Sports Shorts

Sport Shorts

Fall Sports Season Ends On Several High Notes

by Jason Tennant

In our last article we featured the outstanding season for the Carmichaels Golf team. Now that the fall sports season in Greene County is completely over, we focus on three remarkable accomplishments that ended the season.

First, it was an individual accomplishment for Ben Jackson of the West Greene Football team.

The Pioneers’ season was a crazy one that went from Tri-County South Conference favorites, to tri-champions of the Conference, to earning the #1 spot in the conference via a 4-round coin flip, to hosting a playoff game for the first time in 24 seasons!

Unfortunately, Kennedy Field at West Greene High School was deemed unplayable due to youth games that had been played there during the previous soggy weekend, so the Pioneers moved their game to Waynesburg Central High School, where despite a 52-14 loss to Rochester, Jackson was able to end the season on a high note.

Jackson has had to deal with a lot of disappointment because of injuries the last two seasons. Due to a broken leg last season, Jackson was unable to play in the playoffs, where he may have made a difference in a 39-14 loss at Rochester.

This season, as he was approaching the 4,000-yard career mark, he suffered a similar injury in the opposite leg in the second quarter of a Week 7 game against Clairton.

Because the injury happened earlier in the season this time, there was a little more time for healing before the playoffs. Still, Jackson was clearly not 100 percent when he played sparingly in this year’s playoff rematch.

“He’s got a lot of heart,” said head coach Rod Huffman. “He’s a once in a lifetime player and I appreciate him putting himself out there for us.”

With the season coming to a close toward the end of another playoff loss to Rochester, Jackson ended the season on a high-note, as on the last offensive snap of the game, he broke off a 30-yard touchdown run to become just the 6th Greene County player ever to eclipse the 4,000-yard mark.

It was a moment that was expected weeks ago but despite the injury, Jackson was able to reach that goal before the end of his junior year.

“It’s an amazing feeling,” said Jackson after the game. “I really wanted that 4,000 but I wish we could’ve won.”

The day after West Greene’s football season came to an end, their Girls Cross Country team would make history by competing in the team State Championships for the first time.

Leading up to that meet, the team put together quite a season, winning the 1A titles at both the A.J. Everhart Invitational and the Mingo Classic, while also turning in great results at the Marty Uher Invitational (2nd) and the Red, White & Blue Classic (7th). All the while, the team was going undefeated in Section Meets, winning their first ever Section title!

“This was without a doubt, our best season,” said head coach Marcia Sonneborn. “The team set high goals for themselves and just started checking them off one by one.”

In the WPIAL Championships, the Lady Pioneers took 3rd place to punch that ticket to their first ever PIAA Team Championships, where they would finish 15th overall.

The team relied on experience from seniors McKenna & Madison Lampe and Ashley Cumberledge, but got a big shot in the arm from freshman Brooke Barner and most notably Katie Lampe, who would become their best runner as the season went on.

“She started training in the summer to make sure she would at least be competitive with her sisters (McKenna & Madison),” said Sonneborn. “She eventually found the confidence in herself to go out and lead the team. As a freshman, that’s remarkable.”

History would be made on the volleyball court in Carmichaels this year too as the 2018 Mighty Mikes Volleyball team easily goes down as the most accomplished in the history of that program.

It started in the regular season, where the Mikes went undefeated, including two hard-fought wins over Geibel Catholic that secured the first ever Volleyball Section title for Carmichaels.

“This group of girls has had such huge accomplishments throughout the season,” said head coach Ashley Shoemaker.” They should be really proud of themselves and I’m proud of them as well.” A Section title was just the beginning. Carmichaels was seeded second in the WPIAL Playoff bracket and did not disappoint. After cruising past Burgettstown and Beaver County Christian, Carmichaels found themselves in their first ever WPIAL Semifinal where they would run into perennial power Greensburg Central Catholic.

Though they would go on to make their first ever appearance in the WPIAL Championship and the state playoffs, the season’s highlight had to be the sweep of the Centurions.

“It was really special that night, especially because we lost on that court (Peters Township) last year,” said Shoemaker. “To have such a dominant performance, the girls did such a great job.”

A sweep of the Greensburg Central Catholic (25-19, 25-18, 25-18) put Carmichaels in their first ever WPIAL Championship Match, where they unfortunately were overwhelmed by Bishop Canevin, swept 25-11, 25-11, 25-9.

Despite the loss, the Mikes had already also qualified for their first ever PIAA State Playoff appearance.

They would lose to Bishop Carrol in the first round,(25-15, 25-16, 25-18), but the program reached heights it had never seen before and are now looking to the future, albeit without Seniors Meighan Spishock, Grace Kerr, and Micaela Ricco.

“It always takes that first team to believe and make history,” said Shoemaker. “And it paves the way moving forward.”