PENNSYLVANIA PREP FOOTBALL Southern Columbia lone champ alive

The Tigers are trying for their sixth consecutive trip to the Class A final.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
With three weekends worth of games still remaining, Southern Columbia is the only defending PIAA football champion in contention to repeat.
The Tigers (11-1), trying for their sixth consecutive trip to the PIAA Class A final and their eighth in nine years, play Steelton-Highspire (11-1) in a PIAA Class A quarterfinal Friday night in Sunbury.
Defending champions losing last weekend were Parkland (Class AAAA), which lost to Easton 23-15 in the District 11 championship, and Mount Carmel (Class AA), a 35-28 loser to Line Mountain in the District 4 championship game.
Class AAA champion Hopewell did not make the District 7 playoffs this season.
Parkland's loss was its third this season and gave Easton its first district championship since 1993. Mount Carmel has won five PIAA Class AA titles since 1994 -- all during even-numbered years (1994, 1996, 1998, 2000 and 2002).
Southern Columbia has a chance to become only the sixth school to win consecutive championships since the PIAA playoffs begin in 1998. Previously doing so were Central Bucks West in Class AAAA (1997, 1998, 1999), Berwick in Class AAA (1994, 1995, 1996, 1997), Strath Haven in Class AAA (1999 and 2000), Farrell in Class A (1995 and 1996) and Rochester in Class A (2000 and 2001).
Rochester was trying to become the first team to win four consecutive PIAA District 7 (WPIAL) titles since Braddock in the 1950s, but lost to Springdale 24-23 in triple overtime in a District 7 Class A semifinal Friday.
Pitt recruit
Pitt has landed its first high-profile women's basketball recruit under new coach Agnus Berenato.
Viktoria "Vika" Sholokhova, a 6-foot-4 inside player from Russia and a senior at Sacred Heart in Vineland, N.J., signed a binding letter of intent with the Panthers.
Sholokhova chose Pitt over more successful programs such as South Carolina, Vanderbilt and George Washington.
Sholokhova was a five-year member of the Russian junior national team that won the 2002 Junior Olympic games in Moscow. Her parents, Igor and Valeria, were elite basketball players in the Soviet Union.