Waynesburg continues playoff journeys
Waynesburg’s Kaley Pell celebrates with teammates after scoring a first-half goal Thursday night against Charleroi.
Waynesburg’s Kylie Sinn and Charleroi’s Bree Miller battle for the ball during Thursday night’s match.
McMURRAY – The Waynesburg High School girls soccer program can check off another box.
The Raiders are going to the WPIAL semifinals for the first time after a tough-as-it-appears 1-0 victory over Charleroi in the Class AA quarterfinals Thursday night at Peters Township High School.
Waynesburg (16-2) had a pair of wins over Charleroi during the regular season en route to the Section 3-AA title.
“It’s tough to beat a good team three times in one season,” Waynesburg coach Joe Kijowski said, confirming the old sports adage. “Charleroi’s style doesn’t suit us. They have a lot of good athletes but we adapted.”
Waynesburg scored the only goal of the match before most people in the crowd had a chance to settle into their seat. Freshman Kylie Sinn made a nifty pass from the right wing across the box to freshman Kaley Pell on the opposite corner of the net. Pell’s initial shot was stopped by Charleroi goalkeeper Shayla Watkins. The rebound went directly back to Pell who buried this shot while fighting off a Charleroi defender.
The score came only 2:36 into the match.
The Raiders protected the lead the rest of the way with some stellar defense. Charleroi was held to just three shots on goal.
Waynesburg will play Freeport (14-3-1) Saturday in the semifinals. Freeport defeated Yough 3-0.
It will be the first trip to the semifinals for Waynesburg, which has gone from section also-ran into serious WPIAL contender in four seasons under Kijowski.
“When we started, the program had never made the playoffs and I think we went 2-14 in my first season,” Kijowski said. “We worked our way up to .500, making the playoffs, winning a playoff game. We keep checking them off.”
Charleroi had a plan to mark Waynesburg’s high-scoring Madison Clayton. It worked as she was double-teammed in the middle of the field for much of the game, though she did generate several scoring opportunities.
“That was the best game we’ve played against them,” Charleroi coach Traci Fleming said. “The game plan was to keep Clayton from putting the ball in the net, which we did.”
Waynesburg dictated the flow of the game, though Charleroi (11-7) turned up the offensive pressure during the closing minutes.
“We had our chances with corner kicks late,” Fleming said. “We didn’t create enough chances. We were so busy playing defense. We double-teamed Clayton all night. When you put six people back on defense then get the ball, you don’t have much on offense.”