Abington

Dave Brooks, a 6-foot-2 guard who led Abington to first place in the Suburban One League National Conference's Colonial Division and into the state playoffs as a senior last season, has made a verbal commitment to attend Niagara University. Brooks scored more than 1,000 points at Abington. He currently attends Philadelphia Christian Academy, and expects to sign a national letter of intent with Niagara during the NCAA's early signing period, which starts Nov. 8. Norristown High School's home football game against Methacton on Friday night has been moved to Phoenixville High School.

In addition to turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce, Abington continued another one of its Thanksgiving traditions Thursday - beating its rival, Cheltenham. The Ghosts gutted out a 7-0 victory in the nonleague game. Craig Reynolds broke a scoreless tie in the fourth quarter when he found daylight up the left sideline, sprinting for a 29-yard touchdown and giving Abington (8-4) its sixth straight Thanksgiving Day victory over Cheltenham (8-4). "I just got to the sidelines," said Reynolds, who ran for 108 yards on 21 carries.

Dave Torresani, who coached North Penn to a 48-8 record and consecutive Suburban One National Patriot Division titles in the last two seasons, is returning to Abington, his high school alma mater, to become boys' basketball coach. Torresani replaces Ted Weiner, who resigned in June. "Ted called me and asked if I'd be interested, but I didn't know," Torresani said. "I had a good situation at North Penn. "But when I first started coaching, I thought that sometime I wanted to come back to Abington.

Chester withstood a fourth-period rally by Abington last night and won its PIAA District 1 Class AAAA semifinal game at the Palestra, 78-71. Leading by 58-48 after three periods, the Clippers allowed Abington to draw within six points, to 60-54, early in the fourth quarter. But the Clippers (24-2), ranked fourth in the Inquirer's Southeastern Pennsylvania Top 10, scored eight of the next 10 points and raised the lead to 68-56, putting the game on ice. The victory sends Chester into Friday's district title game against Coatesville, a 74-71 winner over Conestoga.

Citing the school's academic profile and the program's potential move to the Big East Conference, Abington defensive end Bryan Osei made an oral commitment to play at Villanova. "I had a few Division I-A offers, but education comes before football," the 6-foot-2, 220-pound senior said Saturday. "Also, it looks like the team will wind up playing in the Big East. That's exciting to me. " Osei also had scholarship offers from Kent State, Temple, Old Dominion, and Stony Brook. He made unofficial visits to Temple and Rutgers.

Following the lead taken by eight other eastern Montgomery County districts, Abington school officials have adopted a policy to deal with students or staff who are diagnosed as having acquired immune deficiency syndrome. At a meeting earlier this month, the school board voted 7-2, without discussion, to adopt the AIDS policy. Voting no were board President Muriel J. Alt and member Adele S. Block. Besides Abington, other districts with AIDS policies include Centennial, Central Bucks, Colonial, Hatboro-Horsham, Jenkintown, Springfield, Wissahickon and Upper Dublin.

Matt Penecale's red-hot shooting, Anthony Lee's efforts off the bench, and some late-game resolve moved Abington a step closer to returning to Temple's Liacouras Center. The No. 5-seeded Ghosts, overcoming 15 second-half turnovers, fought past No. 12 Penn Wood, 66-52, Tuesday night in a PIAA District 1 Class AAAA second-round boys' basketball playoff. Penecale, a 6-foot-2, 170-pound sophomore, delivered 15 of his career-high 21 points, including four three-pointers, in the first half.

Abington officials are continuing to investigate the cause of a fire that destroyed a supermarket over the weekend. Abington Fire Marshal Robert G. Stahl Jr., weary from sifting through the rubble that was once Stony's IGA Food Mart on Easton Road in Roslyn, said Tuesday afternoon that it would be several days before the exact origin of the fire was known. "Based on physical evidence and comments from firefighters who were on the scene first, we believe it started in the rear of the building, near the southeast corner," said Stahl, sitting under a shade tree while he sipped a soda.

More than 300 tombstones and grave markers were knocked down last weekend in a wave of vandalism that Abington police said would cost the Hillside Cemetery between $30,000 and $50,000. Two suspects - one of whom said he had just been fired from his job with the cemetery - were arrested, but police said yesterday they did not have enough evidence to charge them with vandalizing the graves. Arrested early Sunday were a 17-year-old Cheltenham youth and Karl J. Pearce, 20, of Merchantville, N.J. The Cheltenham juvenile told police he had been fired by the cemetery Saturday after he failed to show up for work.

Dom Lorusso always told his athletes that good things happen to good people. On the final day of his 40-year coaching career, perhaps his team decided it was time to pay that lesson back. The Valley Forge Military Academy baseball team sent Lorusso into retirement by throwing a combined no-hitter Thursday in a 10-0 defeat of visiting Phelps. Lorusso, who has been the athletic director since 2007, has also served as the head wrestling coach and the director of health and physical education.

Montana Mayfield, a senior point guard from Abington Friends School, committed Wednesday to play basketball at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Last season while helping the Kangaroos win their first Friends Schools League championship since 2006, the 6-foot, 175-pounder averaged about 13 points and four assists per game. He also received interest from Fairleigh Dickinson and Liberty. "He's a point guard, but he can also play the wing," AFS coach Steve Chadwin said. "He can shoot the ball really well.

After drawing four straight balls, Abington's top hitter, Sean Gallagher, jogged to first base on with a two-out intentional walk. But the seventh-inning move failed to create a much better situation for the Truman baseball team, as cleanup hitter Trey Guaglionona slapped a single up the middle and the Ghosts topped their Suburban One National rival, 4-3, Thursday afternoon. "He's been hot lately, so I had a lot of confidence in him," coach Dave Torresani said of Guaglionona. "And he came through for us. " Brendan Gallagher, a sophomore rightfielder, scored the winning run from third base.

With the bases loaded and nobody out Thursday afternoon, first-year Springside Chestnut Hill baseball coach Chris Lubanski called for senior righthander Mike Hayes and his devastating curveball. No one could touch his curve, Lubanski said, as Hayes fanned three straight batters in the seventh inning, and the Blue Devils held on to edge Perkiomen School, 13-12, in a nonleague game. "We had him in a few tight spots already and he's been controlled and poised every time," Lubanski said.

With the bases loaded and nobody out Thursday afternoon, first-year Springside Chestnut Hill baseball coach Chris Lubanski called for senior righthander Mike Hayes and his devastating curveball. No one could touch his curve, Lubanski said, as Hayes fanned three straight batters in the seventh inning, and the Blue Devils held on to edge Perkiomen School, 13-12, in a nonleague game. "We had him in a few tight spots already, and he's been controlled and poised every time," Lubanski said.

Mark the date, friends and families of the Abington schools A teacher and staff talent show to benefit the Abington Educational Foundation will be held Friday, April 5, at 7 p.m. at Abington Senior High School Funds raised by the event will help provide for student programs and activities and expand the curriculum and arts and cultural programs at the Abington schools. Tickets are available in all district schools and at the door of the event. The cost is $10 per ticket or four tickets for $35. The high school is located at 900 Highland Ave., Abington.

On the night the area's other Class AAA power fell, Imhotep Charter avoided an early scare and knocked off Abington Heights, 61-50, Friday night at Allentown's William Allen in the PIAA boys' basketball quarterfinals. Brandon Austin, a senior point guard, led the Panthers with a game-high 16 points. The 6-foot-6 Providence signee scored 12 points in the second half. Abraham Massaley added 12 points, and Basil Thompson chipped in with nine. Imhotep advances to a Tuesday semifinal against Donegal, which upset three-time defending state champion Neumann-Goretti.

Moving forward, St. Joseph's Prep will need some fine-tuning on offense. But its matchup zone defense appears to be in peak form. Abington found that out in the first round of the PIAA Class AAAA state boys' basketball playoffs Saturday. Keeping the Ghosts from finding any semblance of rhythm with the ball, Steve Vasturia and the Hawks easily triumphed, 48-33, at William Tennent. "Overall, I think we did a good job on defense," Prep coach Speedy Morris said. "We kept them from getting out in transition.

St. Joseph's Prep will need some fine-tuning on offense. But its matchup zone defense appears to be in peak form. Abington found that out in the first round of the PIAA Class AAAA state boys' basketball playoffs Saturday. Keeping the Ghosts from finding any semblance of rhythm with the ball, Steve Vasturia and the Hawks easily triumphed, 48-33, at William Tennent. "Overall, I think we did a good job on defense," Prep coach Speedy Morris said. "We kept them from getting out in transition.

We picked Imhotep Charter and Math, Civics, and Sciences to win the PIAA Class AAA and A boys' basketball titles, respectively. We now take a look at the Class AAAA and AA tournaments, which will tip off Saturday afternoon. Nineteen area teams are involved in the two classifications. Chester, 24-3 and ranked No. 1 in Southeastern Pennsylvania by The Inquirer, is seeking its third straight Class AAAA title. It's important to note that the PIAA has moved the boys' Class AAAA and AA semifinals - and the girls' Class AAA and A semis - from Wednesday to Tuesday.