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High school notebook: Peccon overcomes injuries, commits to Cal

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Observer-Reporter

Ringgold’s Chris Peccon suffered injuries in his first three years at Ringgold. That didn’t stop him from scoring 1,000 points in his career and recently committing to California University.

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Observer-Reporter

Bentworth’s Jocelyn Timliln (21) scored 157 goals and had 66 assists in her high school career.

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Luke Campbell/Observer-Reporter

Peters Township goalkeeper Emma Sawich started since her freshman season.

Injuries over each of his first three seasons could have easily wrecked the basketball career of Ringgold’s Chris Peccon.

Peccon missed a season’s worth of games prior to his senior year. A broken wrist as a freshman knocked him out for 16 games. He sprained his ankle as a sophomore, keeping him out of six games. Then, a bruised kidney put him in the hospital and forced him to miss three games as a junior.

A clean bill of health for his senior year ended up with him landing with a scholarship offer from California University. He committed to the Vulcans in late March.

Peccon, an Observer-Reporter first-team all-district selection this season, helped Ringgold to the PIAA playoffs for the second consecutive year. He averaged 18.8 points per game, 4.6 assists and four rebounds, along with shooting 44% from the field for the Rams.

Peccon’s injuries didn’t prevent him from reaching the 1,000-point milestone. In unique circumstances on Senior Night, Ringgold had to move its section game against Waynesburg to the Rams’ middle school gymnasium. That’s where Peccon scored his 1,000th. He was the eighth player in Ringgold history to do so, and the first since Mike Horan in 1995.

Peccon was considering multiple PSAC schools, including Indiana and Seton Hill. La Roche also was in the mix.

“Thank you to all my friends and teammates for always pushing me to go harder and to never give up on myself,” Peccon said in a tweet. “A special thank you goes out to all my coaches for making me the player I am today on and off the court.”

Staying home

Similar to Peccon, another first-team all-district selection won’t be going very far to play college basketball.

Waynesburg’s Lucas Garber won’t have to leave Greene County as he committed to Waynesburg University.

Garber, an O-R first-team selection for two consecutive years, averaged 20.9 points per game this season.

He will join Trinity’s Dylan King, who also committed to the Yellow Jackets. King averaged 12.6 points and 7.2 rebounds per game for the Hillers.

Soccer choices

One of the best goal scorers the area has ever seen in girls soccer, Bentworth’s Jocelyn Timlin committed to West Virginia Wesleyan.

In her four years for the Bearcats, Timlin became the school’s all-time leading scorer with 157 career goals. She also had 66 assists.

Timlin is 12th in goals in WPIAL girls soccer history and one of only 15 girls in the district to score more than 150 goals. She finished one goal behind Monessen’s Gina Naccarato. Charleroi’s Shellie Cotton is also on the list, scoring 199 goals for the Cougars.

– Peters Township goalkeeper Emma Sawich committed to Saint Francis.

Sawich, a starter since her freshman season, had a 50-11-1 record and 27 shutouts over the last three seasons.

She allowed more than one goal in only 15 of 62 games.

Peters Township has made the WPIAL playoffs in each of the last three years. It lost in the WPIAL Class 4A championship and made a run to the PIAA semifinals in 2018.

– Waynesburg’s Gavin Benson committed to Western Illinois. Benson, a forward for the Raiders, has scored 51 goals in the last two seasons.

Weston to Easton

A four-year starting libero for the Canon-McMillan volleyball team, Katie Weston committed to play at Lafayette, located across the state in Easton.

The Big Macs pulled off one of the biggest upsets in district history when they ended North Allegheny’s 65-match winning streak with a 3-2 victory in the WPIAL Class 4A championship last fall. It was the first girls volleyball title in program history.

Weston was a big reason for C-M’s success. In each of her four seasons, Weston was Big 56 Conference and WPIAL first-team selections. Weston was all-state each of the past two seasons, including first team as a senior.

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