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Chartiers-Houston no longer a surprise in Class A

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The Chartiers-Houston girls soccer program knew all about making the playoffs. The Bucs have become a perennial participant in Class A.

The Bucs also knew how to finish as a runner-up in their section. After all, they had finished second in each of the last four seasons, and Bucs head coach Bob Acor wasn’t sure this would be the year Chartiers-Houston could climb to the top of the standings. Not with C-H having a mere three seniors on its roster and Waynesburg, which was a power in Class 2A and the WPIAL champion in 2017, having dropped a classification and into the Bucs’ section.

But somewhere along the line, Chartiers-Houston’s team that was considered too young and too inexperienced began playing with maturity and skill beyond its years. The Bucs posted a 14-2 overall record, including an 11-1 mark in Class A Section 2, to win the section championship, Chartiers-Houston’s first title in 18 years.

“It has taken a lot of hard work,” Acor said. “We have only three seniors, who we have coached since they were little kids. When I took over (as varsity coach) they were freshmen. They’ve grown up and are mentoring the young ones. We have 10 freshmen and all of them can play. We also have some good sophomore and juniors.

“We had seven seniors last year, including Ashley Horvath, who was a great scorer. We also had three seniors playing on defense last year. We lost a lot. I thought this might be a rebuilding year, so we’ve been pleasantly surprised.”

Acor knew he had the makings of a good team, he just wasn’t sure if the team would jell fast enough to win a section title. The Bucs lost 1-0 at Waynesburg in early September, which had them playing catch-up in the standings for much of the season. The only other match C-H lost was a puzzling non-section setback to South Side Beaver, also by a 1-0 score.

The turning point for the Bucs was a 4-2 win over Waynesburg on Oct. 3, giving the Bucs the lead in the section. Chartiers-Houston will take a seven-game winning streak into the playoffs, which begin tonight. The Bucs’ opening game will be Saturday (2 p.m.) at home against Riverview (8-7), the fourth-place team from Section 1.

The WPIAL revealed the pairings for both the boys and girls playoffs Wednesday afternoon.

“The girls were really committed to getting better this year,” Acor said.

It helped having Lexi Durkacs healthy all season. One of the three seniors, Durkacs is the Bucs’ leading scorer with 30 goals after having two injury-filled seasons.

“I knew if she could stay healthy she would have a great season,” Acor said.

Amelia Brose, one of the Bucs’ talented freshmen, is the second-leading scorer with 15 goals. Brose’s sister, Kayla, is a senior midfielder who has 10 goals.

Junior goalkeeper Grace McAvoy has been solid, as has the young defense playing in front of her.

“All the players get along very well. They are all friends, a tight-knit group,” Acor said. “There has never been any letdown from them. We’ve had some tough games, but the two losses didn’t seem to faze them.

“With a little luck, we could go all the way up the WPIALs. This season has surprised us, but they put in the work. The seniors have done a great job of leading. And we would not be where we are without my assistant coaches, Todd James and Chris Hess.”

Chartiers-Houston was given the No. 4 seed in Class A. Section runner-up Waynesburg (13-3) is the No. 6 seed and surging Charleroi (10-6) is the No. 10 seed.

Complete WPIAL playoffs pairings can be found on Page B2.

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