WJPA Sports

Washington/Greene County is sending 13 teams to the WPIAL soccer playoffs. The WPIAL soccer committee meets Wednesday to set the brackets and is expected to release the pairings mid-afternoon. Bentworth, Canon-McMillan, Chartiers-Houston and Peters Township have both boys and girls teams heading for the post-season. They’ll be joined by girls teams from Beth-Center and Waynesburg and boys squads from Charleroi, Ringgold and Trinity. Bentworth boys and girls are defending champions. Once brackets are released, we’ll post the match-ups here.

Girls volleyball was expanded to six classifications by the PIAA, starting with this season. The regular season ends Thursday with the WPIAL committee scheduled to meet Friday to set the brackets. Canon-McMillan (6A), Peters Township & Trinity (5A), Waynesburg, McGuffey & Chartiers-Houston (3A), Fort Cherry, Wash High, Bentworth, Beth-Center & California (2A) have all clinched post-season berths. Ringgold (4A), Jeff-Morgan & Carmichaels (2A) are still alive, pending their final matches. Each qualifies with a win. Once brackets are posted, we’ll list the match-ups here.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Pittsburgh Penguins forward Ben Kindel is being evaluated at a Salt Lake City hospital after having a medical emergency on the team’s flight home from a four-game trip. The club said the 19-year-old Kindel had an unspecified issue shortly after the team’s plane took off from the Salt Lake City airport on Tuesday. The plane returned to the airport while Kindel was tended to on the flight by the team’s medical staff. He was taken by ambulance to the University of Utah hospital. The team said Kindel was conscious, alert and stable. Kindel was the 11th overall pick in the 2025 draft.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Marquez Valdes-Scantling is back with the Pittsburgh Steelers. The team has signed the veteran wide receiver to the practice squad after a spate of injuries at the position. Valdes-Scantling, 32, spent part of the 2025 season with Pittsburgh, catching 10 passes for 80 yards and a touchdown in five games. Pittsburgh needs help at wide receiver after Michael Pittman Jr. and Roman Wilson were placed on injured reserve. The Steelers are Valdes-Scantling’s third team in less than two months. He was released by Dallas in late August and then signed with the Los Angeles Chargers in September before being let go last week.

NEW YORK (AP) — The NFL says security will be heightened for the game in Paris between the Pittsburgh Steelers and New Orleans Saints on Sunday after protests engulfed the French capital last weekend. Executive VP of club business, international and league events Peter O’Reilly says the league’s security team has been on the ground and that officials are working closely with Parisian police. O’Reilly says there was never a point that the game was in danger of not being played at Stade de France.