Franklin Regional advances to 3A boys soccer championship with 2-1 win over Mars

By: Ted Sarneso
Monday, October 28, 2024 | 9:03 PM

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Franklin Regional boys soccer coach Nick White admitted his team came out in its WPIAL Class 3A semifinal matchup with Mars with a little bit of nerves.

Three minutes in, his team would settle in after an absolute beauty of a diving save by senior goalkeeper Noah Walker.

“Noah is the absolute rock and foundation that this team is built on,” White said. “He’s an unbelievable leader and one of our team captains. He’s the type of player whose game gets better as the stakes get higher.”

Mars’ Frank Knezovich had a corner kick drop at his feet in front of the Panthers net. He turned and fired, aiming for the top left corner, but Walker used all of his 6-foot frame to make the save.

“That was a huge first save, and it definitely jump started us,” senior Danny Christafano said.

Walker was able to stave off the Fightin’ Planets attacks for most of the night, and Christafano and junior Chris Lamanna scored as No. 7 Franklin Regional (13-3-2) won 2-1 over No. 6 Mars (14-2-4) on Monday at Dormont Stadium.

It was tough for the Panthers to get anything going offensively. They tried getting the ball to Christafano and running an attack through him, but Mars’ defense was on him quickly to snuff out any chances.

“I’ve been giving it up for my defense all year,” Mars coach Chris Knauff said. “They’ve been incredibly difficult to play against, and those guys play with a lot of heart. No team is going to have an easy time, so I give Franklin Regional all the credit for being able to break us down.”

The Panthers were outshot 5-3 in the first half.

“They were playing a 3-5-2, and they had their outside mids clamping back down on me,” Christafano said. “I couldn’t get anything going in the first half.”

The Panthers’ first goal came from what the Fightin’ Planets were giving them, the middle part of the field.

Senior Joey Bayne took a corner kick and sent the ball on a line toward the front of the net, and Lamanna towered over everyone else and headed the ball past keeper Eli Stasiowski.

“What they did tactically in the first half was trying to pinch off our wings and keep us in the middle of the field,” White said. “What was big for us was getting that first goal, which loosened them up defensively.”

In the end, Mars still outshot the Panthers 7 to 5, but it was the quality of chances that gave the Panthers the edge.

After being a non-factor in the first half, Christafano started to see open space in the second half as the Panthers started to fire their attack on the left side with Bayne.

“Instead of looking at feet more, we were trying to get more space,” White said. “As soon as it was coming into Danny’s feet, he had guys coming at him from both sides. As we saw what they were doing, we tried to attack the space behind them a little bit more.”

Said Knauff: “They have a front three that are all really dangerous. A lot of times you play teams with one or two and it’s easy to gameplan against. But when you have three like they do, it makes it difficult. When we brought defenders up, they countered very quickly.”

Just 10 minutes into the second half, Christafano found himself wide open on the right side, and Bayne was able to find him with a cross pass after working toward the middle.

“I gathered in his pass, then took a touch past a kid and hit it into the top corner,” said Christafano, who was named to the Class 3A all-WPIAL team for the second time earlier in the afternoon.

The Panthers were unable to preserve the shutout. Max Davis took a through ball and barreled toward the Panthers’ net and, out of the corner of his eye, saw Nick Butler on the right side.

Davis tapped a pass just out of the reach of Walker. Butler had to jump up to get a leg on the ball, but with Walker out of position in net, it was an easy tally for Mars with eight minutes to go.

“Mars is a good team, and it’s hard to keep them off the board and they were opportunistic,” White said. “Walker is a phenomenal keeper, but they made some good runs, and it’s a shame we couldn’t get the shutout.”

Mars has to recover quickly as it plays the loser of No. 5 Bethel Park and top-seeded Moon in the consolation game on Wednesday night for a berth in the PIAA playoffs.

“It’s tough more from an emotional standpoint,” Knauff said. “To turnaround after one day off, it’s a tough task.”

Franklin Regional advances to face the winner of Bethel Park and Moon in the Class 3A championship at Highmark Stadium at a time and date to be determined.

Tags: Franklin Regional, Mars