Burrell eager for another crack at WPIAL champion Bentworth in state playoffs

By: Jerin Steele
Friday, November 10, 2023 | 11:01 AM

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With a trip to Highmark Stadium for the WPIAL championship on the line last week, Burrell and Bentworth put on an entertaining match that the Bearcats won 2-1 in overtime.

The Bucs left that night with a feeling that they played well enough to win but didn’t get the job done in a hard-fought battle.

Now they will have a second crack at Bentworth, which went on to win the WPIAL title.

This time, the Bucs and Bearcats will play for the right to advance to the state semifinals when they meet in the PIAA Class A boys soccer quarterfinals at 2 p.m. Saturday at Plum.

“It’s one of those things where the boys thought they played really well, so they want another shot,” Bucs coach Andrew Kariotis said. “It’s not a vengeful type of thing. Bentworth is a pretty clean team. They play hard and physical but nothing dirty. It’s not like there’s a huge historical rivalry there, but we definitely want another shot at them.”

Ryan Moessner scored the winner against Burrell in overtime. Moessner also scored for Bentworth 14 minutes into the match. Burrell pushed for an equalizer for most of the second half before Luke Postupack scored with two minutes remaining in regulation.

The Bucs want to avoid an early deficit again Saturday, but they also know if they fall behind, they are plenty capable of coming back.

“It’s always easier to play when you have a lead, but during the season, we’ve put a lot of emphasis on trying to bury teams early and maybe that didn’t necessarily make it better,” Kariotis said. “We’ve been down a few times throughout the season. We were behind against Trinity Christian (in the WPIAL quarterfinals) and came back, so we’re not going to panic, but it is easier to play with a lead.

“When we got ahead against Seton LaSalle (in the WPIAL consolation game), that entire game had a different feel compared to the Bentworth game because we were ahead instead of chasing that goal.”

Burrell blanked District 9 champion Redbank Valley, 9-0, in the first round Tuesday for what is believed to be its first state tournament win. Bentworth shut out District 10 champion Seneca, 3-0.

Jayson Ireland had four goals in the win Tuesday and had the lone goal in the 1-0 win over Seton LaSalle in the WPIAL consolation game.

“(Ireland) got hurt the first time we played Winchester Thurston, and after that, he was playing with one wheel for a while and fighting through it,” Kariotis said. “It definitely looks like it’s starting to feel better because he’s been on fire lately.”

Calio Zanella, Cam Wagner, Vincent Guerrini, Luke Guerrini and Postupack added a goal each against Redbank Valley. Postupack and Haydn Herbulock registered three assists each.

Kariotis said the Bucs will not make drastic tactical changes going into Saturday’s rematch. They’ll bring the same effort and intensity they had in the WPIAL semifinal and try to keep their season going.

“We’ll go over a couple of things in that game in particular that we might tweak, but as far as how we play, that is not going to change,” Kariotis said. “We liked the way we played. It just comes down to fixing a mistake or two and not making them again.”

Jerin Steele is a freelance writer

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