March

March 15: Kirtland lost in the Ohio VI state semifinals in basketball. That's the school where Tiger LaVerde coaches football. Kirtland is not usually a Final Four team in hoops.

The careers of two prolific female players came to a screeching halt March 14 with their teams' setbacks in the PIAA playoffs. Redbank Valley's Mylee Harmon finished with 2,066 points, and Kennedy Catholic's Layke Fields ended her career with 2,037. Harmon, the Bulldogs' point guard, was limited to three points in Redbank's loss to Penns Manor; Fields netted 25 in her swan song, a defeat to Bishop McCort. Had their teams won, they would have met in the state semifinals next. As it is, that game will match the District 6 champion and runnerup again. Kennedy won back-to-back state titles in 2023 and 2024 and was runnerup in 1A in 2022. Its run kind of reminds me of Cranberry in the mid 1990s. The Berries won three straight state titles before losing to Greensburg Central Catholic in the 1995 semifinals while going for their fourth in a row. As with Fields, Cranberry's Susan Blauser was the four-year star in the middle.

·       March 12: Shadyside Academy, the team that beat the Cranberry girls last Saturday, outscored Northwestern, 10-2, in the fourth quarter to oust the previously unbeaten Lady Wildcats, 46-44, from the 3A playoffs. That outburst came on the heels of a 13-0 Northwestern run to end the third quarter. And then, practically nothing. Wildcats finished 25-1; junior scoring machine Makayla Presser-Palmer 736 points.

·       Shame about Franklin's Camden Smith, an all-state swimmer who missed most of the season (all but one meet?) with an injury (arm in a sling in photos). He earned four of Franklin's five state medals last season (two on relays) and was named District 10 Swimmer of the Year at the Erie paper's spring fete. But the Knights will be heading to the state meet this weekend without Smith in the lineup. With him, I suspect the Knights had hoped to make a big splash at states. Still, they are not devoid of firepower with the likes Kye Winslow and Jordan Stumpf around. Not having Smith, however, has got to be a killer -- for him and the team.

·       March 9: Oil City will host another playoff game -- Harbor Creek vs. North Catholic at 7 p.m. Wednesday in a 4A girls game.

·       Meadville is still blank on the PIAA 5A boys bracket. The 'Dogs are supposed to play Hershey. PIAA has speaketh: double forfeit. Hershey moves on without suiting up. Meadville and Uniontown must jump through hoops to be eligible for next year's playoffs. Certain fans banned from sporting events through next year. 

·       Devon Prep, the team that beat Franklin last year for the 3A state title, is still alive in the playoffs as the3 12-1 entry in 4A.

·       Kirtland, Ohio, Tiger LaVerde's school, is in the Final 4 for basketball in Ohio's Division VI.

·       Former Oiler basketball standouts Jake Hornbeck and Cam Van Wormer played on a team that won the Slippery Rock intramural championship. They are both sophomores at the Rock.

·       March 7. The Meadville-Uniontown game ended with 3:12 to play after a fight broke out. It came after a technical was called on the visiting Uniontown team. The fight spilled out onto the court. Several fans were taken away in handcuffs, according to a report by Tom Reisenweber of the Erie Times News. Film on X, too. Meadville led 63-55 when the game was called, but  the win apparently isn't official; the PIAA hasn't entered the score on its bracket sheet. And still not on there as of 11 a.m. Saturday. (Game since ruled double forfeit).

·       WPIAL champion Belle Vernon  beat Farrell, District 10's No. 5 entry, 75-63, but it was only a two-point game heading into the fourth quarter.

·       Kennedy Catholic's Layke Fields passed the 2,000 points milestone on Mar. 7, and Northwestern star Makayla Presser-Palmer scored 40 against Avonworth. She's a junior who has 714 points this season and is averaging 28.6. Northwestern gets Shadyside Academy next.

·       Later March 2: Have to say that Tim Shaw's call on the radio of Sydney Stevens' miracle shot was very "Giants win the pennant!" like. 

·       March 2: It's funny to see little old Cathedral Prep -- such an itsy bitsy widdle school -- dominate the AA regional wrestling tournament while the Cranberry/Oil City co-op is in 3A at Canon-Mac, going at it with the big boys -- Thomas Jefferson, Connellsville, Altoona, State College were the top four in the team standings. (To give you an idea.) Prep also dominated the AA swimming. And the Ramblers ruled in 4A basketball, making mincemeat out of all comers. Does Prep EVER play up??? In anything??? Oh no, we can't have that. 

·       In 2019, Kennedy Catholic, an A school in enrollment, had some real studs (not from Mercer County) on its boys basketball team and moved up to 6A. And won the state championship. Can you imagine Prep ever having the guts to do that?  I can't either.

·       Instead, let's look the other way, and say 26th straight title this, 48th straight title that.

·       It wasn't that many years ago, well, OK, 30 years with time flying, that Oil City was dominant by itself in wrestling, one of the top programs in District 10, and competed in 3A. Nobody thought anything of it.