Girls Volleyball

10/24

The Shaler Area Girls Volleyball team took on Peters Township in the first round of the WPIAL Playoffs. They started off the match winning a close first set 25-21. After dropping the next two sets (25-18 and 25-25), the Titans won the fourth set convincingly 25-14 to force a decisive fifth set. Unfortunately for the Titans, they fell short 15-9 and their season came to an end.

Football

10/27

The Titan football team had one final game in the 2023 season to salvage a .500 record. They took on an 0-9 Fox Chapel team desperate for a win. The first quarter could not have gone any better for Shaler Area. The defense continued its momentum from last week, forcing three Fox Chapel turnovers and preventing them from even getting a first down. The offense capitalized off of those turnovers, putting up 21 points in the first quarter alone and scoring minutes into the second. Before they could even get their offense going, the Foxes were already staring at a near insurmountable deficit. Shaler Area added another touchdown and Fox Chapel finally got their offense going, scoring with no time left in the second quarter to make the score 33-7 Shaler Area going into halftime. With the game all but over, the Titans added two more scores to Fox Chapel’s one in the second half to make the final score 47-13, in favor of Shaler Area.

Senior quarterback Keegan Smetanka threw four touchdown passes, each to fellow seniors. Joey Desabato caught two, Kaden Orga caught one, and Brandon London caught one. Smetanka ran in two more for six total touchdowns on the night. Senior running back Nate Rozzo also rushed for a score. On defense, junior linebacker Joe Rispoli and senior safety Abe Cook led the defense with eight tackles each and senior linebacker Carson Pierce and Desabato each had an interception.

The win takes the Titans to a final record of 5-5 on the season for the second straight year. This is the first time since 2008-2009 that the Titans have finished with consecutive non-losing seasons.