Sep 18, 2019 3 min read

There wasn’t much more Peters Township High School girls soccer coach Pat Vereb could ask from his team.

For all but 14 seconds of regulation and a few fleeting minutes of overtimes last season, the Indians would have won a WPIAL Class 4A championship and played in their first state title match since 2012.

Tying goals in those 14 seconds – a marker by Seneca Valley with three seconds left in the district title and another by Souderton with 11 seconds showing on the scoreboard in a PIAA semifinal – shifted momentum and led to overtime losses.

“They know what it’s like to play one-and-done soccer,” Vereb said. “It’s about playing to the final second. But this is a new team and a new roster with new chemistry. The players involved in those games can take some career lessons from them.”

The other lesson the young Indians learned last season was being ready at a moment’s notice. Then-freshmen Jillian Marvin and CeCe Scott, along with then-sophomore Sarah Heisinger, were asked to contribute immediately during playoff time after standout forward Regan LaVigna went down with a season-ending injury in the WPIAL quarterfinals.

In the Indians’ last five matches in 2018, the three youngsters scored all eight of their team’s goals. That success has carried over to this season with nine combined goals through the first seven games for Peters Township (4-0-1, 7-0-1).

“Even if you go back to our three state championships (at the beginning of the decade), we have always been much more than a one- or two-girl team,” Vereb said. “The success of our program is from the depth of our program.”

That youth has combined with the continued success of senior Hannah Stuck, a Bucknell recruit who has switched between forward and the midfield. Through Tuesday, Stuck had team-highs in goals (8) and assists (5). A veteran back line of Mia Gentile, Rachel Raber and Kaila McFerran alongside junior goalkeeper Emma Sawich, who has already played in nearly 60 games in her high school career, has outscored opponents 25-5 in their opening seven games.

The Indians were atop the difficult Class 4A Section 2 standings entering Wednesday night’s match against Baldwin.

“I just think we need a little more consistent goal scoring,” Vereb said. “We have left some opportunities to put teams away.

“We played more soccer games than any girls team in the state of Pennsylvania last year. I think that overall experience of the past couple seasons is showing. They are ready to play in any big game you put in front of them.”