for USC and now for the Eagles, is this week's featured athlete for the WPIAL Alum Q&A. Reynolds' resume at Upper St. Clair includes three years as a starter for the Panthers. In all three of those campaigns, she also earned First-Team All-Section honors, while she was a Second-Team All-WPIAL performer as a junior and senior.MSA Sports Top Ten – WPIAL FOOTBALL PLAYOFF TEAMS – 10/30/2016
October 30, 2016
What will they do? That is always the question put out about the WPIAL football steering committee this time of year. However in this season of change, there are additional quandaries to ponder. Before they even start putting the SIX playoff brackets together, they must decide if in the top four classes, they should go with a preset cross conference format of 1 vs 4, 2 vs 3, 3 vs 2 and 4 vs 1 across the board (Don says no), or if they should just do what they always do and seed the top eight teams (Don says yes) even if teams from the same conference end up playing each other.This Week on the MSA Sports Network – 10/30/2016
The month of October ends on a spooky note, but thinks pick up at the start of November with exclusive coverage of the WPIAL fall sports postseason this week here on the MSA Sports Network. The 2016 district football postseason kicks off with 32 opening round games starting with the MSA Sports pregame Show Friday at 6pm and concluding with the Scoreboard Show Friday at 9:30pm.2016 WPIAL FIELD HOCKEY PLAYOFFS Results
They were both defending champions in the district, they were both the #2-seeds in their respective classification and on Tuesday, they are both title winners AGAIN. Fox Chapel won a second straight 3-A crown and the Foxes third title in five years with a win over top-seed Pine-Richland while The Ellis School captured a third straight WPIAL championship and seventh title since 2002. Here are ALL the results from the 2016 WPIAL Girls Field Hockey Playoffs. 2016 WPIAL CLASS 3-A CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH: Fox Chapel Foxes 3 - Pine-Richland Rams 1 (MSA) WPIAL CLASS 3-A Semifinals: Pine-Richland Rams 3 - Peters Township Indians 1North Allegheny and Beaver Settle for State Silver in Girls Tennis
A WPIAL girls team tennis squad had won ten consecutive Class 3-A state crowns including three in a row for North Allegheny. That decade of dominance ended Saturday though when the Tigers shot at a fourth straight state crown came up short when they fell to Harriton. Meanwhile, the drought continues for WPIAL schools in Class 2-A with only one state champion ever (Sewickley Academy in 2011). Beaver made it interesting as the WPIAL champs reached the finals for a second straight year only to fall to Wyomissing. The title for Harriton was the Rams first in 3-A and 8th overall while Wyomissing wins fifth PIAA title and first for the Spartans since 2003. Here are ALL the results from the 2016 PIAA Girls Team Tennis State Playoffs.WPIAL Semifinals Soccer Saturday Summaries
October 29, 2016
On a day that felt more like an early season matchup, the WPIAL soccer Semifinals were played under sunny and comfortable conditions on the final step to the district championships. All eight of the top-seeds made it through to Round Three, and while the girls top-seeds all swept through into the Finals, three of the four #1-seeds on the boys side were bounced out of the title chase. Here are recaps from the 16 Semifinals games played on Saturday, 15 of which can be heard archived here on the MSA Sports Network. A special thanks to Lee Mohn, Jason Tennant, Mike Azadian, Rob McKinney, Sean Meyers, Kevin Zielmanski, Matt Vandriak and Lou Rood for their help on these recaps. BOYS WPIAL CLASS 4-A Semifinals:MSA Sports Friday Night HighLights for Week Nine
Various things were at stake around the WPIAL gridirons on the final Friday of October and the regular season. There were conference championships to be won, home field advantage in the opening round to be signed, sealed and delivered, and of course there were teams just trying to clinch a ride on The Highway to Heinz OR The Road to RMU. Whatever was on the line, these players performed at a high level and helped their team to victory and proving they are ready for some Postseason Primetime. David Harvey - Mount LebanonWPIAL Football Scores for Sat 10/29
The 2016 WPIAL regular season in football came to a beautiful, yet quiet end on Saturday with three games including one with playoff implications. On a Day that felt more like Week Three than Week Nine, three contests closed out the regular season and set the table for the postseason. Here are ALL three final scores from Saturday afternoon. WPIAL CLASS 2-A Three Rivers Conference: Avonworth Antelopes 35 - Vincentian Academy Royals 16 WPIAL CLASS 1-A Big 7 Conference: Rochester Rams 50 - Western Beaver Golden Beavers 6 (MSA) WPIAL CLASS 1-A Non-Conference: Summit Academy Knights 50 - Avella Eagles 02016 WPIAL Football Playoff Picture – 10/29
The 2016 WPIAL football playoff field is now set...well, almost. Five classifications are ready to go for the brackets on Monday night, with only one team still to be determined in Class 1-A. While all of these playoff teams will share the spotlight leading up to Friday. November 4th and kickoff of the opening round, there will be a lot of discussion prior to Monday of one team that did not make the field of 64. Beaver came into the final Friday of the regular season ranked #1 in Class 3-A and after all the kings horses and all the kings men figured out the tiebreakers in the Beaver Valley Conference, they could not put the Bobcats and the district playoff together again. Here is the latest WPIAL Playoff Picture heading into Saturday, October 29th.2016 WPIAL Football Standings – 10/29
Here are the latest WPIAL football standings through Friday of Week Nine of the 2016 high school football season...INCLUDING THE LATEST PLAYOFF PICTURE WITH POSTSEASON CLINCHINGS AND ELIMINATIONS. Once again this year, we have added points for and points against as well as the updated WPIAL tiebreaker points for all 122 WPIAL teams. Standings are updated after Friday and Saturday's scholastic gridiron action each week. Click on each team to see all of their results along with their remaining schedule for the 2016 season.
