Westmoreland County high school soccer notebook: Latrobe’s Robin Reilly up for top award

By: Bill Beckner Jr.
Thursday, November 2, 2023 | 11:01 AM

Purchase Photo Options

Purchase Photo Options

Previous Next

Robin Reilly was one of the top goal scorers and set-up midfielders in Class 3A this season.

An All-WPIAL selection, the junior from Latrobe is up for the top award in the WPIAL game.

Reilly is a finalist for the Moe Rosensteel Most Outstanding Player of the Year Award, which recognizes the top girls soccer player in the WPIAL.

A watch list was put together in August and a committee of organizers, coaches and media pared it down to three standout players.

The other finalists are Riverview senior midfielder Lola Abraham and North Allegheny senior forward Abigail Stager.

All three finalists are NCAA Division I college commits.

Reilly is headed to West Virginia, Abraham to Pitt and Stager to Kentucky.

Normally, the Kaitlyn Moe Rosensteel Scholarship Foundation announces the winner the day after the PIAA finals, which this year would be Nov. 19.

Past winners are Ellie Coffield (Mars), Sarah Schupansky (North Allegheny), Kelsey Salopek (Steel Valley) and Hailey Longwell (Moon).

Group effort

Norwin will play for a WPIAL 4A boys soccer championship Saturday night at Highmark Stadium.

While head coach Scotty Schuchert won’t be there because of a two-game suspension (red card in quarterfinals), he will have complete faith in his staff.

Schuchert added more expertise to his bench with the addition of Mike Powers, a former Hempfield and Seton Hill standout, along with former Norwin player Dave Kozak, who was on two semifinal teams as a player.

“Norwin is a better team because of these coaches,” Schuchert said. “The way they accent me, they are good people.”

Powers, Schuchert said, has been instrumental in film study and application of ideas. Kozak has been “hands on,” running with the players in practice like Schuchert often does.

“He replicated (Seneca Valley’s Tyler) Prex for us,” Schuchert said. “That was huge in practice.”

Powers coached a loaded 2006 Pittsburgh Assassins Futsal Club that only lost one game.

Players included Norwin’s Anthony Scalise and Daniel Maddock, Joseph Krug of Chartiers Valley, Pablo Linzoain of Fox Chapel, Davi Jansson of Moon, Xavier Mwaura of Chartiers Valley and J.J. Porter of North Allegheny.

“Maybe the best team I have ever seen,” Powers said. “They were so good, we let them play street ball.”

Powers also served as an assistant at Plum and Penn-Trafford.

Norwin’s other assistants are Carter Breen, Matt Henry, Caitlin Schuchert and Rege Schuchert.

On the call

Powers will work as a color analyst for the Westmoreland Sports Network crew that will produce livestreams for the NFHS Network of all eight WPIAL soccer finals on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Powers will help call seven games. The last one on Saturday night, though, will pull him out of the booth as he helps to coach Norwin.

“I told (Dan Flickinger) I’d be glad to help out,” Powers said. “But I will be busy for the 4A boys game.”

In June, the WPIAL entered into a five-year contract with the NFHS as a streaming partner.

On to states

The Norwin and Burrell boys are the only Westmoreland County teams that qualified for the PIAA playoffs.

As of Wednesday, no local girls teams had qualified. The last time that happened was 2018.

Postseason honors

A number of county players made the All-WPIAL soccer lists.

Local boys players include Owen Christopher, Anthony Scalise and Daniel Maddock of Norwin, Roman Agostoni of Latrobe, Danny Christafano and Joey Bayne of Franklin Regional, Trevor Kovatch of Belle Vernon, Jordan Taylor of Jeannette and Austin Ulery and Luke Rivardo of Mt. Pleasant.

Taylor was named the 2A player of the year.

Christopher and Taylor also were named to the Pennsylvania Soccer Coaches Association All-State list.

The coaches’ selections for the girls included Riley Kerr, Jillian Botti and Jiana Patterson of Greensburg Central Catholic, Kataira Rhodes of Belle Vernon, Aris Lamanna and Abby Paterline of Franklin Regional, Robin Reilly, Regan Reilly, Maddy Petruzzi and Ava Yurko of Latrobe, Sam Saylor of Monessen, Rylin Bugosh, Morgan Gesinski, Riley Gesinski, Maggie Piper and Laurel Rummel of Mt. Pleasant and Aubrey Seder off Southmoreland.

Bill Beckner Jr. is a TribLive reporter covering local sports in Westmoreland County. He can be reached at bbeckner@triblive.com.

Tags: Belle Vernon, Franklin Regional, Greensburg C.C., Jeannette, Latrobe, Norwin, Penn-Trafford