Speicher leads Hopewell past Deer Lakes in WPIAL girls soccer semifinals

By: HSSN Staff
Saturday, October 27, 2018 | 7:06 PM

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A soccer game can turn on its head quickly, and Deer Lakes and Hopewell saw that happen in their WPIAL semifinal matchup.

More than 40 minutes of mostly even soccer in the rain suddenly turned into a Hopewell downpour. The No. 2 Vikings scored three goals in about a six-minute span and held off a late Deer Lakes rally for a 5-2 win in a Class AA girls semifinal Saturday afternoon at West Allegheny’s Joe P. DeMichela Stadium.

“Some unfortunate bounces,” Deer Lakes coach Frank Accetta said. “I honestly thought we controlled the play, but we made some mistakes at some inopportune times that cost us. When you play a good team like that, you can’t do it.”

Hopewell’s (15-1-1) scoring spurt, which came early in the second half, turned a 1-0 lead to 4-0. Raychel Speicher scored her second and third goals of the game during the run. The Vikings junior finished with four.

“I think when we came out of the first half up 1-0, I was like, ‘I really need to do something to get this score up, just in case,’ ” Speicher said. “Because Deer Lakes isn’t an easy competition, for sure. They definitely put up a fight.”

Hopewell coach Bill Pfeifer worried the goals came too early, and the Vikings’ first-year coach nearly was proven right when Jaiden Cutright and Lily Litrun scored for Deer Lakes (17-2-1) midway through the second half, the latter of which came with goalkeeper Katie Ramaley on the sidelines getting treated for a nosebleed.

But Speicher’s final goal allowed Hopewell to reach the WPIAL championship game for the first time since 2013. The Vikings will face South Park sometime between Thursday and Saturday at Highmark Stadium.

“The kids, we told them when we came over that if they would buy in to what we were going to do, good things were going to happen,” said Pfeifer, who won WPIAL and PIAA titles the last two seasons at Moon. “Did we expect to get to the WPIAL finals? You never know what’s going to happen. But it’s a good group of kids. They act like a team, they look like a team. They hold each other responsible, accountable.”

Deer Lakes, which saw its 15-game unbeaten streak end, was making its first semifinal appearance since 2008, and the Lancers held their own with an older Hopewell team early.

Speicher put the Vikings on the board in the 25th minute of the first half with her shot from outside the box eluding Deer Lakes keeper Gabby Weber. Ramaley helped Hopewell keep its advantage into halftime, making a pair of big saves late on Madeline Boulos and Litrun.

“She’s outstanding,” Accetta said of Ramaley, who finished with eight saves. “You get this far, that’s what’s going to happen is you’re going to play teams that have (great players). Like (Speicher), I thought we had her marked all game, but a couple of times she found her way through.”

Speicher made it 2-0 in the eighth minute of the second half, and Hopewell struck again two minutes later when Marlee Mancini’s shot deflected off Weber into the net. Speicher’s third goal came off a corner kick in the 14th minute.

Cutright got Deer Lakes on the board by finding a loose ball in the box off a corner kick in the 17th minute. Ramaley suffered a nosebleed making a strong save on a Nina Lafko free kick in the 21st minute, and Litrun cut the Deer Lakes deficit to 4-2 by putting a free kick over Speicher — playing goal for the first time — and tucking it under the crossbar in the 24th minute.

“I’ll take plus-3 from her any day,” Pfeifer said of Speicher, who said she much preferred scoring goals to attempting to stop them.

Ramaley re-entered the game after the Litrun goal and made a key save on Abigail Boulos shortly after, and Speicher put the game away in the 34th minute with her fourth goal.

Deer Lakes will play Avonworth in the WPIAL consolation game Tuesday at a site and time to be determined, with the winner advancing to the PIAA playoffs.

“We’re a young team, so I’m hoping like last year’s (playoff loss), we grew from that, and we can grow from this,” Accetta said. “We still have the play-in game Tuesday, and we’ll see how that works out.”

Doug Gulasy is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Doug at dgulasy@tribweb.com or via Twitter @dgulasy_Trib.

Tags: Deer Lakes, Hopewell