North Allegheny hoping for repeat of last season’s success

Tri-State Sports & News Service

North Allegheny opened this season pretty much the same way it did in 2016, with a loss to Mt. Lebanon in its first game of the season.

There’s no question the Tigers would be happy to take that loss if the end result is the same as it was last season.

North Allegheny, the defending WPIAL Division I (Class 3A) champion, got its revenge on the Blue Devils in the title match when it pulled out a 9-7 win for the school’s first title after losses to Mt. Lebanon in the 2013 and 2015 championships. Though the start might be similar, these Tigers aren’t quite where they want to be in the early going.

“We’re OK, but we haven’t been on the field as much as we usually are,” North Allegheny coach John Rullan said. “The weather’s nice this week, but up in the north we still had some snow on the field, so that kind of hindered us a little bit.”

Even so, North Allegheny was able to stay with Mt. Lebanon in their season opener as the Blue Devils came away with a relatively low-scoring 5-3 victory against their postseason rivals. But this isn’t the same Blue Devils team that played in the WPIAL finals each of the past four years and won two championships.

Class 2A

Hampton has been the team to beat in Division II lacrosse ever since the PIAA first recognized the sport in 2009.

Not only have the Talbots won four of the eight championships that have been contested, they have appeared in the title game a total of six times.

Last season, though, was one of those rare title-game losses for Hampton as it was knocked off by Section 3 rival Mars, 15-10. The Talbots, though, return several starters from last season including all-WPIAL attacker, senior Isaac Capezzuti, and allsection performers Ricky Myros and midfielder Ross Anderson. Shaler in the championship match, Blackhawk came back and won its first title last year. With the realignment, though, that may be tough as 2015 Division I champion Quaker Valley, a 2009-10 champion in Division II, dropped back down this season while the Titans are in Division I.

Mars finished as the runner-up a year ago and could pose a threat again. South Fayette and Plum will be new faces as the schools added programs this year.

Chartiers Valley made a run to the Division I finals for the first time in school history last year — the Colts were Division II runners-up from 2011-14 — and should have gained valuable experience.