Jonathan Bombulie stories, Page 3

New Brighton’s Tony Caltury speaks highly of Beaver County football, and there are a few really good reasons for that. First, he is the county’s newest head coach, taking the reins from Joe Greco, the program’s all-time wins leader who stepped down after last season. Second, he has previously been...

Rumor has it a major repaving project has been planned for Mitchell Road in Neshannock this fall. Over the last year or so, there have been so many championship parades in front of the high school that the traffic pattern has worn grooves in the pavement. OK, no such rumors...

After a successful season that included a third-place finish in the Midwestern Athletic Conference and a first-round WPIAL playoff victory, Mohawk comes into this year with a strong, veteran line and some inexperience at the skill positions. Coach Tim McCutcheon isn’t complaining. No, really. He isn’t. Like, at all. He’d...

After three coaching changes in the previous four years, the Freedom football team was looking to establish some stability last season. With athletic director John Rosa stepping in as head coach, did the Bulldogs do that? Yes. But they were one quarter away from making that a “yes” in all...

Looking to turn its program around after three consecutive winless seasons, it’s hard to imagine Ellwood City could have found a coach more suited for the job than Dan Bradley. In 2015, Bradley took over an Our Lady of the Sacred Heart program that was coming off an 0-9 season....

In one sense, WPIAL Class 2A football looks radically different this season. Four conferences have been consolidated into three with the total number of teams in the class dropping from 27 to 23. Nine of the 27 teams that played 2A football in the WPIAL last season moved out. That...

It’s hard to imagine a more satisfying regular season than the one Steel Valley had last year. The Ironmen rolled through four nonconference opponents and five Allegheny Conference foes to the tune of a 9-0 record with an aggregate score of 333-50. Star tailback Nijhay Burt led the WPIAL with...

Forward Drake Caggiula will get a chance to bounce back from injury with the Penguins next season. Caggiula, 28, signed a one-year, two-way contract with the Penguins on Wednesday. It pays $750,000 at the NHL level. Caggiula is recovering from February surgery to repair a herniated disc in his neck....

Did re-signing franchise cornerstone Evgeni Malkin, as the Penguins did Tuesday night, guarantee the team will host a championship parade down Grant Street in the next four years? Of course not. The team’s superstars aren’t getting any younger, and besides, that’s not how the NHL works. But it did greatly...

When Southern California and UCLA sent shockwaves through college sports by announcing their intention to join the Big Ten on Thursday, Penn State officials — from the university president to the baseball and softball coaches — expressed their excitement about the move. Football coach James Franklin was no different. “This...

Sydney Mitchell, the speedy center fielder for Hempfield’s softball team, always figured she’d wear Pitt colors someday. She will do that in the fall, but the route she took had some twists and turns in it. As Thanksgiving of her senior year approached, Mitchell hadn’t received a scholarship offer and...

PIAA Class 2A softball championship Conwell-Egan (13-9) vs. Neshannock (25-0) 11 a.m. Friday at Beard Field, Penn State Road to the finals Conwell-Egan – The Eagles are the first team from the Philadelphia Catholic League to play for a state softball championship. The league joined the PIAA in 2008. Conwell-Egan...

PIAA Class 6A softball championship Spring-Ford (23-2) vs. Seneca Valley (16-6) 4 p.m. Friday at Beard Field, Penn State Road to the finals Spring-Ford – After losing to eventual champ North Penn in the semifinals and Haverford in the third-place game in the District 1 tournament, Spring-Ford came alive in...

PIAA Class 3A softball championship Lewisburg (19-3) vs. Avonworth (20-5) 12:30 p.m. Thursday at Beard Field, Penn State Path to Penn State Lewisburg – This is Lewisburg’s best softball season in decades. After winning the District 4 championship for the first time since 1996, the Green Dragons rolled to three...

PIAA Class 5A softball championship Pittston Area (24-0) vs. Armstrong (23-4) 2:30 p.m. Thursday at Beard Field, Penn State Path to Penn State Pittston Area – The District 2 champion Patriots have been a juggernaut all season, going 24-0 and outscoring opponents 239-28. They rolled through the state playoffs, beating...

WPIAL Class 2A softball championship 1-Neshannock (21-0) vs. 2-Frazier (17-0) 2:15 p.m. Friday at Lilley Field, Cal (Pa.) On the air: Trib HSSN (Video) Road to the finals Neshannock — The Lancers have been one of the most dominant teams in the WPIAL this season. Heading into the finals, they’re...

WPIAL Class 3A baseball championship 4-Mohawk (16-4) vs. 2-South Park (17-5) 4:30 p.m. Wednesday at Wild Things Park, Washington On the air: Trib HSSN (Video) Road to the finals Mohawk — The Warriors have been solid all season long but finished second behind Hopewell in Section 1 because they had...

WPIAL Class 3A softball championship 1-Avonworth (16-4) vs. 3-Deer Lakes (13-3) Noon Wednesday at Lilley Field, Cal (Pa.) On the air: Trib HSSN (Video) Road to the finals Avonworth — When the Antelopes lost their final three games of the regular season, it might have looked like the undefeated Section...

WPIAL Class 6A softball championship 4-Seneca Valley (12-6) vs. 7-North Allegheny (13-9) 2:15 p.m. Wednesday at Lilley Field, Cal (Pa.) On the air: Trib HSSN (Video) Road to the finals Seneca Valley — Sitting with a 6-6 overall record at the end of April, the Raiders hit the gas pedal...

WPIAL Class 2A baseball championship 1-Serra Catholic (22-0) vs. 7-Neshannock (17-6) 1:30 p.m. Tuesday at Wild Things Park, Washington On the air: Trib HSSN (video) Road to the finals Serra Catholic — Through their first 21 games of the season, the top-seeded Eagles were undefeated and had outscored their opponents...

WPIAL Class 6A baseball championship 1-Mt. Lebanon (15-7) vs. 7-Upper St. Clair (12-8) 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Wild Things Park, Washington On the air: Trib HSSN (video) Road to the finals Mt. Lebanon — The Blue Devils earned the No. 1 seed thanks to a 9-1 record in Section 2-6A,...

North Allegheny girls wrestler Leyna Rumpler made an impact on the national scene, winning a pair of matches and advancing to the quarterfinals of the U17 USMC Women’s National Championships in Fort Worth, Texas, earlier this month. Wrestling at 65 kilograms, Rumpler rolled to a 10-1 technical fall in 1:28...

Last March, Beaver used a stingy defensive effort to hold down a talented Quaker Valley team in the Class 4A girls basketball finals, winning the program’s first WPIAL championship. Both the Bobcats and Quakers suffered significant graduation losses after that championship confrontation, though, leaving the field wide open heading into...

Class 4A is where the stars play in WPIAL boys basketball. Starting with defending champion Lincoln Park, most of the top teams in the class have at least one Division I prospect on the roster. By March, it might come down to which collection of talent comes together best as...

Because she was playing with her twin sister Lindsey, Emily Greb felt like she might have had a slight advantage over the field at the PIAA Class 2A doubles championships this weekend. Not because of some kind of twin magic, where each knows what the other is thinking via ESP....