Football suffered another down year locally but there was an extrordinary number of outstanding achievements in other sports this fall.
1. Shane Pruitt's golden goal in overtime of the PIAA Class AAA championship gave Peters Township a 2-1 win over Downingtown West and the state title. PT soccer was dominant throughout the year and the Indians' third PIAA title was well-deserved.
2. Rachel Rohanna won her second PIAA and WPIAL girls golf championships. A junior at Waynesburg, Rohanna is already the most accomplished scholastic female golfer in Washington-Greene history. She also won a truck after shooting below 70 on the first day of the PIAA championship.
3. Karli Timko returned to the Char-Houston girls tennis team and was joined by Tanya Timko, her sister and a freshman. The two led the Bucs to an undefeated regular season. Then, the Timko sisters won PIAA Class AA and WPIAL girls doubles championships.
4. Peters Township girls tennis is on an unprecedented two-year run. Last year, the Indians won PIAA team gold while Ali Riske won PIAA and WPIAL titles. This year, the doubles team of Julie Stroyne and Emily Palko kept the gold rush rolling when they won the PIAA Class AAA girls doubles championship.
(Sidenote: All four PIAA gold medals awarded for girls doubles tennis this fall reside in Washington County.)
5. Pruitt's postseason run was impressive but PT did not win the title solely because of him. Mark Majoras scored several clutch goals, including an overtime winner against Char Valley in the WPIAL semifinals, and the Indians defense allowed one goal in the state tournament. One goal in four PIAA playoff matches!
6. The Monessen football team went 11-1 and advanced to the WPIAL Class A semifinals for the first time since 1996. Plus, the Greyhounds won their 600th game this year. So did Wash High.
7. Burgettstown football enjoyed a six-game improvement from 2006. The Blue Devils finished 7-3 and advanced to the WPIAL Class AA playoffs.
8. The Peters Township girls soccer team rolled through the regular season with an undefeated record for the second straight year.
9. Trinity's Mike Yancich (Penn State) and Andrew Sweat (Ohio State) proved why they're among the nation's top players. Burgettstown's Dan Conley showed he's worthy of playing at the next level and Canon-McMillan sophomore Mike Hull established himself as the top sophomore in the WPIAL.
10. Bentworth boys soccer won a section title and advanced to the WPIAL Class A playoffs for the first time. Jon Kennedy led the district with 43 goals.
3 comments:
I have to disagree. CM, Burgettstown, Ft Cherry, CH and Trinity did not consider it to be a down year. Monessen was a pleaseant surprise to get to the semi and gave SC game. California was off to a good season until injury bug hit them. Mcguffey almost made it to the playoff and beat GCC. I know that a WPIAL championship is not likely to come from a local team but I did see some improvement in the local team. I know some of the teams that used to be strong in football was disapppointing but you can not judge the year on those teams.
How about Nick Wilcox of Peters Township Soccer? He set up both of those goals in the championship game with perfect passes. He deserves to be mentioned with the likes of Pruitt and Majoras.
Not a down year? If the rule still was only the conference champion made the playoffs - which it should be - then the football season for Washington and Greene would have ended in October. Only two schools finished as high as second place in their conference. All the others were third-place or worse. There was a lot of bad football out there this season. mapod says it wasn't a down year at 5 schools - 4 of those finished in third place or worse. That doesn't sound like a good year to me.
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