Westmoreland high school notebook: Franklin Regional seniors bond together

By: Bill Beckner Jr.
Sunday, February 9, 2025 | 5:57 PM

Senior night was special for a group of girls who are having a special season.

Few saw coming this year’s run to a section championship by the Franklin Regional girls basketball team — the program’s first section title since 1979 — except for maybe the five seniors on the team.

They know each other well.

Franklin Regional (15-6) has only lost once since the calendar turned to 2025. The Panthers have won 10 of their last 11 games heading into the WPIAL playoffs.

The seniors — Madison DeRiggi, Sierra Downs, Toryn Fulton, Addison Musto, and Anna Novelli — have played basketball together for nearly a decade, going back to when they were in fourth grade.

They began playing in the same travel team with the Franklin Regional Athletic Association and collectively gravitated to team Hustle until last year.

Their closeness made the sentiment of senior night Monday special.

It was on that night the Panthers stomped Armstrong, 57-17, to clinch at least a share of the section.

On the ice

The PIHL playoffs won’t start until the end of the month, but teams have begun to clinch postseason berths.

The PIHL awards three points for a win in regulation, two for an overtime win and one for an overtime loss.

Local teams headed to the playoffs so far are Penn-Trafford (13-2-1-1) and Latrobe (13-3-0-0) in Class 2A and Burrell (12-2-1-1) from the Class A Blue Division.

New coach

Belle Vernon has a new girls volleyball coach. The district hired Ina Helmick, a California High School alum who played at Saint Vincent.

A P3R club coach, she has served as an assistant for the past two years at California and also was an assistant for one season at Ringgold.

Tatsch adds more offers

Latrobe junior Andy Tatsch now has football scholarship offers from the Big 12 and Mid-American conferences, as well as the Patriot and Ivy leagues.

His latest offers are from Bucknell, Cornell, Lehigh and Penn.

The 6-foot-2, 190-pound receiver and defensive back, a first-team all-conference pick at the latter spot, already had offers from West Virginia, Akron and Buffalo.

More for Heisler

Brock Heisler, Hempfield’s standout lineman, added two more Division I scholarship offers, from Delaware and Lehigh.

Heisler is a 6-3, 225-pound tackle. His other recent offers include Akron and Buffalo.

Recruiting

• Cole Chatfield, Mt. Pleasant’s senior quarterback and all-time leading passer, will continue his playing career at Allegheny College.

• Belle Vernon’s Dominic Ghilani committed to play football at Case Western, and teammate Anthony Crews is headed to Indiana Wesleyan.

• Jeannette lineman Nick Stuchell chose to play at Division III Bethany. Stuchell (6-2, 220) was a four-year starter for the Jayhawks and played left tackle, nose guard and defensive end.

• Victoria Scaramucci of Belle Vernon will continue her golf career at Cal (Pa.).

• JJ Porter of Penn-Trafford is headed to Lebanon Valley to play soccer.

• More signees from Penn-Trafford include Logan Kertstetter, who will compete in track and field at Edinboro, volleyball player Kaci DePalma (La Roche), Matthew Alaia (Edinboro track), Jake McGhee (Cal, Pa. track/cross country), and soccer player Chloe Walton (Barton).

• Franklin Regional soccer players Noah Walker (Marietta), Danny Christafano (Penn State Behrend) and Mitchell Murray (Pitt-Greensburg) made college commitments.

• Ethan Raver, a golfer at Franklin Regional, will play at La Roche.

• Franklin Regional’s Will Weaver will run track and cross country at IUP.

• Latrobe baseball player Mason Leonard committed to Waynesburg.

• Carmella Simco, a soccer player at Norwin, will play at Allegheny.

• Southmoreland’s Lexi Ohler willl run track and cross country at Carnegie Mellon.

• Softball player Sophia Doherty of Derry will play at Carnegie Mellon.

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

Tags: Belle Vernon, Burrell, Franklin Regional, Jeannette, Latrobe, Mt. Pleasant, Penn-Trafford