Sports
MSA Sports Top Ten – WPIAL Football – 10/05/2015
October 5, 2015
Each and every Monday during the regular season, the MSA Sports Network will rank the Top Ten football teams in each classification. These are the rankings following Week Five of the 2015 WPIAL football season. WPIAL CLASS AAAA WPIAL FOOTBALL TOP TEN: 1. WOODLAND HILLS WOLVERINES (5-0) (Last Week #1.....Week Six at Canon-McMillan on MSA) 2. PENN-TRAFFORD WARRIORS (5-0) (Last Week #2.....Week Six host Hempfield on MSA) 3. PINE-RICHLAND RAMS (5-0) (Last Week #3.....Week Six host #9 Seneca Valley)
WPIAL Alum Q&A – Natalie Cignetti
The WPIAL Alum Q&A puts the spotlight on former Indiana High School and current IUP volleyball star Natalie Cignetti in this installment. Cignetti, an outside hitter, earned all-state honors during her time with the Little Indians. As a senior in 2013, she helped lead Indiana to the top seed in the Class AA playoffs. In that postseason, the Little Indians finished as runners-up, and won a state playoff match, as well. Following her high school career, Cignetti joined the Crimson Hawks at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, where her father, Curt, serves as the head football coach.PIHL Notebook – Class AAA Preview
Welcome to “PIHL Notebook” and our annual season preview. Over the next four Monday’s, we will provide thumbnail sketches of all 57 PIHL teams to make sure local high school hockey fans are ready when the puck drops Monday night! And as we did last year, we will provide exclusive audio and video coverage of the “PIHL Premiere” at the brand new UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex in Cranberry. Do not miss this special event before our regular hockey coverage picks up in December. Faceoff times are 6:00 for North Hills and Mars in Class AA, followed at 8:00 by North Allegheny and Pine-Richland in Class AAA.This Week on the MSA Sports Network – 10/04/2015
October 4, 2015
The first full week of October is a busy one with a full plate of fall sports along with a side dish of winter high school sports action this week here on the MSA Sports Network. We move on to Week Six of the high school football season with 30 WPIAL weekend contests starting Friday night with the MSA Sports Pregame Show and concluding later that night with the WPIAL Football Scoreboard Show.2015 WPIAL & Pittsburgh City League Standings – Week 5
Here are the latest WPIAL and Pittsburgh City League football standings through Week Five of the 2015 high school football season...including the latest WPIAL Playoff clinchings and eliminations. Once again this year, we have added points for, point against and the updated WPIAL tiebreaker points for all 123 teams. Standings are updated after Friday and Saturday's scholastic gridiron action each week. Standings can be also seen on each teams football webpage here on the MSA Sports Network. (Top 5 teams from AAAA and AAA conferences qualify for playoffs plus a sixth place wild card team) (Top 4 teams from AA and A conferences qualify for the playoffs)WPIAL Saturday’s Scholastic Starz – Week Five
Weather wise it was a good day for a light WPIAL football schedule on Saturday with nasty wet and windy conditions for the three scheduled Class A games. Speaking of nasty, it was more like 2 1/2 games played as the Monessen at Wilkinsburg game was stopped midway through the third quarter because of a shoving match that escalated into a fight between the two teams. Without having seen the incident, there is no rush to judgment except to say anytime a high school game is stopped early, it is not good. Frank Antuono - NeshannockDistrict College Football Recap for Saturday, October 3rd
The first Saturday in October brought cold and wet weather to Western Pennsylvania. On a day not fit for man or beast….or golfers, it didn’t bother the area football teams and offenses in general in putting up points. A top 25 showdown highlighted play in the PAC, while 3 local teams remain tied after 2 weeks in the PSAC West. Here are recaps of ALL THE GAMES. Clarion 41 – Mercyhurst 27 Connor Simmons threw for 3 touchdowns and ran for 2 more as the Golden Eagles go to 5-0. Simmons threw for 431 yards as Clarion scored 17 unanswered points in the second half.WPIAL Saturday Football Scores – 10/03/2015
October 3, 2015
It looked like Week Five was going to conclude with Hurricane Joaquin being the true winner earlier this week. However the storm stayed east and even though the small three game schedule had to deal with the elements, it was a far cry from what could have been. We are now officially more than halfway through the 2015 regular season with five weeks down and four still to come. Here are all three results from a wet and chilly Saturday afternoon in Class A. WPIAL CLASS A Eastern Conference: Monessen Greyhounds 18 - Wilkinsburg Tigers 0 Clairton Bears 54 - Riverview Raiders 6 WPIAL CLASS A Big 7 Conference: Neshannock Lancers 36 - Western Beaver Golden Beavers 8WPIAL Friday Night HighLights – Week Five 2015
A little precipitation in the area before the real wet stuff driven by Hurricane Joaquin Andujar (look it up kids)...no problem. Temperatures dipping into the low 50's with winds that made it feel more like the 40's...again, no problem. Defenses geared to...wait, I'll just stop there. In this wild and crazy season of video game like play on the field resulting in huge points here, there and everywhere, top performances around the WPIAL on a Friday night are no longer hard to find. They are now just difficult to whittle down. Doing our best Jed Clampett imitation (look it up kids), we have whittled down some of the top outputs to these ten. Philip Jurkovec - Pine-RichlandScholastic Notebook – 10/02/2015
October 2, 2015
Anthony Welsh of Bethlehem-Center will likely run his way into the WPIAL record books Friday night. Welsh, a senior, needs only 62 yards rushing to reach 4,000 for his career. He would become the 63rd player in WPIAL history to reach 4,000 yards. With that in mind, here are some factoids about the 4,000-yard milestone: * The first player known to reach 4,000 yards was Jerry Patterson of Chartiers-Houston, who graduated in 1970 with 4,075 yards. * Welsh would be the second Beth-Center runner to reach 4,000. Keith Miller, a 1997 graduate, ran for 5,121.WPIAL/City League Friday Football Scores – 10/02/2015
We hit the midway point of the 2015 WPIAL football regular season. Four weeks in the books right now and four weeks still to come after this weekend. Some of the first half surprises include Pine-Richland, Chartiers Valley, Hollidaysburg, Deer Lakes, Shenango and Frazier enter this weekend with a combined record of 21-3. Some of the above teams had higher expectations then others, but all have put themselves in position to win a conference championship and perhaps more. Time will tell as we run down another slate of Friday night football games around the WPIAL and Pittsburgh City League. Check out all of the final results. WPIAL CLASS AAAA Northern Eight Conference: Pine-Richland Rams 47 - North Hills Indians 7 (F)Hometown Girls Volleyball Recap – Chartiers-Houston Buccaneers – 10/01/2015
October 1, 2015
After beating Fort Cherry earlier in the week 3-2 in a battle for first place in Section 6-A, the Buccaneers held off a spirited challenge at home against 3rd place Beth-Center, defeating the Bulldogs 3-2 in a match in which 4 of the 5 games went to extra points. Chartiers-Houston won the match by games scores of (28-26, 27-29, 25-21, 26-24, 16-14) overcoming some sloppy play and unforced errors to remain perfect in section play at (7-0). With all five games back-and-forth affairs, it’s no surprise that the night featured 40 tie scores between these two squads. Game 4, with the Buccaneers winning by four points, featured just 2 ties with Chartiers-Houston breaking a 2-2 deadlock with a 4-point run that led to a win in which they never trailed after the early tie.Hometown Girls Volleyball Recap – West Allegheny Indians – 10/01/2015
In a pivotal clash in Class AAA Section 5, the Moon Tigers outlasted the West Allegheny Indians 3-1. Moon captured the match by the score of 24-26, 25-20, 25-23 and 25-17. With the triumph, Moon improves to 5-2 in the section, while West Allegheny falls to 3-4, and now faces an uphill climb to qualify for the postseason. Playing in front of a raucous crowd during pink-out night to raise awareness of breast cancer, the host Indians got off to a hot start, as they surged to a 7-2 lead in the opening set. The Tigers trimmed their deficit several times, including pulling within one, at 16-15, and deadlocking the contest at 24-24. Moon could never gain the lead in the opening stanza, though, as West Allegheny notched consecutive points to take the first set.
Defending PIAA Champ Jason Li Wins First WPIAL Golf Crown
The 2014 state champion is this years 2015 WPIAL Class AA champion. Jason Li of Sewickley Academy finished 12th in last years WPIAL finals, but rose to the top Thursday to claim the AA titlle with a 2-over par 72 in very windy conditions at the Allegheny Country Club in Sewickley. Li was in the last group to tee off and led most of the way. Sharing second place honors was Adam Snyder of Sewickley Academy who sank a 30 foot birdie on the 18th hole and Mike Kondratik of Charleroi. Sixteen of the thirty two golfers qualified for the PIAA Western regional Round at Tom's Run in Blairsville.Chicks Picks – Week 5 – 2015
Welcome to Week 5 of the high school football season. After missing out on last Friday night’s football action due to a scheduling conflict, Chick’s Picks came down with a nasty case of the somethings on Saturday. When this bug continued to wreak havoc for a few days, Chick’s Picks decided it was time to seek help from the good doctor. At the exam, Chick’s Picks began explaining her symptoms to the doc. He seemed as bewildered as she was, unable to pinpoint the cause of the illness. The doc continued his questioning though, “Chick’s Picks, give me a timeline of your last few days before the illness hit you.”MSA Sports Top Ten – WPIAL Girls Volleyball – 10/01/2015
Here are the MSA Sports Top Ten WPIAL girls volleyball rankings for the week of September 28th. You can check out the new rankings every Thursday through the regular season with weekly matches heard live and archived, including Hometown Soccer broadcasts each week. You can also listen to exclusive coverage of the 2015 WPIAL Girls Volleyball Playoffs sponsored by Carlow University in October ONLY here on the MSA Sports Network. Section record in parenthesis. WPIAL GIRLS VOLLEYBALL CLASS AAA: 1) BALDWIN HIGHLANDERS (6-0) (Last Week #1) 2) NORTH ALLEGHENY TIGERS (6-0) (Last Week #2)District College Football Preview for October 3rd
September 30, 2015
It looks like Saturday is going to be a soggy one as far as the weather. Some high scores were posted in both the PSAC and the PAC, Will that be the case this week. Here is a previews of all the games.WPIAL Big Game Hunting – Week Five – 09/30/2015
It’s the “halftime is halfway” games this weekend throughout the WPIAL. The WPIAL enters week five with 22 unbeaten teams still intact and striving for perfection. Five are perfect in AAAA, four in AAA, nine in AA and four in A. When we reach halftime at this weekend’s game we will be halfway through the regular season. The weather man says there could be some rain and temperatures this Friday night will drop into the low 50’s or maybe even high 40’s during week five. Will that weather cause footballs and perfect seasons to slip through fingertips? Who will rise and who will fall as we move into October? This could get spooky. Don’t worry, take my hand, I’ve got a flashlight ; I’ve got an umbrella, we’re all set to go Big Game Hunting.MSA Sports Top Ten – WPIAL Boys Soccer – 09/30/2015
Here are the MSA Sports Top Ten WPIAL boys soccer rankings for the week of September 28th...including NEW #1 teams in both Class AAA and Class AA. You can check out the new rankings every Wednesday through the regular season with weekly matches heard live and archived, including Hometown Soccer broadcasts each week. You can also listen to exclusive coverage of the 2015 WPIAL Soccer Playoffs and the check out the Pro Grass Boys and Girls Soccer Player of the Month in September, October and November ONLY here on the MSA Sports Network. WPIAL BOYS SOCCER CLASS AAA: 1) CANON-McMILLAN BIG MACS (10-0-0) (Last Week #2)Hometown Girls Volleyball Recap – Central Valley Warriors – 09/30/2015
On a very rainy Monday evening, the Freedom Bulldogs and Central Valley Warriors girls volleyball teams faced off in a pivotal section matchup and decided to turn the heat up in Section 2-AA. Central Valley entered this mid-season match in 2nd place in the section with a section record of 4-1 (6-1 overall). Freedom entered this match with a record of 3-2 (4-3 overall) good for the middle of the 2-AAA pack. On this night, it was all Central Valley as they defeated Freedom in straight sets 25-9, 25-10, and 25-21.
