The Shaler Area boys’ team is one of the youngest in the WPIAL but that youth has not stopped the Titans from posting some impressive times.
Freshman Dillon Brown has the 19th fastest reported time in the 500-yard freestyle with a 5:05.12and the 23rd fastest reported time in the 200 freestyle with a 1:53.59. Sophomore Nate Porter swam a 59.41 in the 100 backstroke, that ranks 25th among top WPIAL Class AAA reported times.
North Allegheny dominated the shots on goal battle against Shaler, 44-20.
But the Tigers didn’t dominate on the scoreboard because of the Titans’ Vinny Evans.
Evans stopped 43-of-44 shots to help Shaler upset top-ranked North Allegheny, 2-1.
Nick Tolomeo's feature on the Shaler girls' basketball team:
"Sitting on a school bus outside the Pine-Richland gym for 30 minutes, Shaler Area girls basketball coach Neal Martin liked what he heard -- nothing.
A fire alarm went off during Pine-Richland's pregame introductions before Shaler's biggest game of the season, a regular-season finale that amounted to a WPIAL playoff play-in game for the Titans. Win and they were in the playoffs, something that seemed an impossibility less than a month ago when Shaler was 0-5 in section play with a young team under Martin, a first-year head coach."
The day was last Monday, January 28. The Section 3-AAAA fourth place Shaler Titans (10-10, 4-6) defeated third place Oakland Catholic (8-11, 7-4) 45-36.
“It was a true grinder of a basketball game,” said Shaler head coach Neal Martin. “It was very solid half-court defense - played solidly by both teams.”
Martin continued. “We were both getting after it and getting stopped on the defensive end. Timely scores would happen for us or for them – it was tight all the way through. It came down to the very end.”
With a minute and a half left, Shaler sought to pad a four-point lead. The Titans strategized for either an outside shot, or a layup.
Junior guard Carly Harris fired from beyond the arc, and the shot banked in. And as the clock ticked down, Shaler played the “foul” game.
Coming into Monday’s game against Mt. Lebanon, Cameron Stott hadn’t scored this season.
But Stott scored the Titans’ first goal against the Blue Devils, and then found the back of the net again in the second period in a 5-2 victory.
The win helped Shaler stop a three-game winless streak.
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