Peters Township Boys & Seneca Valley Girls Win WPIAL Class AAA Soccer Titles

By: Bruce Markey
Saturday, November 2, 2013 | 1:12 AM

While Class AA and Class A district soccer finalists have to wait for Super Soccer Saturday to play for gold, Class AAA went Primetime at the new Highmark Stadium at Station Square. A couple of one goal games led the championships for Peters Township boys and Seneca Valley girls. Sam Hall has the details from both title matches.  

AAA Girls:   Seneca Valley Raiders 1 – Peters Township Indians 0

The top-seeded Seneca Valley Raiders won their third WPIAL Championship since 2007 by defeating the second-seeded Peters Township Indians 1-0 Friday night at Highmark Stadium. The two clubs played a fairly even first forty minutes of soccer with Peters generating three first half corners but the Indians were not able to get anything behind junior goalkeeper Jessica Neill who recorded six first half saves. Dave Sylvester in his 13th year must have delivered one of his better halftime speeches as the Raiders played absolutely dominant soccer for the final forty minutes of the contest. Second half play was heavily in favor of the Raiders but still with less than four minutes to play it was a scoreless contest thanks to good play in their own end by the Indians' defense corps and senior net minder Megan Parker who made more than a handful of saves to keep the game tied at 0-0. The Raiders though would change all that in the 76th minute of play. Junior midfielder Alicia Hart was called on to take her fourth corned of the half for the Raiders and sent it to the far post and high, where sophomore Caroline Miller was waiting, Miller leapt and timed her jump perfectly to head the pass behind Parker for the games only goal with 3:07 remaining on the clock. The Raiders from there were easily able to make that goal stand up to win the championship and the celebration was on for Seneca Valley and their fans. The Raiders improve their record to 18-2-1 with the win. Peters Township falls to 16-5-1 on the season. Both teams continue in the state tournament next week.

Scoring Summary:
Peters Township Indians :  0 – 0 = 0
Seneca Valley Raiders :  0 – 1 = 1
 

AAA Boys:   Peters Township Indians 1 – Upper St. Clair Panthers 0

For the 2nd straight season the Upper Saint Clair Panthers fell in the WPIAL Championship game by a score of 1-0 this time falling to Peters Township at Highmark Stadium on Friday night. Peters won their 8th WPIAL championship behind stellar play from goalkeeper Max O'Hare who made more than a handful of fantastic saves in the win. Peters got their goal from Mario Matrangelo in the 63rd minute when Mastrangelo carried a long delfection out of his own end and caught the USC defense up too far, he tapped it himself in space and was off to the races. After making a sweet move to his right to beat a pair of recovering USC defenders he poke a bouncing shot behind USC keeper Will Petley who had come way out of his net to try and cut down the angle. The Indians withstood a tremendous effort from the Panthers in the final 16 minutes to get the win. This was a hard-fought very emotional game with USC having two players receive yellow cards while the Indians' head coach Bob Dyer got one of his own, and one of the Peters coaches was shown a red card and the door to Highmark Stadium late in regulation. The Panther generated several great second-half chances but O'Hare just could not be beaten on this night. Mastrangelo's goal was his 18th of the year second on the team only to his twin brother Nikko who has 19. The Panthers suffered their first loss of the year falling to 19-1-1 while Peters improves to 17-3-2 on the season with the win. Both teams continue on to the state tournament. Remember last year after losing this game the Panthers were able to recover and move forward to win the state championship.

Scoring Summary:
Upper St. Clair Panthers :  0 – 0 = 0
Peters Township Indians : 0 – 1 = 1

Tags: Upper St. Clair