Gone with the wind: PT flies past McDowell in PIAA opener
Eleanor Bailey/The Almanac
Natalie Daube (8) and Peters Township advanced to the PIAA quarterfinals.
ERIE – The constant wind gusts across Dollinger Field, which reached 40 mph, were a godsend.
As long as it was at your back.
The goal posts swayed and rocket shots seemed to stop in mid-air. Somehow, Peters Township’s girls soccer team managed to dominate play.
Immediately answering Erie McDowell’s goal near the end of the first half with the wind in its face, Peters Township stole any momentum the Trojans thought they had and defeated the District 10 champions, 3-1, in a PIAA Class 4A first-round match Tuesday afternoon.
The Indians (17-4), who outshot McDowell 17-2, advance to a quarterfinal matchup against Cumberland Valley, a 1-0 winner over Pennsbury, Saturday at a site and time to be determined.
“It’s good to get back quickly after a loss,” said Peters Township coach Pat Vereb, who tried to reboot the Indians after a devastating 2-1 loss to Seneca Valley in the WPIAL championship. They surrendered the game-tying goal with three seconds left in regulation and lost in overtime.
“You just have to convince them that it’s a new tournament. There is still a hunger (in our players). We have a little bit of an empty stomach and are trying to fill it up a little bit.”
Peters Township sophomore Sarah Heisinger erased a one-goal deficit a minute and a half after the Trojans scored with 11 minutes remaining in the first half. Heisinger tipped a Natalie Daube shot feet away from the goal line to tie the game at 1-1 in the 31st minutes.
“I think you could feel the energy come out of Erie McDowell on that goal,” Vereb said. “We probably had the better of play throughout the first half, and you knew with the wind at our back in the second half, it was going to be a great advantage. Once we got into halftime, we knew we were in a good spot.”
The tying goal was only a continuation of the troubles McDowell (15-3-2) faced during the season, including the opener against Peters Township in the South Hills Classic at the end of October. The Indians also won that match, 4-2.
“Pretty much every time we’ve scored a goal, we get scored against within five minutes,” said McDowell coach Jason Perkins. “We have had a habit of doing it all season long. It’s something we have tried to correct but it didn’t work today.”
CeCe Scott collected a shallow cross inside the box to bury a goal with 18:01 in the second half to give Peters Township a 2-1 lead.
It was the third goal from a freshman in the last three matches for the Indians, including a pair of game-winners.
“We knew that we had to fill a void with Regan (LaVigna) being out,” Scott said. “We needed to step up and that’s what we did today.”
One of the two shots for McDowell was in the first two minutes of the match. The other was on the goal scored by Kylee Cross in the first half. The Trojans didn’t record a shot in the second half.
“We knew what we were up against,” Perkins said. “I think if we could have capitalized early, with the wind, it might have been a different result. But to defend a good team like Peters Township against 30 to 40 mile per hour winds, it’s not easy. It is extremely difficult.”
The field was heavily tilted the entire match, including when Heisinger stripped a Trojans’ defender for her second marker to extend the lead 3-1 with 14:19 remaining.
“It was good for us to not get down on ourselves (after falling behind),” Heisinger said. “It was really important for us to forget about what happened and be able to bounce back like we did.”