Vikings Sports Now

Vikings Sports Now wants to do something very important and recognize the reason we’re still up and running.

Without cooperate support from local businesses, there wouldn’t be a Vikings Sports Now. Local advertising allows us to do all the things we do.

By now means are we ESPN or Fox Sports, but we are a small business and need money in order to operate.

With that in mind, VSN wants to give a shoutout to all of our local advertisers for being so loyal and joining our team.

As we head into the Fall sports season, we’re always open to add more new sponsors to our family. If you’d like to talk about opportunities (which are very affordable), please contact me (724-462-5756) or mvukovcan@gmail.com.

Here’s a look at our current sponsors and we encourage you to please support them if possible.

**SHULLIGAN’S SPORTS BAR AND GRILLE.
Owner Mike Shutak and his business have been with Vikings Sports Now from Day 1 and he’s as loyal and as giving of a person as you can find. Shulligan’s not only supports VSN but all of the sports teams in Hopewell through various acts of kindness that don’t get reported. To top it off, Shulligan’s has a tremendous menu and atmosphere to hang out or to watch sporting events with their various TV’s or when they host bands, have open-mic nights and trivia nights. Shulligan’s is located on 2422 Broadhead Road in Hopewell, and you can also get takeout by calling 724-375-2920.

**LISA MCCOY – STATE FARM INSURANCE AGENT

Lisa McCoy was the first person that said she wanted to join Vikings Sports Now and that means a lot to me. Aside from this website, Lisa McCoy’s Insurance business is very visible through Hopewell athletics and across Western Pennsylvania. One of the reasons McCoy is so successful is because of her ability to communicate and work with her customers to meet their needs.

My family switched our insurance over to Lisa McCoy and we’re so glad we did.

If you’re in need of or looking to change your auto, motorcycle, homeowners, condo, renters, business, life or pet insurance, give Lisa and her State Farm Insurance team a call at 724-498-0630 or email them at lisa@insurewithlisa.net. Check out her website at http://www.insurewithlisa.net

**SHANNA FUNWELA BROCK HANNA REAL ESTAE TEAM

The Shanna Funwela and Brock Hanna Real Estate Team have been doing their job at the highest level now for over 15 years.

They are dedicated to helping families and individuals navigate the high-demand real estate market with confidence and ease. The Funwela/Hanna Real Estate Team is committed to delivering premium service with authenticity, transparency, and a focus on delivering results. Whether you’re buying or selling, you can trust them to offer honest advice and guide you every step of the way.

**GEORGE’S FAMILY RESTAURANT

George’s Family Restaurant has been serving families all across Beaver and Allegheny County for over 40 years.

You don’t survive as a business that long without being a quality place and that’s exactly what George’s Family Restaurant is under the Spiropoulos Family

Now only does George’s Family Restaurant serve breakfast but they have tremendous lunch specials as well. My favorite is the Hot Roast Beef Sandwich!

Here’s a look at their breakfast and lunch menus.

George’s Family Restaurant is located at 2477 Broadhead Road in Aliquippa (724-375-2226) and they open daily at 7 AM.

**FRANK WALKER LAW

Frank Walker has been a loyal and long-time business partner with my Sports Now Networks. Frank is a great man and founder of Frank Walker Law in Pittsburgh. Walker is one of the most sought-after criminal defense attorneys in Western Pennsylvania due to his reputation for real talk, real experience and real results. Clients choose attorney Walker for representation because of his ability to get the most for his clients. To get in touch with Frank Walker, Pittsburgh Criminal Lawyer, call 412-212-3878.

**A&S Federal Credit Union

Vikings Sports Now is fortunate to be supported by and have created a partnership with many outstandings businesses in Hopewell, one of those being A&S Federal Credit Union.

A&S Federal Credit Union is located at 2090 Broadhead Road and is open weekdays from 9 AM till 4:30 PM on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, with extended hours on Thursday till 6 PM.

If you’re looking for your next car and need a loan, or needing to apply for a mortgage, need to apply for a loan or a new credit card, stop in or give them a call (724) 375-0248 or apply on-line at http://asfederal.org.

A&S Federal Credit Union are strong supporters of the Hopewell community and would love to see you soon!

**A’Brewed Awakening

Located at 2236 Brodhead Road, owner Barb and her staff are open 7 days a week to serve you. A’Brewed Awakening has more than just great coffee as you can get LATES, MACCHIATOS, ICED COFFEE, CAPPUCCINO, ESPRESSO, FRAPPE’S, TEA, SMOOTHIES. Not only do they have beverages but also have breakfast burritos, muffins, donuts, orams, banana bread, scones, cookies and a lot more. A’Brewed Awakening is a place that I frequently go to in the morning to get out of the house to work at.

**WAYNE TATALOVICH FUNERAL HOME

Mr. Tatalovich is family owned and operated and has provided our community with dignified and professional services for the past 57 years.

The compassionate and caring staff at Tatalovich Funeral Home and Cremation Services, Inc. are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. All the families that we serve are important to Mr. Tatalovich and his staff. They constantly strive to offer a wider variety of options to each and every one of them. It has been the Tatalovich family’s sincere desire during the hours of one’s greatest sorrow to serve them in a manner which would lighten their burden. The Tatalovich family, “serving your family as their own since 1968′.

TATALOVICH FUNERAL HOME AND CREMATION SERVICE, INC.
2205 McMinn Street
Aliquippa, PA 15001
724-378-7550

3475 Broadhead Road
Monaca, PA 15061
724-317-0433

**VOCELLI’S PIZZA OF HOPEWELL

Vocelli’s Pizza of Hopewell is the Official Pizza of VSN and the only pizza that my family and I order on pizza night. Thanks to Brian, who re-opened the Hopewell location and is doing a tremendous job.  Vocelli’s is located across from the Hopewell Shopping Center at 2279 Broadhead Road, and the phone number is 724-719-9777. Nothing better than the pepperoni on Vocelli’s Pizza! They have more than just pizza, try their subs, wings, etc. Brian has been very generous in giving away gift cards on Vikings Sports Now and since moving to Hopewell has worked hard to establish himself in this community and has been VERY GENEROUS in working with and providing for the local sports teams in town. Thank you Brian and I look forward to continuing working with you in the future.

Aside from helping us, these businesses are hoping that when and if you’re in need of a service that they provide, you’ll consider them as an option.

That’s the purpose of advertising so please consider these businesses in the future and if you know them or solicit their business, let them know you heard about them on Vikings Sports Now.

With the 2026 Hopewell High School Fall sports season set to start up, Vikings Sports Now is getting our plans together for another season of covering Hopewell athletics.

With that in mind, I’m excited to let you know that Laura Halleman will be joining VSN staff in an exciting role.

Since our inception, VSN has been able to cover the on-field action, but Halleman will be doing something different as she plans on focusing on feature stories on the athletes, coaches and administrators in Hopewell.

It’ll be exciting to learn about the various athletes and coaches in our town and who they are away from the playing field or court.

Halleman is a Hopewell resident as she and her husband, Tom, have raised two kids here.

She will be bringing plenty of writing experience to Vikings Sports Now having worked previously for the Beaver Valley Star, Sewickley Herald, Sewickley Patch, the Biloxi Sun Herald (while covering Hurricane Katrina) and Interactive Content Services.

I’m excited to be able to bring Halleman aboard and can’t wait for her to get started.

FYI, we’re also still very much interested in adding another student writer or two to our team in order to give them on the job experience as well as being able to help us provide more content.

If you are or know of someone with interest, please have them contact me at either mvukovcan@gmail.com or (724) 462-5756.

Despite being in the middle of summer with not a ton of local sports happening, some news concerning Hopewell athletes and programs led VSN having its second-best week of traffic since the week of May 18th.

As is normally the case, football led the way but stories on Hopewell baseball and the two high school soccer programs generated a fair amount of traffic for the site.

Here were our five most viewed stories from last week:

1) Watch: Hopewell’s James Armstrong Announces College Decision

WATCH: Hopewell’s James Armstrong Announces College Decision

2) Hopewell Wide Receiver Avery Bokor Receives First D-1 Offer

Hopewell Wide Receiver Avery Bokor Receives 1st D-1 Offer

3) Four Hopewell Players Will Compete to Play in 2026 Pony League World Series

Four Hopewell Players Will Compete to Play in 2026 Pony League World Series

4) Martin Byrnes, Hopewell’s New High School Girls Soccer Coach

Martin Byrnes, Hopewell’s New High School Girls Soccer Coach

5) Q&A with New Hopewell HS Boys Soccer Coach Ben Bezems

Q&A with New Hopewell HS Boys Soccer Coach Ben Bezems

A Good Monday Morning to everyone and thanks for checking out Vikings Sports Now.

As I try to do every Monday, we take a quick look back at the previous week and check out what stories were popular with you the reader. By popular I mean, which stories were read the most.

A solid week of traffic as with plenty of Hopewell teams in action, we had our most views since the beginning of February.

Here’s a look at five most viewed stories on Vikings Sports Now from last week.

1 Hopewell QB James Armstrong Picks up First SEC Offer

Hopewell QB James Armstrong Picks Up First SEC Offer

2. Another Big Day for the Hopewell HS Track and Field Team

Another Big Day for the Hopewell HS Track and Field Team

3. Best Performance of the Season Leads Hopewell JV to 9-4 Win Over Ambridge

Best Performance of Season Leads Hopewell JV to 9-4 Win Over Ambridge

4. Hopewell’s Aris Haniotes Continues to Work for That D-1 Scholarship

Hopewell’s Aris Haniotes Continues to Work for That D-1 Scholarship

5. Senior Payton Korker Pitches Hopewell Past Avonworth, 11-1

Senior Payton Korker Pitches Hopewell Past Avonworth, 11-1

For the fourth consecutive week, our website has increased its traffic for the week.

After barely climbing over 4,000 views a week ago, Vikings Sports Now had a total of over 4,800 page views this past week.

Thanks Hopewell for supporting what we’re doing!

Here were the five stories that received the most views. None of these stories were done by copy and pasting from a Facebook post or from someone’s email.

#1 More National Recognition for Hopewell QB James Armstrong

More National Recognition for Hopewell QB James Armstrong

2) Hopewell HS Boys Basketball Receives No. 5 seed, Playoff Opponent Announced

Hopewell HS Boys Basketball Receives No. 5 Seed, Playoff Opponent Announced

3) Athletic Trainer Lauren Linn, A Critical Member of Hopewell Sports

Athletic Trainer Lauren Linn, A Critical Member of Hopewell Sports

4) WATCH: Celebration Inside the Hopewell Vikings Locker Room

WATCH: Celebration Inside the Hopewell Vikings Locker Room

5) Justin Shegog A Huge Addition to the 2025-26 Hopewell Boys Basketball Program

Justin Shegog A Huge Addition to the 2025-26 Hopewell Boys Basketball Program

A little over one year ago, I made the decision to start over and re-start an idea that I came up with 2 years ago.

With the newspaper business all but defunct and with no other media outlet to get information out to the public, I felt it was important for residents in our community of Hopewell to have a place to go for sports information.

Not just high school sports and not exclusive to football and basketball but as many sports as we could report on involving boys and girls in youth sports, junior high and high school. Not only did we want to report on the game results but also wanted to let you know about the tremendous accomplishments of our athletes in Hopewell as well you getting to know them in feature stories.

With all of this in mind came the start of Vikings Sports Now, which was launched one year ago today.

Over the last 365 days, VSN has done our best to keep you informed on the happenings in Hopewell sports as well as report on the male and female student athletes.

The thing that I’m proudest of is that we’ve done our best to be visible in the community and at as many events as we can. We don’t just get our stories off Facebook or from coaches and copy and paste information, VSN attends games/matches and actually talk to the coaches and athletes.

Would we like to cover more events? Sure. However, in the past year, considering we don’t have a huge staff, VSN has done a very good spreading out our coverage and reporting on various Hopewell teams and athletes.

I’d like to thank a few people in particular for the help that they’ve given this website over the last year, without you, we wouldn’t have been able to accomplish some of the things we’ve done.

Thank you to Lillian Otto, Jessica Gonzalez and Chris Otto. Your help has been invaluable. Lillian joined VSN early on as a student writer and has stuck with us and done a tremendous job covering various sports. Since she’s only a freshman, I’m hoping she’ll stick with us for a few more years! Chris and Jessica, you’ve been a huge asset, thank you!

Would also like to thank some of the coaches at Hopewell that have made my life a lot easier by assisting me with information and details, which allow me to write stories. Also, for your help in getting me in touch with your athletes to interview.

I’m hoping I don’t miss anyone but thank you to Hopewell coaches Matt Mottes, Doug Biega, Jeff Homziak, Jeff Brunton, Terry Borkovic, Kathi Lopez, Stan Magusiak and Morgan Singletary.

Last but not least, to the businesses that have been with Vikings Sports Now as sponsors. The truth is that without the help that VSN has received from the community has allowed us to exist. I can tell you with 100% certainty without this help and generosity, there wouldn’t be a Vikings Sports Now. These businesses have allowed me to employee and pay writers, pay photographers, sponsor teams at the high school, pay for team dinners, assist teams with certain things, pay for broadcasters for HS football games, sponsor events in the school like musicals, tickets for Night at the Races, etc.

This is the No.1 reason why you see me actively looking for sponsors. I CAN ASSURE YOU THAT IT”S NOT FOR PERSONAL GAIN as most of the money VSN takes in goes back out for things such as this and not in my bank account.

With that in mind, thank you to the following businesses and business owners for trusting me to become a valuable member of our website.

I’d like to start by recognizing two people in particular, who have been with me for well over a year and before the launch of VSN:

*Mike Shutak, owner of Shulligan’s Bar and Grille. Is one of the most generous people that I’ve ever met. You’re not just a business partner but a friend. Shulligan’s not only serves great food but has events like Trivia Night, Open Mics, Live Bands, etc.

*Lisa McCoy, State Farm Insurance Agent. Lisa has been with me from the start, and you probably notice, she’s generous and giving to MANY teams in Hopewell. In need of home and car insurance, please contact McCoy at (724) 498-0630 or insurewithlisa.net.

*Vocelli’s Pizza of Hopewell. Owner Brian Apolito took over as owner and done a tremendous job with the menu, prices and the service. In less than a year, Apolito has made a huge impact in our community with his generosity to not only VSN but other teams and organizations in our community.

*State Representative Rob Matzie. A close personal friend of mine for years, Rob is doing his best and has done a bunch of noteworthy things for Beaver County. Keep up the good work Matz!

*A&S Federal Credit Union. A huge thanks to Gina Huntington and the great members of A&S Federal Credit Union. We do our banking there and from day one have been impressed with their professionalism and ability to take care of our needs. A&S is located at 2090 Broadhead Road and their phone number is (724) 375-0248. A&S Federal Credit Union has been serving our community since 1940.

*Shanna Funwela/Brock Hanna Real Estate Team. VSN was very excited when Shanna and her Coldwell Banker Reality team decided to join VSN. If you are looking to buy or sell, you need to give Funwela a call (412-506-2984) as they’re one of the top real estate teams in Pennsylvania. That’s not job talk, the results show: When you talk to Shanna and Brock, you become their priority and they get the job done for you. Like with many of our sponsors, Funwela is one of the most generous and active people in our community. Thank you Shanna.

*Frank Walker Law: Frank Walker has been a loyal and long-time business partner with my Sports Now Networks. Frank is a great man and founder of Frank Walker Law in Pittsburgh. Walker is one of the most sought-after criminal defense attorneys in Western Pennsylvania due to his reputation for real talk, real experience and real results. Clients choose attorney Walker for representation because of his ability to get the most for his clients. To get in touch with Frank Walker, Pittsburgh Criminal Lawyer, call 412-212-3878.

*CCR Painting, LLC:  As we approach the spring and the summer, it’s time to start thinking about getting the inside of your house painted/touch ups. If you’re considering it, Vikings Sports Now highly recommends CCR Painting, LLC for all your painting needs. They are professional, affordable, prompt and reliable! Pictures on the right are work they’ve done for us. They did an amazing job! No one better than Brandon Davis and his staff. You can contact Brandon at 412-583-4356 or email him at ccrpaintingllc@gmail.com

Scott Aguglia Agency: We were so excited when Scott Aguglia Agency decided to join Vikings Sports Now. Scott Aguglia is your local health care agent. Scott takes pride in serving OUR community. He works closely with Highmark and UPMC- for individuals, families and Independent Business Owners like you in our area. Give him a call for any questions or ask for a free Quote TODAY, 724-987-8500.  By the way, you don’t ever want to get into an arm-wrestling contest with this guy, you won’t win! LOL. Thanks Scott!

The Tatalovich Funeral Home and Cremations Services, Inc:  Mr. Tatalovich is family owned and operated and has provided our community with dignified and professional services for the past 57 years.

The compassionate and caring staff at Tatalovich Funeral Home and Cremation Services, Inc. are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. All the families that we serve are important to Mr. Tatalovich and his staff. They constantly strive to offer a wider variety of options to each and every one of them. It has been the Tatalovich family’s sincere desire during the hours of one’s greatest sorrow to serve them in a manner which would lighten their burden. The Tatalovich family, “serving your family as their own since 1968′.

TATALOVICH FUNERAL HOME AND CREMATION SERVICE, INC.
2205 McMinn Street
Aliquippa, PA 15001
724-378-7550

3475 Broadhead Road
Monaca, PA 15061
724-317-0433

On a personal note, back in my radio days at WMBA 1460 AM in Ambridge, I remember working with Mr. Tatalovich as he was a very loyal sponsor of our high school football games on the radio. It’s great that 25+ years later, we are once again working together because he’s one of the most respected and trusted names in Beaver County. It was that way back then and it remains that way today.

A’BREWED AWAKENING (COFFEE HOUSE)– Located at 2236 Brodhead Road, owner Barb and her staff are open 7 days a week to serve you. A’Brewed Awakening has more than just great coffee as you can get LATES, MACCHIATOS, ICED COFFEE, CAPPUCCINO, ESPRESSO, FRAPPE’S, TEA, SMOOTHIES. Not only do they have beverages but also have breakfast burritos, muffins, donuts, orams, banana bread, scones, cookies and a lot more. A’Brewed Awakening is a place that I frequently go to in the morning to get out of the house to work at.