Sports
BF’s Dom Peretta & QV’s Zach Skoinekovich Repeats as Boys Cross-Country Champs
October 30, 2015
Two of the three boys’ individual cross country winners were repeat champions, as Beaver Falls’ Domenic Peretta and Quaker Valley’s Zach Skolnekovich defended their championships, while Nick Wolk of Peters Township earned his first title. Meanwhile, all three reigning team champions successfully defended their titles in the event, which was held at Coopers Lake Campground near Slippery Rock. In Class A, Peretta, who is also a standout in track and field for Beaver Falls, notched a winning time of 16:15, 13 seconds better than Sewickley Academy’s Griffin Mackey. A senior, Peretta will be competing for the Penn State track and field team next year.
Marianne Abdalah of Vincentian Wins Third Title in Girls X-Country Finals
At the WPIAL Girls Cross Country Championships at Coopers Lake Campground, there was a brand new champ in AAA. Oakland Catholic's Lauren Finikiotis is a first ever champ for the Eagles. In AA, Knoch's Mandi Moxie won gold Vincentian Academy's Marianne Abdalah won for a third straight year. All of this came on a course that was surprisingly dry after rains from the day before. It was the wind that had more of an effect on the runners all day. In the team portion of the event, Seneca Valley in AAA, Quaker Valley in AA, and Vincentian Academy in A were crowned champions. The top three teams in each classification will move on to the state finals. The following is a list of all the teams, and individuals that will move on to the PIAA State FinalsChicks Picks – Week 9 – 2015
October 29, 2015
Welcome to Week 9 of the high school football season. Each year, Chick’s Picks heads up the official MSA Sports Network Halloween Costume Committee. This is a critical role, as finding a group costume that suits the personalities of the entire MSA Sports Network team can be quite a challenge. After managing this task for 15 years and running low on ideas, Chick’s Picks found this challenge to be exceptionally daunting this Halloween. Then, an email came through from The Boss, and it suddenly all made sense. The Boss wrote, “MSA Sports will continue our tradition in support of Breast Cancer Awareness month by wearing PINK on Friday. Do what you can to wear pink for the cause at your football game.”District College Football Preview for Saturday, October 31st
October 28, 2015
Conference races head up as Week 9 of the district college football season kicks off. The focus will be along Interstate 80 as IUP travels to Clarion to see who stays alive in the PSAC West race. Duquesne is in a three way tie for the NEC lead, while W & J fell out of the top 25 after last week’s loss in Cleveland. Here are previews of ALL THE GAMES, with recaps on Sunday morning: Robert Morris(2-5) at Central Connecticut(3-5) Noon The Colonials are 1-2 in the NEC and have dropped 2 straight.WPIAL Big Game Hunting – Week Nine 2015
Week Nine brings with it some big time rivalry games that are made extra special by the fact that they all have additional meaning and immediate impact on the playoffs. The Highway to Heinz is made so much less bumpy if that first round “on ramp” is freshly paved at your home field, and not freshly paved over a seemingly never-ending amount of time with insane restrictions the way Penn Dot is doing with the Parkway West; but, rather a nice regular season-ending victory over your biggest rival. Sorry I got a little off track there, but nonetheless one last time in the 2015 regular season, let’s go Big Game Hunting!MSA Sports Top Ten – WPIAL Football – 10/28/2015
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 Eight of the 2015 WPIAL football season. This is our Final Top 10 of the season as this Sunday, we will seed all 16 playoff teams in each of the four classifications. WPIAL CLASS AAAA WPIAL FOOTBALL TOP TEN: 1. WOODLAND HILLS WOLVERINES (8-0) (Last Week #1.....Week Nine Nine at Penn Hills on MSA) 2. PENN-TRAFFORD WARRIORS (8-0) (Last Week #2.....Week Nine at Norwin on MSA)Olivia Zambruno of Greensburg CC Repeats as PIAA Girls Golf Champ
Junior Olivia Zambruno has become the golden girl on the links. Three weeks after repeating as WPIAL Girls Class AA champion, she was able to repeat as PIAA Class AA champion Tuesday at the Heritage Hills Golf Resort in York. Her two day total was 153, ten strokes better than runner-up Amber Hess of Keystone. She was the only WPIAL golfer to win gold, but a pair of Boys Class AA golfer finished in the Top 3 as 2014 WPIAL winner Chris Tanabe of Quaker Valley finished second with a 150, four strokes behind champion Nate Mennon of Wyomissing while 2015 WPIAL champion Jason Li finished third with a 151. WPIAL Girls AAA champion Marissa Balish finished in third place with a 154.WPIAL Plays of the Week – Week Eight 2015
October 27, 2015
While every week of the 2015 WPIAL football season has provided a bevy of great games and highlight-reel plays, no week has been more exciting or featured as many crucial moments as this past week. In fact, there were so many worthy candidates, that South Fayette's thrilling second-half comeback against Seton-La Salle to extend its winning streak to 40 games didn't even make the cut. Here are the top moments from week eight of the campaign. Central Catholic 35, Pine-Richland 28WPIAL Football Playoff Picture 10/26/2015
October 26, 2015
The MSA Sports abacus will be cooking on Friday as we determine the final field for this falls district football playoffs. Heading into the regular season finale this weekend, here is a breakdown of all 14 football conferences around the WPIAL along with the wild card picture in Quad-A and Triple-A as we prepare for the 2015 Highway to Heinz. CLASS AAAA Foothills Conference: Penn-Trafford Warriors (7-0) have clinched Conference Champion 10/30: at Norwin McKeesport Tigers (6-1) have clinched McKeesport can finish in second place with a win Friday over Kiski Area 10/30: KISKI AREA
WPIAL Alum Q&A – Matt Barto
Over the past several weeks, the WPIAL Alum Q&A has focused on athletes who excel in a variety of fall sports, including football, soccer, girls’ volleyball and tennis. For this week’s edition, golf comes to the forefront, with the spotlight on former Leechburg High School champion Matt Barto. In addition to capturing the section championship in all four years at Leechburg, Barto captured the Class AA Individual Championship in both his junior and senior years with the Blue Devils. In 2012, Barto shot a one-over 73 at Youghiogheny Country Club to capture the title, and the following year, he won in a playoff after shooting a round of 75 at Sewickley Heights Golf Club.PIHL Notebook – Class B & C Preview
Welcome to another installment of “PIHL Notebook” as we wrap up our season preview four-pack with a look inside Division II, Class B and Class C. Things are a bit more streamlined here than last season. There are no “B Teams” like Peters Township has fielded the last few years. Power house Harbor Creek folded, and longtime member Morgantown is gone as well. There are no tiers or conferences. Just two classifications with eight teams slated to make the postseason. Far as we know, all five Class B teams will make it, so for them the regular campaign is purely about seeding. The eight teams occupying Class C will battle it out for the other three spots.Scholastic Notebook – 10/25/2015
October 25, 2015
The irony of it. Deer Lakes came into Friday night’s game with the leading rusher in the entire WPIAL this season Hunter Burns. When it ended, Apollo-Ridge had the top rusher ever in a WPIAL game. Duane Brown, a junior at Apollo-Ridge, put himself in the history books when he rushed for a WPIAL record 460 yards in a 56-35 victory over Deer Lakes. Brown was certainly a workhorse in the game, carrying the ball 47 times. Brown broke a 15-year-old WPIAL record. Connellsville’s Marcus Furman ran for 455 yards in a 2000 game. What’s funny is that Apollo-Ridge coach John Skiba and his team had no idea how many yards Brown had or that he had broken the WPIAL record until an announcer from your very own MSA Sports staff came on the field and told him after the game.This Week on the MSA Sports Network – 10/25/2015
We conclude the Stretch Run of the 2015 high school football season while starting exclusive coverage of the 2015 WPIAL Soccer and Girls Volleyball Playoffs this week here on the MSA Sports Network. We wrap up the regular season with Week Nine of the high school football season with 29 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 Football Standings
Here are the latest WPIAL and Pittsburgh City League football standings through Week Eight 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 Eight
With only two games on the Week 8 Saturday docket, lets give a team of the cap to Western Beaver. Going into Saturdays game, the Golden Beavers were 0-7 and had scored only 29 points in a looooong year. They fell behind playoff bound Union 19-0 after one quarter and could have rolled over and taken it on the chin again. But Matt Gray's team badly outplayed the Scotties the final three quarters and if not for two touchdowns called back and a dropped touchdown late, could have and should have pulled off the stunning upset. A great effort and kudos to Western Beaver. Nasan Tibbens - RiverviewDistrict College Football Recap for October 24th
As October winds down, races in the PSAC-West and the PAC got a little tigher. SRU and Cal posted huge wins, while Clarion fell from the unbeaten ranks. W & J dropped from PAC title contention and likely out of the top 25 with a loss in Cleveland. Here are recaps of ALL THE GAMES: California 42 – Clarion 28 The Vulcans played the role of spoiler at home on Saturday, handing the #25 Golden Eagles their first loss of the year. John Franklin scored twice and Jimmy Wheeler(West Mifflin) once as Cal controlled the clock and the game. The Vulcan defense also stood tall with 6 interceptions.WPIAL Saturday Football Scores – 10/24/2015
October 24, 2015
For the second week in a row, the WPIAL football schedule was loaded for bear on Friday night, thus leaving only a couple of scraps for the Saturday slate. Only two games were on the docket on this eighth Saturday of the season with very little at stake outside of civic pride and a possible home first round playoff game for one visiting squad. Here are both of the final results from Saturday afternoon. WPIAL CLASS A Eastern Conference: Riverview Raiders 40 - Wilkinsburg Tigers 6 WPIAL CLASS A Big 7 Conference: Union Scotties 25 - Western Beaver Golden Beavers 22 (MSA)WPIAL Friday Night HighLights – Week Eight 2015
What a night for high school football in District 7. The skies were clear and the temps above average for late October, some teams clinched conference titles while others earned home field advantage in Round One and others still earned the right to participate in the upcoming postseason. Plus it turned out to be a record setting night for one junior running back. All this and the real fireworks don't begin for another two weeks. Here are some of the top standouts from the eighth Friday of the WPIAL football season. Duane Brown - Apollo-RidgeMSA Sports Top Ten – WPIAL Girls Volleyball Playoff Teams – 10/23/2015
October 23, 2015
Each week during the regular season, MSA Sports ranks the Top Ten WPIAL girls volleyball teams. However the regular season is now over and instead of ten, we now rank all 16 AAA. 18 AA and 19 A playoff bound teams. You can also listen to exclusive coverage of the 2015 WPIAL Girls Volleyball Playoffs sponsored by Carlow University starting next week ONLY here on the MSA Sports Network. Final section record in parenthesis. WPIAL GIRLS VOLLEYBALL CLASS AAA: 1) BALDWIN HIGHLANDERS (12-0) 2) NORTH ALLEGHENY TIGERS (12-0) 3) UPPER ST. CLAIR PANTHERS (12-0)WPIAL/City League Friday Football Scores – 10/22/2015
October 22, 2015
The busiest Friday of the year (well, tied for busiest with Week 7) had plenty of games that clinched a postseason berth for some while ending the playoff hopes of others. That was part of what made Week Eight so great. First place or a share there of was up for grabs in the Northern Eight, Southeastern, Century and Black Hills Conferences on a cool and crisp Friday night in late October. Here are all of the high school football final results from both the WPIAL and Pittsburgh City League. WPIAL CLASS AAAA Northern Eight Conference: Pittsburgh Central Catholic Vikings 35 - Pine-Richland Rams 28 (F) North Hills Indians 35 - Shaler Titans 7 (F) Butler Golden Tornado 30 - Fox Chapel Foxes 22 (F)
