Plum girls soccer wins at home to clinch section crown

By: Michael Love
Monday, October 17, 2022 | 10:06 PM

Purchase Photo Options

The Plum girls soccer team controlled its own destiny Monday to finish off its fourth straight section championship.

The Mustangs didn’t let the visiting Penn-Trafford Warriors play the role of spoiler.

Seniors Cam Rogers and Kaitlyn Killinger each scored a goal and provided an assist in the first half as Plum led by two at the break. Senior Annabel Ahrin and junior Ava Weleski added second-half tallies as the Mustangs finished off a 4-0 victory.

“We knew Penn-Trafford really wanted to beat us and help deny us the section title,” Rogers said. “It was important to bring that energy right away. We didn’t want to give them any momentum.”

Plum finished Section 3-3A play 11-1 (33 points).

Latrobe was the only team to defeat the Mustangs in section play with a 1-0 result Oct. 3 at Latrobe.

Plum caps the regular season Wednesday against Hampton. Penn-Trafford ended the regular season 7-6-4 overall. The Warriors finished section play in fourth place at 5-4-3.

Both teams will discover their first-round playoff matchups Wednesday when the brackets are revealed at 2 p.m. on the Triblive HSSN website.

Plum got on the board Monday 10 minutes into the first half as Rogers found the back of the net against Penn-Trafford keeper Reese Solomon. Killinger followed to make it 2-0 with 8:17 left until halftime.

Killinger’s tally was the 80th of her career.

“We were really locked in,” Killinger said. “The loss to Latrobe was kind of a wake-up call. We needed this section win tonight, and we played very well as a team.”

Plum added to its lead with 23:12 left in the second half as Ahrin took a feed from Weleski and put it in the open net for a 3-0 advantage.

Weleski scored at 20:20 to make it 4-0.

Plum finished with an 8-2 advantage in shots on goal.

“We knew what we were getting into against Plum,” Penn-Trafford coach Jimmy Mastroianni said.

“They got that goal early on us, but that has happened to us at times this year. But the girls never get down and keep fighting. We’re mostly freshmen and sophomores, and Plum is a very veteran team with a lot of seniors. But we still have the playoffs in front of us, and I know the girls will be ready.”

Michael Love is a TribLive reporter covering sports in the Alle-Kiski Valley and the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh. A Clearfield native and a graduate of Westminster (Pa.), he joined the Trib in 2002 after spending five years at the Clearfield Progress. He can be reached at mlove@triblive.com.

Tags: Penn-Trafford, Plum