McGuffey gets upset of Beaver
McDONALD – In the opening minutes of McGuffey’s WPIAL Class AA match Monday night, Highlanders senior midfielder Aaron Harris found himself in an unfamiliar scenario: He wasn’t shadowed by an opposing defender.
Fifth-seeded Beaver treated him as any other player and the Bobcats paid for it.
Harris scored two goals, including the eventual game winner with less than 11 minutes remaining, to send the 12th-seeded Highlanders to a 2-1 upset over Beaver in the first round of the playoffs at South Fayette Stadium.
The victory sends the Highlanders (12-6) to the quarterfinals for the second time in three years, where they will face fourth-seeded South Fayette (15-3) Thursday at a site and time to be determined. It is the third time in the last 10 years that the No. 5 seed in Class AA was upset in the first round.
“I think it was just our hard work that made the difference,” Harris said. “We never stopped playing. It helped that I wasn’t man-marked. In our section, I’m always marked. I love having room to work. It allows me to get shots and play the ball to my teammates.”
Being the target of opposing defenders is nothing new for Harris, who was named all-state after scoring 20 goals in the regular season. He faces that attention all season. To combat the strategy, McGuffey head coach Jim Kita keeps Harris to the outside.
It worked last night. Harris tied the score 1-1 in the 29th minute of the first half when he ran up the sideline with the ball and fired a shot from 20 yards that deflected off the keeper and into the net.
The play of his midfield, especially senior midfielder Samuel Dinka, helped spark an offense that was held to two shots on goal in the first half, but limited the Bobcats (16-3). Winning the battle to loose balls finally paid off in the 29th minute of the second half.
A battle at the midfield gave Harris the ball on the outside. He sprinted toward the goal and chipped it over the challenging keeper who exited the net. In an effort to stop the shot, Beaver junior defender Dane Brimmeier ran to the goal line and kicked the loose ball away, but he and the ball were inside the net, giving Harris his second goal and McGuffey a lead it would not relinquish.
“Our guys played so hard and I’m just so proud of them,” Kita said. “We’ve been down before and we knew we could come back. Everyone from our keeper to our defense to (Dinka) had a big hand in this win and (Harris) worked his tail off like he always does.”
It looked like the lead would not last long. Just over four minutes later, Beaver forward Justin Rogowski fired a shot on net, which McGuffey goalkeeper Nic Loughman stopped. The ball rolled toward midfielder Frank Sestito, who ran forward and fired it into the back of the net. The Bobcats celebrated until they saw the official’s decision: offsides. The goal was negated and McGuffey did not allow another shot on net.
Beaver head coach Scott Hazuda would not say if he agreed or disagreed with the officials’ rulings on Harris’ second goal or the offsides.
“You just have to go with what the official calls,” Hazuda said. “I just hope they got it right. I’d be disgusted if I found out they missed those calls.”
Harris’ tying goal in the first half capped a strong 20-minute stretch, where the Highlanders outshot Beaver and controlled the midfield and the Highlanders’ adjustment on corner kicks worked. The Bobcats had eight corner kicks to McGuffey’s two, but they were held to only four shots on goal.
After sustaining possession in the Highlanders’ end, Bobcats senior midfielder Daniel Pollack’s corner kick in the sixth minute was headed in by senior defender Kyle Grimm for the early 1-0 lead.
The Highlanders have now won 10 of their last 12 matches and got redemption from a 6-0 loss to Beaver in a scrimmage over the summer.
“These guys beat us at Robert Morris over the summer and we knew they’d be confident because of that,” Kita said. “We got a bit tighter in the back and once we took their forwards’ turns away on the ball, it stopped them. We’re just excited to be moving on.”