Performance of Pine-Richland, Phil Jurkovec among WPIAL’s top high school sports stories from 2017

By: HSSN Staff
Sunday, December 31, 2017 | 12:03 AM

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This was a year of milestones in Western Pennsylvania sports including the birth of a new high school sports network.

The TribLive High School Sports Network was formed this fall when Trib Total Media purchased the MSA Sports Network, combining two media outlets with strong WPIAL-wide coverage into one.

Among the top stories we covered this year, Pine-Richland football thrived in the national spotlight, Latrobe baseball and Quaker Valley football celebrated their first WPIAL and PIAA titles in storybook fashion, two track and field stars added more gold to their collection, three quarterbacks climbed the all-time passer list, a wrestling champion fell one win short of perfection and Jeannette surpassed New Castle for most football wins in WPIAL history.

Here are the Top 10 Western Pennsylvania high school sports stories from 2017:

1. Ram tough

Pine-Richland senior Phil Jurkovec led his football team to an undefeated state championship season and inserted his name into the discussion of greatest high school quarterbacks in state history.

The 6-foot-5, 200-pound Notre Dame recruit passed for 3,969 yards, 39 touchdowns and led the Rams (16-0) to the PIAA Class 6A title. He also rushed for 1,211 yards and 24 more scores in a season that started on national TV. ESPN televised Pine-Richland's opener in Week Zero and the spotlight never left Jurkovec, who signed this month with the Fighting Irish.

One of his best performances came Dec. 9 at Hersheypark Stadium in the state final . Jurkovec rushed for four touchdowns and passed for another to defeat St. Joseph's Prep, 41-21. The Philadelphia Catholic League power was a two-time defending state champion.

“He solidified himself as the best quarterback to ever play in the state of Pennsylvania,” Pine-Richland coach Eric Kasperowicz said in Hershey. “He's doing it on the biggest stage in the biggest classification versus the best competition. Period.”

Jurkovec will graduate with 8,202 career passing yards, fourth most in WPIAL history.

Overall, it was a remarkable year for WPIAL quarterbacks, as Gateway's Brady Walker and South Fayette's Drew Saxton also finished their high school careers ranked among the WPIAL all-time passers.

Walker finished second all-time with 8,816 career yards. Saxton was sixth (7,452). Combined, Jurkovec, Walker and Saxton passed for nearly 14 miles.

There are now seven players in WPIAL history with at least 7,000 career passing yards .

2. Nation's best

Two national record-setting throwers, Knoch's Jordan Geist and Connellsville's Madison Wiltrout, won PIAA track and field gold one last time.

Wiltrout, now a North Carolina freshman, won her fourth PIAA Class AAA javelin title despite a sore elbow that limited her during her senior season. She won with a throw of 160 feet, 9 inches.

“This is awesome,” Wiltrout said. “After the last girl threw and knew I won, I teared up on the runway. I was so emotional, but this is a huge deal. I'm sort of speechless about it.”

Geist, now at Arizona, won both discus and shot put in Class AAA boys for the third year in a row. He already owned the state shot put record and added the discus record with a 207-foot, 6-inch throw last May in Shippensburg.

Two months later, Geist won international gold at the Pan American Junior Championship in Trujillo, Peru, where he set an American junior record in the six kilogram shot: 22.02 meters (72 feet, 3 inches).

3. Sweet ending for Quakers

Hersheypark Stadium provided a sweet ending for Quaker Valley's roller-coaster football season.

The Quakers' coach resigned days before the season and in stepped retired administrator Jerry Veshio, who hadn't coached football in decades. Yet the upstart Quakers won their first WPIAL title, and three weeks later celebrated a 41-24 victory over Middletown in the PIAA Class 3A championship .

“Going into the year, not many people thought we were even going to make playoffs,” said QV senior kicker Landon Grant, who also celebrated a state soccer championship in Hershey this fall. “Winning WPIALs, then winning a state championship, pulling out games against Aliquippa and these big programs, it's just crazy. But I never doubted these guys for a minute.”

The WPIAL had four teams reach the state football finals and won three titles. Along with wins by Pine-Richland and Quaker Valley, Jeannette also celebrated in Hershey by defeating Homer-Center, 42-12, in the PIAA Class A final .

Jeannette finished the year with 736 all-time wins, most in WPIAL history.

4. Lee's lone loss

Franklin Regional's Spencer Lee was one win away from wrestling perfection when Exeter Township's Austin DeSanto upset the three-time state champion and stunned everyone else.

Lee was wrestling with an injured knee when DeSanto defeated him 6-5, with a last-second takedown in the PIAA Class AAA 126-pound final at Giant Center in Hershey. The loss left Lee's career record at 144-1 (35-1 as a senior).

“I've been preparing for this match since last year's final,” said DeSanto, who lost to Lee by technical fall in the 2016 state final.

Lee, now a freshman at Iowa, was trying to become the 13th wrestler in state history to become a four-time champion and only the fifth wrestler to go undefeated and untied.

5. Change to qualification

The WPIAL overhauled the way its athletes qualify for the individual track and field championships by eliminating the five regional qualifying meets used in the past . Instead, WPIAL qualifiers were determined with regular-season times, heights and distances.

The major switch reduced pressure on athletes, who previously had just once chance to qualify.

“Like any change, there are some goods and bads to it,” Norwin coach Brian Fleckenstein said. “The good is it truly should — in theory — put the top 24 kids in the WPIAL finals. In the past, it didn't always work that way. There might have been 12 good qualifiers in the north qualifier, but only eight got to make it.”

6. Trophy haul for P-R

Call it a Ram Slam.

Pine-Richland celebrated WPIAL titles in baseball, girls lacrosse, boys basketball, field hockey and football in the same calendar year.

First came the basketball title in March. Coach Jeff Ackermann's team defeated section rival Butler , 72-61, at Petersen Events Center in the first WPIAL Class 6A championship.

“We weren't going to let a team from our section come and steal one from us,” senior Andrew Petcash said. “We knew we could do something special.”

In June, the Rams baseball team defeated North Allegheny, 3-2, at Wild Things Park in Washington.

“I told them before the game, this team was built to win a championship,” Rams coach Kurt Wolf said. “There's nothing better than putting a gold medal around your players' necks.”

In November, Pine-Richland's football team defeated Central Catholic , 42-7, at Heinz Field.

7. Remembering championship coaches

Chuck Wagner and Mitch Adams , WPIAL championship coaches in different sports, each were memorialized after their deaths days apart in late September.

Wagner, 82, piloted the Oakmont Oaks football team to the 1965 WPIAL Class B title and the Springdale Dynamos to the 2003 WPIAL Class A crown. He finished his career with 270 coaching victories, currently fifth on the all-time WPIAL list.

“He just continued to be important to his players long after playing careers ended,” said Rob Erdeljac, Wagner's quarterback in 1965. “He never lost enthusiasm for life and his players and coaches. Coach was as excited about the birth of my children as any football win.”

Adams, 59, went 134-88 in nine seasons with Gateway's boys basketball team. He won WPIAL Class 4A titles in 2011 and 2012.

“He treated every one of his players like his own son,” said 2012 graduate Luke Kochka, who played four seasons for Adams. “He was very hard on us at times, but sometimes that's what you need.”

8. Back-to-back best in state

No softball team had ever won the state's largest classification two years in a row.

Not until Hempfield finished 27-0 last spring and won the PIAA Class 6A title , the Spartans' second state championship in two years. Led by senior pitcher and Notre Dame recruit Morgan Ryan, Hempfield defeat Hazleton, 5-3, in the state final at Penn State.

“There have been so many great teams that have competed in this tournament,” Ryan said. “To go back-to-back really shows all the work we've put in. To go down in the history books, not only at Hempfield but also at the state level, is incredible for every girl on this team.”

9. Net gains

Not since 1994, when Bob Miller was still coach, had North Allegheny won a state title in girls volleyball. But with his daughter-in-law now leading the team, the Tigers celebrated again this fall. North Allegheny swept previously undefeated Bishop Shanahan , 25-21, 25-12 and 25-16, in the Class AAAA championship match Nov. 18.

“He's still in the gym with us every day, and his granddaughters are on the team,” NA coach Heidi Miller said. “It's a great feeling to add to that winning tradition. It's something special.”

North Allegheny (24-0) lost only six sets all season.

10. Wildcats' run to history

A few weeks after winning the first WPIAL baseball title in school history, Latrobe kept going and won the state crown as well. Zach Kokoska and Jared Kollar led the Wildcats to a 7-0 victory over Whitehall in a rainy Class 5A final at Penn State.

“If you look at my face, you see some dried-up tears,” Latrobe coach Matt Basciano said. “This is pretty emotional.”

Chris Harlan is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at charlan@tribweb.com or via Twitter @CHarlan_Trib.

Tags: Connellsville, Franklin Regional, Hempfield Area, Knoch, Latrobe, North Allegheny, Pine-Richland, Quaker Valley, Springdale