Early agate
ON THIS DATE
Oct. 23
1914 – Washington & Jefferson College’s football team upsets Yale, 16-7, at the Yale Bowl in New Haven, Conn.
1952 – Quarterback Merle Ayers scores touchdowns on runs of six and five yards in the final five minutes as undefeated McDonald High School rallies to defeat host Hickory 13-6.
1958 – Danny Murtaugh, who piloted the Pittsburgh Pirates to a second-place finish, is named the National League Manager of the Year by the Associated Press.
1959 – Charleroi eliminates Clairton from WPIAL football playoff contention by defeating the Bears, 9-6. Gary Hogan boots a first-quarter field and throws a 21-yard TD pass to Paul Strelick on a fake field goal.
1976 – Pitt’s Tony Dorsett rushes for 180 yards in a 45-0 rout over Navy to become the top career rusher in NCAA history with 5,206 yards.
1981 – Mon Valley Catholic’s Jon Green becomes the WPIAL’s all-time rushing leader and only the second player to surpass 4,000 career yards. Green rushes for a school-record 328 yards and five touchdowns on only 13 carries in the Spartans’ 41-0 win at West Greene. Green scores on runs of 69, 34, 68, eight and 54 yards to raise his career total to 4,211 yards. He breaks the WPIAL record of 4,075 yards by Chartiers-Houston’s Jerry Patterson.
1987 – Rich Lorenzo intercepts a pass by Greg Steeber and returns it 39 yards for a touchdown with only 47 seconds remaining, giving Ringgold a 9-3 victory over host Belle Vernon and a berth in the WPIAL football playoffs.
1988 – Dan Marino passes for 521 yards, three touchdowns and five interceptions as the Miami Dolphins lose to the New York Jets, 44-30. Marino completes 35 of 60 passes as he produces the second-best single-game total yardage in NFL history.
1989 – Ringgold’s Jason Ruttenberg scores on a third-quarter penalty kick to give the Rams a 1-0 victory over Trinity and the Section 2 boys soccer championship.
1993 – Robert Walker rushes for 168 yards and undefeated West Virginia amasses 574 total yards in a 42-21 victory over host Pitt.
1995 – Pittsburgh Steelers nose tackle Joel Steed is suspended for four games after tesing positive for anabolic steriods.
2003 – Robert Heller scores four touchdowns four different ways – a 37-yard interception return, 60-yard punt return, 76-yard kickoff return and 50-yard run – as Ringgold clinches a WPIAL Class AAAA playoff berth with a 59-34 win at Albert Gallatin.
2007 – Waynesburg junior Rachel Rohanna shoots a second-round 70 at Heritage Hills Golf Resort in York to win the PIAA Class AA Girls Golf Championship with a two-day total of 139. Rohanna is the lone golfer in the girls field to shoot under par in the wind-swept second round.
2009 – Washington’s Marquis Brown returns a controversial fumble 66 yards for a touchdown with 1:08 remaining and adds a two-point conversion run as the Prexies defeat Charleroi, 20-18.
2009 – Peters Township gets victories from its top two singles players, Julie Stroyne and Caroline Nixon, and the doubles team of Eleni Coleman and Elizabeth Palko, to defeat Upper St. Clair 3-2 and win the WPIAL Class AAA girls team tennis championship.
Oct. 24
1964 – Bob Riggle of Washington rushes for 172 yards on 13 carries and scores on runs of 86 and 17 yards as Penn State defeats visiting West Virginia, 37-8.
1970 – Dan Kasperik runs for 173 yards, passes for 162 and accounts for four touchdowns as Washington & Jefferson defeats host Thiel, 41-28, to win the Presidents’ Athletic Conference football championship and stretch its winning streak to six games.
1978 – Leland Burns has a hat trick, Matt Engle scores his 41st goal of the season and Trinity rolls to a 10-1 victory over Ringgold at North Franklin Field to clinch the Hillers’ fifth consecutive Section IV soccer title.
1980 – Burgettstown rushes for 340 yards, including 156 and three touchdowns by Steve Gavatora, as the Blue Devils clinch a WPIAL Class AA playoff berth with a 31-20 victory over visiting Charleroi.
1992 – Washington & Jefferson, ranked No. 1 in the NCAA Division III South Region, wins its seventh consecutive Presidents’ Athletic Conference football title with a 34-13 win over Grove City at College Field.
1993 – Eric Metcalf returns two punts for touchdowns to give the Cleveland Browns a 28-23 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers. Metcalf’s first touchdown is a team-record 91-yarder and the other goes for 75 yards with 2:05 left in the game.
1997 – Trinity High School ends its 21-game football losing streak by defeating visiting Canon-McMillan, 27-10, at Hiller Field. Matt Gallant and Chris Roman combine for 192 rushing yards for the Hillers, who get their first win since defeating Baldwin on Oct. 13, 1995.
1997 – Fred McManus, who played for Carmichaels throughout junior high school, blocks an extra-point to preserve Mapletown’s 7-6 win over the Mikes in the regular-season finale. The win puts Mapletown in the WPIAL Class A playoffs and eliminates Carmichaels.
1998 – Jason Barr runs for two touchdowns as Washington & Jefferson defeats visiting Waynesburg, 26-14, as the teams move closer to a three-way tie for the Presidents’ Athletic Conference football title with Grove City.
2007 – Trinity’s football team scores 14 fourth-quarter points and defeats Canon-McMillan 27-10 to end the Hillers’ 21-game losing streak, the longest in the WPIAL.
2007 – Ed Malinowski throws for a TD and runs for another as Chartiers-Houston defeats host Brentwood 20-6 as the Bucs finish the regular season undefeated for the first time since 1981.