CANON-mCMILLAN GiRLS UPEND PETERS TOWNSHIP in SHOOTOUT
Abigail Gillespie (No. 15) heads a ball away from the Canon-McMillan goal area during WPIAL Class AAA girls’ quarterfinal playoff action against Peters Township. Gillespie scored the decisive goal during the Lady Macs’ shootout victory against the Indians, 2-1.
Maddie Santo (No. 22) of Peters Township and Allison Oddi (No. 11) from Canon-McMillan battle to reach the ball during WPIAL girls’ soccer playoff action
Canon-McMillan (15-3-2) advanced to the semifinals in the WPIAL Class AAA girls’ soccer playoffs by defeating Peters Township, 2-1, in a shootout at Elizabeth-Forward Warrior Stadium. With the win, the Lady Macs also clinched a PIAA playoff berth.
After 110 minutes of play, including two, 15-minute overtimes, the Lady Macs settled the contest on penalty kicks. Abigail Gillespie scored the decisive goal, C-M’s fourth in the series. Sydney Keremes, Cheyenne Trest and Ashlyn Whipple registered the first three goals.
“The girls put their whole hearts into this game,” said C-M skipper Dave Derrico. “It’s a relief to finally be on the right end of this,” he added after as many as eight unsuccessful attempts to beat the Lady Indians in recent memory.
The Lady Indians, who had twice beaten the Lady Macs in the regular season, 2-1, and 1-0, won the Section 4 banner with an 11-1 mark, losing only to Moon, 3-2. Peters Township, which was a WPIAL finalist last year and three-time state champions prior to that, finished the season at 16-2-2 overall.
Of losing in a shootout, Pat Vereb said, “It’s a brutal result but that’s the way it’s played. In previous years, we needed shootouts to make it to championships. This time around we weren’t so lucky.”
Indeed, two attempts by the Lady Indians sailed high over the net. Laurel Carpenter, Maddie Santo and Madeline LaVigna, however, did make their penalty kicks.
Luck certainly was not on the Indians’ side in the regular field of play, particularly in the second half and overtime frames. Twice Peters Township had wide-open shots on the net but failed to convert.
Carpenter did strike paydirt and knotted the contest, 1-1, on a direct kick midway through the first half. The Lady Macs scored first off a corner kick from Allison Oddi. The Peters defense had a hand in putting the ball in the net on an own goal.
USC ousted
Penn-Trafford also needed overtime to advance to the semifinals in the other quarterfinal girls’ playoff game at EF. With 41.9 seconds left in the first extra 15-minute frame, Maggie Mastrogiacomo scored her second tally of the game to lift the Warriors over Upper St. Clair, 2-1.
After nearly 77 minutes of scoreless action, both teams exploded for goals to push the game into overtime. Penn-Trafford took a 1-0 lead with 3:04 to play on a Mastrogiacomo’s tally. However, with 74 seconds to play, Brianna Erdman netted the equalizer to knot the score for the Panthers, 1-1, forcing the overtime.
The loss ended USC’s season. The Section 5 champions finished the year with a 12-3-5 record.
SF splits
South Fayette (16-3-1) upset Ambridge (17-3) in the boys’ AA playoffs, 2-1, while the Lady Lions dropped a 3-2 decision to Yough, 3-2, in overtime. Matt Cillo and Tom Iagnemma scored for the boys’ while Tori Valachovic and Autumn Heineman scored for the Lady Lions, who ended their season at 14-5-1 overall.