Sports
District College Football Recap for Saturday, October 31st
November 1, 2015
On Halloween, several of the district college football teams thought they lost their heads with some very lopsided scores. With just a couple of weeks remaining, Duquesne shares the lead in the NEC, Slippery Rock is looking for back to back trips to the PSAC State Title game and programs who have struggled in recent years are close to the top of the PAC standings. Here are recaps of ALL THE GAMES from Saturday. Duquesne 35 – Wagner 17 The Dukes remain tied with CCSU at 3-1 atop the NEC standings. Rafiq Douglas ran for 3 touchdowns as Duquesne goes to 6-3 overall.North Allegheny Wins Third Straight PIAA Girls AAA Team Tennis Title
October 31, 2015
It was like a WPIAL block party at the 2015 PIAA Girls Team Tennis Championships at the Hershey Racquet Club as five District 7 teams reached the Semifinals and three of them played in the state finals on Saturday. While Shady Side Academy in AAA and Beaver in AA lost in the championship match and brought home silver from Chocolatetown, North Allegheny claimed gold. As they did in the WPIAL AAA title match, the Tigers beat the SSA Indians to win a third straight girls tennis state crown. Here are all of the results from the 2015 PIAA Girls Team Tennis Championships. 2015 PIAA CLASS AAA GIRLS TEAM TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH: NORTH ALLEGHENY TIGERS 4 - SHADY SIDE ACADEMY INDIANS 1WPIAL Saturday Football Scores – 10/31/2015
Instead of using a bunch of Halloween cliches, I'll use the final day of the regular season to jump on my soap box. Very few teams that don't make the playoffs play a Week Ten game anymore. We are over ten years now since the WPIAL went from a 10 week to 9 week regular season schedule, giving non-playoff teams the option as to weather they want to play another game. Sadly, most don't. Why not? Some extra practices and one extra game couldn't hurt the underclassman. Just saying. Anyway, back to the regular season which ended today with these two final results. WPIAL CLASS A Eastern Conference: Serra Catholic Eagles 23 - Wilkinsburg Tigers 20 WPIAL CLASS A Black Hills Conference:WPIAL Football Tiebreaker Explanations
Nowadays, any Tom, Dick or Harry can find out from other what is going on and then tweet it out like they are Tom Brokaw breaking a new flash. If you listened to Friday nights WPIAL Scoreboard Show, you found out who was in and some of the why. Here is a more insightful look into how the tiebreakers worked to figure out the 2015 WPIAL football playoff field. First, an explanation the Gardner Point system: A team earns ten points for all the wins earned by every conference team they beat. What? Here is a simple way to explain. If you beat Team A who had a 6-2 conference record, you earn 60 Gardner Points for their 6 wins. If you beat Team B and they were 2-6 in conference, you earn another 20 points for their 2 wins.WPIAL Friday Night HighLights – Week Nine 2015
WOW! There was a lot of offense on the final Friday of the regular season. Some were great tune-ups for the upcoming high school football postseason. Other were wrapping up the season and going out with a blaze of glory. Whether the driving force coming into the game was a conference title, a home game, a playoff berth or just plain old civic and school color pride, here are some of the top performances on a night we could sprain our arm tipping our cap to all who deserved it. Miles Sanders - Woodland HillsWPIAL/City League Friday Football Scores – 10/30/2015
October 30, 2015
For some football teams in the WPIAL, this Halloween Eve will be filled with treats as teams search their bag of goodies and find conference championships, playoff berths and the fun-size home field advantage postseason games. For others however, this final Friday of the regular season will be filled with tricks as teams see their playoff hopes disappear with one smoky poof. Here are all the WPIAL Week Nine football games along with the one Pittsburgh City League Semifinals contest. Check back later this evening for final results and follow us on twitter @msasports for updated scores throughout the night. Games marked with (MSA) can be heard live and archived here on the MSA Sports Network. All games kick off at 7:30pm unless otherwise indicated.Scholastic Notebook – 10/30/2015
If you want to see variety, check out Paris this fall. But we’re not talking the city of Paris. We’re talking the junior do-it-all player for the Seton-LaSalle football team named Paris Ford. He is a Ford that is souped up with versatility. He is undoubtedly one of the most versatile – and best – players in the WPIAL. Ford is listed as a receiver and defensive back. He is a stud at both positions. But he also runs the football and returns kicks and punts. How versatile is he? Well, Seton-LaSalle has moved the 6-foot-1, 170-pound Ford to linebacker because that’s where they could use him the most.Sewickley Boys & North Allegheny Girls Win PIAA Team Golf Gold
A day after heavy rains forced the postponement of the PIAA Team Golf Championships on Wednesday, the Sewickley Academy boys and North Allegheny girls turned the wait into a golden experience. The Panthers in Boys AA and the Tigers in Girls AAA won PIAA Team Golf titles on Thursday afternoon at the Heritage Hills Golf Resort in York. After finishing second a year ago, Sewickley Academy claimed its first ever PIAA boys golf crown by shooting a combined 333, ten strokes better than runner-up New Hope-Solebury. North Allegheny girls were even more impressive by posting a score of 353 which was 23 strokes better than runner-up Mount St. Joseph.
BF’s Dom Peretta & QV’s Zach Skoinekovich Repeats as Boys Cross-Country Champs
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.
