Sports briefs
Girls soccer
Chartiers-Houston is playing its best soccer at the right time of the year. The Bucs won their sixth consecutive match by defeating the Ellis School 2-1 in the opening round of the WPIAL Class 2A playoffs Saturday afternoon.
It is the first postseason win for Chartiers-Houston (9-5-1) since the 2002 season. It sends the seventh-seeded Bucs into the quarterfinals Wednesday (6:30 p.m.) at second-seeded Steel Valley (13-0-1).
Chartiers-Houston was able to get a goal from in front of the net by Veronica Hess and another from Ashley Horvath off a corner kick to to beat Ellis (7-4-2).
- Reagan Schreiber’s goal with 15 minutes left in the first-round match of the WPIAL Class A soccer playoffs cut Bentworth’s deficit to 2-1, but Springdale netted a pair of goals in the waning minutes for a 4-1 victory.
Boys soccer
Joshua Glaser scored two goals, including the game-winner on a penalty kick, as No. 10 Indiana edged No. 7 Belle Vernon in a Class 3A first-round match Saturday. The Leopards’ lone goal, which gave BV an early 1-0 lead, was by Daniel Sassak, his 33rd of the season.
In auto racing
Josef Newgarden’s best and probably only chance to keep his IndyCar crown was to win Sunday’s season finale.
Anything short of a victory on on the streets of downtown St. Petersburg left Newgarden with almost no path to deny Scott Dixon another championship.
Newgarden used a spectacular two-car pass for the lead to indeed win but it wasn’t enough as Dixon stealthily finished third to collect yet another ring in his storied career for Chip Ganassi Racing.