PT, BP, USC girls battle in soccer semifinals
Three out of four ain’t bad. In fact, when it comes to girls’ soccer having three South Hills clubs advance to the Final Four in the WPIAL Class AAA playoffs is pretty good.
Monday, Oct. 28 was the big day for Peters Township, Bethel Park and Upper St. Clair as each battled for the right to play in the WPIAL championships set for Nov. 1-2 at Highmark Stadium. One semifinal featured Peters versus BP at 6 p.m. at Chartiers Valley. While USC challenged top-seeded Seneca Valley at 6 p.m. at Baldwin.
Peters, which is the defending district and state champion, advanced to its rematch with BP the hard way. The Lady Indians used a shootout to edge Pine-Richland, 1-0, at Chartiers Valley.
Megan Parker made two critical stops in the shootout. The senior goalkeeper turned back penalty kicks by Maggie Shope and Kate Graszl as the Indians won the shootout, 4-2, after 110 minutes of scoreless soccer.
After Leah Roth got the Rams’ off to a positive start in the shootout, Laurel Carpenter and Carly Johns made their penalty kicks while Parker made the stops. Riley Partyka and Marisa Hombosky then traded goals before Madison Santo iced the victory for the Lady Indians.
With the victory, PT improved to 15-4-1 overall. The Lady Indians, who lost to Bethel Park back on Sept. 7, were Section 5 champions with a 9-0-1 record.
Meanwhile, the Lady Hawks set up the rematch when they beat Gateway, 3-1, in their quarterfinal match at Elizabeth-Forward. Tatiana Ruzzini scored twice for BP, which improved to 17-2-1 overall.
While Seneca Valley (16-2-1) blanked Canon-McMillan, 2-0, in its semifinal match, USC (11-5-2) toppled Fox Chapel, 2-1, at Chartiers Valley. The Foxes were undefeated Section 3 champions (11-0-1). They finished the season 17-2-1 overall, their only other defeat, 2-1, to Hampton.
While Olivia Belack and Emma Hasco accounted for the scores, Sammi Lackner made the play of the game when she cleared a sure Fox Chapel goal from the mouth of the net, seconds before the first half ended.
In other action, an upset against Sewickley Academy prevented Bishop Canevin from advancing the Class A semifinals. Sophia Werner scored seven minutes into overtime to lift the Panthers to victory, 1-0, and to end the Crusaders’ season. Canevin finished the year 16-3-1 overall.