November 8, 2019 3:39 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) – Los Angeles Rams Aaron Donald will enjoy a homecoming when the Rams travel to Pittsburgh to face the Steelers. Donald grew up in the Pittsburgh suburbs and still spends his offseasons there, focusing on making an impact in the community. He started a foundation over the summer to help underprivileged children and also made a seven-figure donation to the University of Pittsburgh football program. Donald says he was raised to never forget where he came from.
November 8, 2019 2:31 am
The WPIAL Football playoffs got underway Friday night with 30 games over the six classifications. Peters Township, McGuffey, Wash High and West Greene all picked up first-round wins, while Canon-McMillan, Burgettstown, Charleroi and California were eliminated. Friday, four classifications (6A, 4A, 3A, 1A) will play their semifinals heading to championships Saturday, Nov. 16 at Heinz Field while Class 5A and Class 2A will be hold quarterfinals with their finals at Norwin High School Saturday, Nov. 23.
CLICK HERE for WPIAL Football Brackets
Here’s the schedule for the second round (all 7 pm):
5A Quarterfinals #5 Peters Township vs. #4 Moon Area at West Allegheny
4A Semifinals #2 South Fayette vs. #3 Belle Vernon at Peters Township
4A Semifinals #1 Thomas Jefferson vs. #4 Blackhawk at Chartiers Valley
2A Quarterfinals #1 Washington vs. #8 Freedom Area at Canon-McMillan (WJPA-AM, 1450)
2A Quarterfinals #6 McGuffey vs. #14 Riverside at Montour (WJPA-FM, 95.3)
1A Semifinals #2 West Greene vs. Sto-Rox at Trinity
November 7, 2019 3:45 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) – Pittsburgh Steelers outside linebacker Bud Dupree is setting himself up for a big payday next spring. Dupree has 6 sacks through 8 games, matching his career high. Dupree is entering the final season of the rookie contract he signed after the Steelers selected him in the first round of the 2015 draft. Teammate Cam Heyward says Dupree has matured both on the field and off and the Steelers should do what they can to make sure Dupree stays in Pittsburgh in 2020.
November 6, 2019 2:46 am
The Presidents Athletic Conference Men’s and Women’s Soccer Championships are set for this week with the winners claiming the automatic bids into the NCAA Division III tournaments. Washington & Jefferson, Grove City and Westminster have teams in both tournaments. The Chatham women and Geneva men fill out the brackets. Semifinals are scheduled for the top two seeds Tuesday/Wednesday with the title matches at the higher remaining seed on Saturday.
Women’s Semifinals, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 7 pm
Grove City 2, Washington & Jefferson 0
Chatham 1, Westminster 0
Men’s Semifinals, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 7 pm
#4 Grove City at #1 Washington & Jefferson’s Alexandre Stadium
#3 Westminster at #2 Geneva College’s Reeves Field
November 5, 2019 3:50 am
BOSTON (AP) – Brad Marchand batted one out of the air and into the net, and his game-winner deflected off the goaltender’s back. Certainly not your average two goals, but things are far from normal about the Boston Bruins’ start this season. Marchand scored his second of the game with 1:57 left in the third period, and the Bruins beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 6-4 on Monday night after blowing a 3-0 lead. “They’re fun to be part of. You don’t expect them to come often, but they’re nice when they happen,” Marchand said of his big night, which included three assists and extended his point streak to 13 games. David Pastrnak, Jake DeBrusk and Torey Krug also scored for Boston (11-1-2), which has won six straight. The Bruins are 7-0-1 at home this season. Marchand skated in on the left wing and fired a wrister that hit the far post and went into the net off Tristan Jarry’s back. Krug’s one-timer from the right circle had tied it 4-4 midway into the third.
In the first, Marchand used a baseball-style swing to bat a loose puck out of the air and into the net, making it 2-0. Patrice Bergeron added an empty-net goal and Jaroslav Halak made 40 saves. “We won the game because of Jaroslav,” DeBrusk said. “We didn’t like the way we came off the ice in the second period.” Dominik Kahun, Nick Bjugstad, Bryan Rust and John Marino scored for Pittsburgh. Marino’s was his first career NHL goal. The Bruins had opened a 3-0 lead on Pastrnak’s team-leading 14th goal 4:22 into the second when Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan decided to pull starting goalie Matt Murray. “I think we got a little comfortable when we got up 3-nothing and their goalie got pulled,” Marchand said. “We got it done. At the end of the day, it’s the regular season. It doesn’t matter how you win, and we got the win.” The Penguins then outshot Boston 15-4 over the remainder of the period, scoring four times to take the lead. “This is one of the best games we’ve played all year,” Sullivan said. “We’re playing one of the top teams in the league. … I thought it was a really good game by our team. We just didn’t win.” Kahun started the comeback when he fired a tough-angle shot into the net from near the bottom of the right circle at 5:35. Bjugstad then sliced the deficit to one 4:21 later when he broke in alone off a pass from Kris Letang and fired a wrister that caromed into the net off the right post. Evgeni Malkin backhanded a pass from along the boards, finding Rust alone in the slot. He beat Halak with a wrister to the glove side, tying it at 15:59. Marino, who was off for tripping, stepped onto the ice as his penalty expired, collected a loose puck near center ice, skated in on a clean breakaway and shifted to the backhand before tucking it behind Halak and pushing the Penguins in front with 2.4 seconds left in the period. Players on Pittsburgh’s bench were jumping up and down when Marino scored to cap the huge comeback, and a frustrated Halak smashed his stick off the crossbar into a couple of pieces, tossing the handle off the backboards when he was done. Marino grew up about 45 minutes away in Easton, Massachusetts, and attended Harvard.
November 4, 2019 2:40 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Not this time, Adam Vinatieri. The Indianapolis Colts kicker missed a go-ahead 43-yard field goal with 1:14 remaining, helping the Pittsburgh Steelers escape with a 26-24 victory on Sunday. Vinatieri, whose 55-yard kick last week against Denver gave the Colts their third straight victory, pulled his attempt left of the uprights as the Colts (5-3) fell out of first place in the AFC South. Mason Rudolph threw for 191 yards with a touchdown and an interception for Pittsburgh, and Minkah Fitzpatrick returned an interception 96 yards for a score as the Steelers (4-4) won their third consecutive game. Backup running back Trey Edmunds ran for a career-high 73 yards and Chris Boswell kicked four field goals as Pittsburgh reached the midpoint of the season at .500 despite losing quarterback Ben Roethlisberger to a right elbow injury in Week 2. The Colts may have quarterback issues of their own after Jacoby Brissett left in the second quarter with a left knee injury. Brian Hoyer came on and threw for three touchdowns in Brissett’s absence and drove Indianapolis to well within field goal range in the final minutes thanks in part to a 40-yard pass interference penalty against Pittsburgh’s Steven Nelson. Vinatieri, the NFL’s all-time leading scorer, had an extra point blocked in the third quarter and has been dealing with accuracy issues all season. The snap and hold were good, but his kick fluttered left of the upright into the open end of Heinz Field, allowing Pittsburgh to run out the clock on a day the Steelers mustered just 273 total yards.
November 2, 2019 4:04 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) – The surging Indianapolis Colts have quickly moved on without quarterback Andrew Luck. Indianapolis is 5-2 and atop the AFC South heading into a visit to Pittsburgh to face the 3-4 Steelers. Quarterback Jacoby Brissett has been steady after being elevated to starter following Luck’s abrupt retirement and coach Frank Reich says the Colts are “Jacoby’s team.” Pittsburgh has won two straight. Backup quarterback Mason Rudolph threw for 2 TDs last week in a win over Miami.
November 2, 2019 4:02 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) – Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker Anthony Chickillo is back at practice after being taken off the commissioner’s exempt list. The league made the move one day after misdemeanor chargers were withdrawn against Chickillo stemming from an incident with his girlfriend at a western Pennsylvania resort on Oct. 20. Fayette County District Attorney Richard Bower the woman no longer wanted to pursue charges against the 26-year-old.
November 2, 2019 4:01 am
Luke Gladden scored from 22 yards out with just 62 seconds left in regulation, then set up Joey Fonagy for a championship-winning header in overtime as Canon-McMillan rallied past Mt. Lebanon, 3-2, to win the WPIAL Boys Class 4A Soccer title. It’s the Big Macs second WPIAL soccer crown in the past five years. CM needed two late goals in the semifinals against Plum to reach Thursday’s championship match. Mt. Lebanon swept the regular season series against Canon-McMillan by scores of 3-1 and 4-3. Both teams had already qualified for the PIAA tournament which opens Tuesday. Canon-McMillan will face the District 3 fourth-place finisher somewhere in the WPIAL. Mt. Lebanon will travel to take on either the District 6 champion or the District 10 champion.
CLICK for PIAA 4A Boys Soccer Brackets
PIAA Boys Soccer 4A First Round, Tuesday, Nov. 5, site/time to be determined
Canon-McMillan vs. District 3 fourth-place
Fort Cherry blanked previously-unbeaten #3 Shenango in three sets to advance to Saturday’s WPIAL Volleyball Championships. The Rangers won by scores of 25-20, 25-18, 25-22) to earn the trip to Fox Chapel to take on top-seeded Bishop Canevin. The Crusaders beat Geibel Catholic, 3-1.
Canon-McMillan will face top-seeded North Allegheny in the Class 4A championship match, also at Fox Chapel.
Click for Girls WPIAL Volleyball Brackets
WPIAL Volleyball Championships, Saturday, Nov. 2 at Fox Chapel
1A #2 Fort Cherry vs. #1 Bishop Canevin, 12 noon
4A #3 Canon-McMillan vs. #1 North Allegheny, 6 pm
October 30, 2019 3:48 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) – Sidney Crosby and Dominik Simon scored during an early four-goal outburst, and the Pittsburgh Penguins drilled the Philadelphia Flyers 7-1 on Tuesday night. Crosby, wearing a facemask as extra protection after getting hit in the head by a shot over the weekend, added two assists to boost his career point total against the Flyers to 102 as the Penguins rolled to a rare lopsided victory over their cross-state rivals. Jared McCann, Justin Schultz, Zach Aston-Reese, Jake Guentzel and Dominik Kahun also scored for Pittsburgh. Matt Murray stopped 29 shots to win for the sixth time in his last seven starts. Oskar Lindblom got his sixth goal for the Flyers, but Philadelphia was simply overwhelmed by the Penguins during a first-period onslaught in which Pittsburgh beat Brian Elliott four times in just more than six minutes. Elliott, given the start two days after Carter Hart was pulled in a loss to the New York Islanders, stuck around to finish with 30 saves but the Flyers were never in it over the final two periods. Schultz’s first goal of the season came on an innocent flick from above the right circle 5:57 into the game on a shot that fluttered over Elliott’s right shoulder. While Rust and Kahun occupied three Philadelphia defenders at the side of the net just more than two minutes later, McCann skated into the slot and flipped the puck past Elliott to double Pittsburgh’s lead. The din from McCann’s goal had barely died down when Crosby’s drop pass to Simon gave him plenty of room to beat Elliott and give the Penguins their third goal in a span of 2:49. Crosby’s assist gave him 100 points in 68 career games against the Flyers. By the end of the period, he pushed the total to 101 thanks to a pretty cross-ice pass from Simon that Crosby turned into his fifth of the season and 42nd all-time against Philadelphia. The score also capped Pittsburgh’s first four-goal first period since Dec. 17, 2011, against Buffalo. Murray, given little to do while his teammates pounded Elliott early, made sure the cushion stood up. Only Lindblom’s goal 1:57 into the third prevented Murray from posting a second straight shutout.
