Westmoreland high school notebook: Puck drops for area’s PIHL teams

By: Bill Beckner Jr.
Sunday, October 13, 2024 | 3:28 PM

Hockey season has a way of sneaking up on people because it pops up late in the fall season. But the PIHL is back, and local teams already have played a few games.

Penn-Trafford jumped out to a 2-0 start, scoring six goals in both games. A 6-0 win over Hempfield featured Brock Bienemann notching a hat trick and an assist, and Kyler Doran also had four points with a goal and four assists.

Tyler Funk picked up the win in goal, making 30 saves.

In a 6-4 victory against Cathdral Prep, Bieneman and Cam Kiste had two goals each, with Bieneman logging three assists and Kiste two helpers.

Also in 2A, Norwin lost its first two games, falling to Canon-McMillan (3-2) and Bishop McCort (4-2), and Latrobe dropped its first game, 4-2 against Cathdral Prep.

Franklin Regional won its Class 3A opener, 2-1 over Thomas Jefferson, as Brendan Yohe and JJ Tensuan scored goals, and Joey Casella and Marc Gray had assists.

Wheeling Catholic downed Greensburg Salem, 6-1, to open the season in Class A.

D-I offer

Brandon Martin, a sophomore basketball player at Greensburg Central Catholic, picked up a Division-I offer to play at Marshall of the Sun Belt Conference.

The 6-foot-6 Martin was a junior varsity starter last season and played sparingly for the varsity late in games.

Martin plays AAU basketball for Wildcats Select, which is run by former Hempfield standout Nate Perry and Sewickley Academy’s Tom Droney. The offer came during a campus visit to Marshall.

Martin, who hopes to have a greater impact for GCC this winter, said the offer makes him want to work harder.

“This offer just boosted my confidence, but I let the happiness set in until the day after because it’s right back to business,” he said. “I’m not going to let this offer make me content because there still work to be done. It’s going to take a lot of work for me to have an impact at the D-I level, and I’m ready to work.”

Martin is from Scottdale. He went to school at Southmoreland from kindergarten to sixth grade, then went to Hempfield for junior high before transferring to GCC.

No state golf

With Greensburg Central Catholic’s run of WPIAL girls golf championships coming to an end, there will be no local team competing in the PIAA team golf championships next Wednesday at Penn State.

That has not happened since 2014. Since 2009, Westmoreland County has had a team at the state tournament 12 times.

GCC has won PIAA titles in 2018 and ‘19. The team also was the runner-up five times (2015, ‘16, ‘17, ‘20, ‘21).

Latrobe is the most recent local boys team to win a PIAA title (2009).

Bill Beckner Jr. is a TribLive reporter covering local sports in Westmoreland County. He can be reached at bbeckner@triblive.com.

Tags: Franklin Regional, Greensburg C.C., Greensburg Salem, Hempfield, Norwin, Penn-Trafford