October 29, 2019 3:29 am
When the WPIAL football playoffs open this weekend, seven Washington County schools will take the field. The pairings for this year’s tournaments were announced Monday night by the League. Class 6A Canon-McMillan opens Friday night at North Allegheny. The brackets include home games for 5A Peters Township, 2A Burgettstown, McGuffey and Washington, and 1A West Greene. The other two area schools, 2A Charleroi and 1A California, will open on the road. The formats for the six classes are the same as last year. Classes 6A, 4A, 3A and 1A will play three rounds including championship games scheduled for Heinz Field, Saturday, Nov. 16. Class 6A starts with six teams, the others have eight. In Class 5A and 2A, both starting with 16 teams, there will be four rounds ending with the WPIAL Finals at Norwin High School Nov. 23. CLICK HERE for WPIAL Football Brackets Here’s the Friday night schedule for area teams, all with 7 pm kickoffs:
Class 6A quarterfinals #6 Canon-McMillan at #3 North Allegheny
Class 5A First Round #12 Mars Area at #5 Peters Township
Class 2A First Round #16 Shady Side Academy at #1 Washington (WJPA-AM, 1450)
Class 2A First Round #14 Riverside at #3 Burgettstown (WJPA-FM, 95.3)
Class 2A First Round #11 South Side Beaver at #6 McGuffey
Class 2A First Round #9 Charleroi at #8 Freedom Area
Class 1A Quarterfinals #5 California vs. #4 Cornell AT West Allegheny HS
Class 1A Quarterfinals #7 Greensburg Central Catholic at #2 West Greene
October 29, 2019 3:07 am
Bentworth scored first but Shady Side Academy got a hat-trick from Callie Davis as the Indians beat the Bearcats, 5-1, in the WPIAL Class 1A Girls Soccer semifinals. Jocelyn Timlin put Bentworth up, 1-0, in the 14th minute. Davis tied the game four minutes later before Melissa Riggins netted the first of her two goals, putting Shady Side in front to stay. Shady Side dominated play in the second half to win a 14th straight game and earn a third meeting with Section 1 foe Greensburg Central Catholic. Bentworth will face Freedom on Wednesday in the WPIAL third-place consolation with the winner advancing to the PIAA tournament. Freedom downed Bentworth in last year’s WPIAL finals.
North Allegheny outscored Peters Township, 4-2, in penalty kicks following two overtimes as the Tigers eliminated the Indians, 2-1. Only the WPIAL finalists qualify for the PIAA tournament in Class 4A.
CLICK for Girls WPIAL Soccer Brackets
Girls soccer PIAA qualifier, Wednesday, Oct. 30
1A #2 Bentworth vs. #1 Freedom, 6 pm at Peters Township
Canon-McMillan scored twice in the final seven minutes to beat Plum, 3-2, handing the Mustangs their first loss of the season. The Big Macs advance to the WPIAL Class 4A title match against Section 1 foe Mt. Lebanon. The Blue Devils swept the regular season series against Canon-McMillan, 3-1 and 4-3. The WPIAL Soccer Championships are Thursday-Saturday at Highmark Stadium.
CLICK for Boys WPIAL Soccer Brackets
Boys Soccer Finals, Thursday, Oct. 31, 8 pm
4A #4 Canon-McMillan vs. #2 Mt. Lebanon at Highmark Stadium.
Canon-McMillan volleyball rolled to a 3-0 win over #6 Shaler Monday night. The Big Macs will face either Pine-Richland or Oakland Cathoilc in Wednesday’s semifinals.
Click for Girls WPIAL Volleyball Brackets
Semifinals, Wednesday, Oct. 30
4A #3 Canon-McMillan vs. #2 Pine-Richland, 6 pm at North Hills
Two more Washington/Greene County volleyball teams head to the quarterfinals Tuesday: Fort Cherry and Carmichaels.
Quarterfinals, Tuesday, Oct. 29
1A #4 Carmichaels vs. #5 Geibel, 6 pm at Norwin
1A #2 Fort Cherry vs. #7 Vincentian Academy, 6 pm at Peters Township
October 28, 2019 10:35 am
The Pirates have completed their housecleaning. The team has announced that Executive Vice President and General Manager, Neal Huntington, has been relieved of his duties. In a statement released Monday morning, Chairman of the Board Bob Nutting said “I greatly appreciate Neal’s dedication to the Pirates organization and our city over the past 12 seasons. The decisions that have been made over the past month were not easy and have been the result of a systematic and thorough review, and further reinforced through multiple conversations with people that I trust and respect throughout baseball.” At the same time, the team has officially announced that Travis Williams has been named President of the organization. The former member of the Penguins executive team will officially begin his duties on November 1 and will oversee the day-to-day operations of the organization. That will include the search for both a new General Manager and Manager.
October 27, 2019 7:54 am
Wash High dominated McGuffey to win a sixth straight conference title. The Little Prexies are likely to be Class 2A’s top seed. Peters Township blanked Baldwin to share the Allegheny Eight championship. Canon-McMillan jumped in front early and cruised to a tune-up win over Butler. The Big Macs will play at North Allegheny in next Friday’s Class 6A opening round. Burgettstown completed an unbeaten regular season and a likely top 3 seed with a 10-point win at South Allegheny. California crushed Mapletown but couldn’t earn a home game in the playoffs. Charleroi and West Greene both scored non-conference wins ahead of their playoff openers next weekend. The Cougars will be on the road while the Pioneers will hosts next week.
For non-playoff teams, it’s the end of the road. Trinity beat Laurel Highlands, Carmichaels won at Brownsville, Jeff-Morgan won a shootout at Bentworth and Chartiers-Houston topped Riverview. Ringgold, Waynesburg, Beth-Center and Fort Cherry lost on the final night of the regular season.
October 25, 2019 3:50 am
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – Kirk Cousins was able to get a victory against the team that let him go in the summer of 2018. Cousins was 23 of 26 for 285 yards without a turnover as the Minnesota Vikings knocked off Washington, 19-9 to improve to 6-2. Cousins did some of his best work getting the ball to Dalvin Cook, who had 171 total yards and the game’s lone touchdown. Cook rushed 23 times for 98 yards and caught five passes for 73 yards in the Vikings’ fourth straight win. Quarterback Case Keenum had his return to Minnesota spoiled by a concussion that kept him out of the second half. Keenum also lost a fumble on a first-quarter sack. Rookie Dwayne Haskins threw an interception deep in Minnesota territory when Washington trailed by only seven points.
October 25, 2019 3:42 am
PITTSBURGH (AP) – The Pittsburgh Steelers are taking nothing for granted heading into a visit by the winless Miami Dolphins. Miami is off to a 0-6 start but has shown progress in recent weeks. The Dolphins led in the fourth quarter last week against Buffalo before falling late. The Steelers are 2-4 coming off their bye week and will have Mason Rudolph back under center. Rudolph hasn’t played since being knocked unconscious against Baltimore on Oct. 6.
October 24, 2019 8:00 am
Canon-McMillan boys, Bentworth and Peters Township girls have all advanced to the WPIAL soccer semifinals. Following are scores/schedules for area teams and WPIAL bracket links. The WPIAL Soccer Championships are scheduled for Highmark Stadium, Oct. 31-Nov. 2.
CLICK for Girls WPIAL Soccer Brackets
Girls Quarterfinals, Thursday, Oct. 24
1A Bentworth 3, Serra Catholic 1
4A Peters Township 5, Butler 0
CLICK for Boys WPIAL Soccer Brackets
Boys Semifinals, Saturday, Oct. 26
4A #4 Canon-McMillan vs. #1 Plum, 2 pm at Mars Area
Girls Semifinals, Monday, Oct. 28 (sites/times to be determined)
1A #2 Bentworth vs. #3 Shady Side Academy
4A #2 Peters Township vs. #3 North Allegheny
October 24, 2019 3:42 am
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) – Victor Hedman scored a power-play goal with 56.8 seconds remaining to give the Tampa Bay Lightning a 3-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday night. The defenseman scored from just inside the blue line off Steven Stamkos’ pass from the left circle. Alex Killorn and Cedric Paquette also scored, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 37 saves, including a pair of in-close chances in the final seconds of regulation. One of them, taken by Kris Letang, required a lengthy video review before it was confirmed that the puck didn’t cross the goal line. Brandon Tanev and Jake Guentzel scored and Tristan Jarry stopped 45 shots for the Penguins. Sidney Crosby picked up an assist and moved past Norm Ullman into sole possession of 40th place on the NHL career points list with 1,230. The injury-depleted Penguins are without forwards Evgeni Malkin, Alex Galchenyuk, Nick Bjugstad and Bryan Rust, and defensemen Brian Dumoulin and Zach Trotman. Malkin has 23 goals and 51 points in 38 games against Tampa Bay. Paquette, who played for the first time this season after being sidelined by an upper-body injury, tied it at 2 on a deflection at 7:07 of the third. Tanev skated out from behind the net and scored on a backhander at 5:06 of the second before Guentzel scored off a pass through the slot from Crosby to put Pittsburgh up 2-1 with 58.8 seconds left in the period. Crosby has 34 assists and 53 points in 40 games against the Lightning. Pittsburgh has 19 second-period goals in 11 games this season. Killorn opened the scoring midway through the first by redirecting Nikita Kucherov’s shot.
October 24, 2019 3:31 am
PITTSBURGH – Frank Coonelly’s 12-year run as president of the Pittsburgh Pirates is over after another losing season. The club announced Wednesday that it is parting ways with Coonelly effective immediately. The team said Coonelly’s replacement will be introduced on Monday but published reports say the club will be hiring former Penguins chief operating officer Travis Williams. Williams spent eleven years with the Penguins, the past eight as COO. Williams left Pittsburgh almost a year ago to become president of business operations for the New York Islanders, where he is currently working.
Coonelly helped oversee a brief renaissance that resulted in three straight playoff berths from 2013-15. He said he understood that “change was necessary” following a stunning second-half collapse in which the Pirates went 25-48 and plummeted to last in the NL Central. The team dismissed manager Clint Hurdle on the final day of the regular season. “Frank and I both agreed that it was clear a change in the day-to-day leadership of the club is needed,” Pirates chairman Bob Nutting said in a statement. “This leadership transition gives us the opportunity to refresh our entire operations.” The Pirates have fallen off the pace in recent years, finishing below .500 in three of the last four seasons. The freefall included a number of off-the-field incidents this season, including the arrest of All-Star closer Felipe Vazquez on felony charges relating to an improper sexual relationship with an underage girl. Relievers Keone Kela and Kyle Crick were suspended after heated arguments with staff members.
October 23, 2019 7:59 am
WPIAL Soccer moves to quarterfinal round action–including three Washington County boys teams on Wednesday, both county girls teams Thursday. Following are scores/schedules for area teams and WPIAL bracket links. The WPIAL Soccer Championships are scheduled for Highmark Stadium, Oct. 31-Nov. 2.
CLICK for Boys WPIAL Soccer Brackets
Boys Quarterfinals, Wednesday, Oct. 23
2A #5 Charleroi vs. #4 Shady Side Academy, 6 pm at Plum
3A #8 Trinity vs. #1 Franklin Regional, 8 pm at Fox Chapel
4A #4 Canon-McMillan vs. #5 Fox Chapel, 8 pm at Canon-McMillan
CLICK for Girls WPIAL Soccer Brackets
Girls Quarterfinals, Thursday, Oct. 24
1A #2 Bentworth vs. #10 Serra Catholic, 6 pm at Peters Township
4A #2 Peters Township vs. #7 Butler, 8 pm at Peters Township
