Moon Area’s bid to play in the inaugural WPIAL girls flag football championship game was derailed in Thursday’s tournament semifinals, as Plum posted a 26-13 victory at Upper St. Clair High School.
The Tigers were bidding to return to the title game, although last year the sport was not yet sanctioned by the WPIAL or PIAA. A year ago, Moon fell in the championship game to Upper St. Clair.
This year, the Tigers entered the first WPIAL flag football tournament as the No. 3 seed among four Section 4 teams that reached the postseason.
But Moon pulled off consecutive upsets in its first two games of the Section 4 portion of the tournament bracket Tuesday, beating No. 2 seed Keystone Oaks, 29-13, and then knocking off No. 1 seed Seton LaSalle, 33-6, to earn a spot in Thursday’s semifinals against Plum.
The Mustangs, who ended up losing 34-0 to Shaler in Thursday night’s championship game, jumped out to a 13-0 lead over Moon in the opening quarter, taking advantage of several Tigers turnovers in the process. That lead stood up through the second quarter, giving the Mustangs a 13-0 halftime lead.
Plum added to its lead in the third quarter, going up 20-0, and that deficit proved to be too large to overcome.
The Tigers put a pair of touchdowns on the board in the final five minutes of the game after trailing 26-0, with Syd Ray throwing for both scores. She connected with Kendall Dydek on a 27-yard TD pass and then with time running out, Ray hit Juls Corrado from 3 yards out to make it 26-13.
Moon finished its season 12-4 overall, including a 10-3 record in Section 4 play.
SOFTBALL
WPIAL Tournament Pairings
A quartet of West Hills high school teams were given their marching orders Thursday for the upcoming WPIAL girls softball championships, which will get underway next week.
Montour and Moon made the grade in the Class 5A tournament while Our Lady of the Sacred Heart earned a berth in the Class 2A tournament, and Bishop Canevin will compete in the Class 1A tournament.
Moon will see action first, as the 17th seed taking on No. 16 Upper St. Clair in a play-in game that will start at 3 p.m. Monday, May 11, at Montour High School.
The winner of that game will meet No. 1 seed Shaler at 5 p.m. Tuesday, May 12, at North Allegheny.
Sixth-seeded Montour is scheduled to play at 3 p.m. Tuesday against No. 11 seed North Hills at North Allegheny. Montour and West Allegheny tied for the Section 3 title with 7-3 section records; the Spartans are 12-5 overall going into the tournament. West Allegheny is the No. 4 seed and will play No. 13 seed Greater Latrobe in its first-round game.
Moon was 4-6 in section play, good for a tie for fourth place with Upper St. Clair, and 8-10 overall.
In the Class 2A tournament, OLSH is seeded 12th in the 16-team bracket and will open against No. 5 seed Neshannock at 4 p.m. Thursday, May 14, at North Allegheny. The Chargers wound up fifth in Section 3 with a 5-5 mark and are 8-8 overall entering tournament play.
Bishop Canevin is seeded No. 9 in the 12-team Class 1A field and will meet eighth-seeded Jeannette at 3 p.m. Thursday, May 14, at Plum. The winner will meet top seed Union Monday, May 18.
Bishop Canevin placed fourth in Section 1 with a 3-7 mark and a 5-9 overall record.
Moon Area 13, Ambridge 0
Alina McMahon, Brooklyn Hall, Abbie Warnagiris and Taya Fitzgerald each had two hits and drove in two runs to power the visiting Tigers past the Bridgers in a non-section game that went five innings.
Avery Joyce and Addyson Warren each added two hits for Moon, which pounded out 16 hits in its season finale.
The Tigers put two on the board in the first inning and then put the game away with nine runs in the third inning.
Kendall Trexler tripled home two runs, Hall and Warnagiris each singled home a pair and Fitzgerald added an RBI single, as did winning pitcher Katie DeMarco.
DeMarco worked four innings and did not give up a hit while walking one and striking out six.
BASEBALL
Montour 9, Blackhawk 1
Matteo Weber had two hits and drove in three runs and Caleb Armbruster went 3 for 3 with two RBIs as the Spartans whipped the Cougars in a non-section contest at Montour.
Zander Stern added three hits and scored three runs for Montour, whose top four hitters accounted for all nine hits.
Armbruster’s RBI single in the first inning put Montour ahead for good and the Spartans added to a 2-0 lead with four runs in the second inning. Weber’s two-run single was the big hit in that inning.
Weber worked the first four innings on the mound for the Spartans, allowing three hits and a walk while striking out eight.
The Spartans will find out Friday who they’ll meet in the first round of the WPIAL playoffs, which get underway next week.
Carlynton 14, Rochester 1
An eight-run outburst in the first inning was all the Cougars needed to polish off the Rams in a non-league season finale that ended after 4½ innings.
Logan Orsi’s two-run double was the key first-inning hit for Carlynton, and Isaac Anker added an RBI single. The Cougars also took advantage of four errors in the inning. Rochester committed nine errors in the game.
Graydon Harvey had two of the Cougars eight hits and drove in a run. Michael Jenkins had a hit and two RBIs and scored twice. Eric Firle had a hit and scored three runs while Anker and Harvey each scored twice, as did Ashton Donlin.
Tyler Heinrich pitched four innings of one-hit ball, walking three and striking out seven.
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