Top-seeded PT bounced in semifinals
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Sarah Heisinger (26) of Peters Township heads the ball away from North Allegheny’s Tulasi Syamaia during a WPIAL Class 4A girls semifinal playoff match Monday night.
Eleanor Bailey
Alexis Pirosko (10) of Peters Township battles North Allegheny’s Olivia Mark for the ball during WPIAL Class 4A girls semifinal action Monday night.
Eleanor Bailey
Isabella Guna (7) of Peters Township, right, goes toe-to-toe with Kena Shannon (25) of North Allegheny in the WPIAL Class 4A semifinals Monday night.
McMURRAY – For Peters Township, the situation for Monday night’s girls soccer semifinal against North Allegheny could be likened to a WPIAL version of “Groundhog Day”
Last year, the Indians lost one match in the regular season, to Upper St. Clair, before having their championship dreams shattered by North Allegheny in the semifinal round.
Once again, Peters Township lost to Upper St. Clair and nobody else in the regular season this year, and won its quarterfinal matchup to set up another meeting with North Allegheny, a spot in the district title game being the prize
The setting was different this time, with top-seeded Peters Township having home-field advantage instead of playing at a natural site.
Unfortunately for the Indians, the Bill Murray film comparison ended up coming to fruition. Peters Township fell to fifth seeded North Allegheny, 3-0, ending the year one game shy of the WPIAL championship.
The Tigers had their season stopped for two weeks in October because of COVID-19 issues, costing them their last four regular-season games. Now, here they are.
“(I’m at) a loss for words,” North Allegheny coach Chuck Kelley said. “Because when you get your season halted all of a sudden, and it’s out of your control, there’s lots of different things that you think about. To be in the situation we are, that we were able just to play that first playoff game (against Bethel Park last week), that’s the emotions that I’m at right now.”
Peters Township coach Pat Vereb knew how good the Tigers were.
“For sure, this is one of the best teams in the WPIAL,” he said. “They very well could have been a high seed, but they had their season cut short by a COVID situation for two weeks. We knew once we saw the draw, getting into the semifinal game would be very very difficult. They have some very strong attackers up top, and we knew if we made some mistakes, they would punish us.”
The first punishment happened less than six minutes into the game. North Allegheny midfielder Sarah Schupansky chipped a shot over goalkeeper Emma Sawich’s head for the game’s first goal. For Kelley, this eased the tension.
“It took a lot of pressure off of us,” he said. “We knew coming in that this was going to be a good game. They’re a very competitive team, and we needed to be on our A game. So to get the first goal alleviated some of the pressure, but we also knew that they were going to have a chance somewhere along the way. That they could tie it up.”
The response that Peters Township needed never happened.
Neither team scored for the rest of the first half. In the 53rd minute, however, PT conceded a penalty. Lucia Wells cashed in and doubled the Tigers’ advantage.
This put the Indians on life support, and Schupansky scored her second goal less than three minutes later on a free kick from about 20 yards.
In just 12 games, North Allegheny has scored 58 times, good for an average of nearly five a night.
“They’re just very quick up top with their strikers, and they create a lot of havoc when they have the ball,” Vereb said.
The Tigers’ quest for a second straight championship culminates Thursday night at Gateway. They’ll be taking on second-seeded Butler, who beat Moon 2-1 in overtime.
Despite falling short of a ring, Peters Township returns almost all of its top starters. The Indians will likely be a force in 4A again in 2021.
“We just continue to bring more experience into next year,” Vereb said. “A lot of girls will be on their third or fourth year of varsity experience, so the expectations may be a little bit higher.”
As for this season, Vereb wanted more, but kept perspective at the same time.
“(It was) a difficult year as well, trying to get through all the restrictions and things of that nature,” he said. “But overall, you can’t say it was a poor season when you only lose two games.”