Oakland Catholic girls soccer eliminates Hampton from PIAAs

By: HSSN Staff
Saturday, November 10, 2018 | 7:33 PM

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There’s little to no history between the Oakland Catholic and Hampton girls soccer teams, but those in attendance Saturday afternoon at North Allegheny might have mistaken the teams as longtime rivals.

Hampton played physical and dictated pace of play for the majority of the match, but Eagles sophomore standout Hannah Henn scored two second-half goals to lead WPIAL champion Oakland Catholic past Hampton, 2-1, in the quarterfinals of the PIAA Class AAA playoffs.

“It was a great game, and Hampton played really well,” Oakland Catholic Jim Earle said. “We chose to go into the wind in the first half, and we figured if we can get through that while we were fresh, get the wind in the second half, (and) anything can happen.”

Oakland Catholic (20-1) moves on to next Tuesday’s semifinals to face the winner of Mars/Blue Mountain at a site and time to be determined.

“We had a good game plan,” Hampton coach Bill Paholich said. “We wanted to win the ball. We wanted to be physical, and we wanted to control the pace. We kept telling the girls keep attacking wide, keep getting opportunities and they’re bound to go in. Unfortunately they just didn’t go in.”

Hampton (18-6) earned a spot in the quarterfinals by virtue of its 4-3 win over South Fayette in the WPIAL third-place match and a 3-1 win over Hickory in the PIAA opening round. The Talbots came out in a fury that lasted the first 40 minutes.

Hampton had plenty of opportunities, but shots sailed wide right, wide left or over the crossbar or were taken out of play by the 20 mph wind gusts.

Senior Valerie Fischer drilled a shot at Oakland Catholic keeper Maggie Storti, but it rolled down the right pole. Storti stopped two more rebounds on the play before the Eagles took possession. It was that kind of afternoon for the Talbots. Storti finished with seven saves, five in the first half.

“(Storti’s) been that way all season long,” Earle said. “She’s having an unbelievable season and is playing incredibly well. The whole defense just played great today.”

Oakland Catholic’s potent attack was missing in the first half, but the defense never caved and Earle was OK with that heading into halftime.

“I was just so pumped up, and I thought that if we could get out of the first half 0-0, with the wind the way it was, it would be a big moral victory for us,” said Earle.

With the wind at the Eagles’ back in the second half, the Oakland Catholic attack began to soar. One had the feeling whichever team scored first would win.

The Eagles started to penetrate the Hampton defense in the second half. Hannah Henn broke the ice when she beat Talbots freshman keeper Sophie Kelly to her right to put Oakland Catholic up 1-0 with 20 minutes, 3 seconds remaining. Kelly finished with four saves.

“On the first goal, we usually try and find Anna Sproule’s head for the ‘flick,’ but at the time I think Hampton caught on,” Henn said

There was too much time remaining on the clock to celebrate, and the Talbots weren’t going away.

“Even in the second half, we had the right mindset — and give Oakland Catholic credit, they stepped up their game a little more,” Paholich said.

Henn came back to put the game away on a breakaway goal with 2:09 remaining to give the Eagles a 2-0 lead.

Hampton got on the board when senior Courtney Coholich beat Storti to cut the Eagles lead to 2-1 with 1:28 remaining in the match.

“We don’t give up, and we’ll fight to the very bitter end and the last seconds on the clock,” Paholich said.

Earle was happy to see his defense show up when his offense was held in check for much of the match.

“Our defense was amazing,” he said.

William Whalen is a freelance writer.

Tags: Hampton, Oakland Catholic