close

Emotional end for Chartiers-Houston

3 min read

HOUSTON – The emotional hug told the story.

Moments after talking to his Chartiers-Houston High School girls soccer team following its 6-1 WPIAL Class A quarterfinal loss to Greensburg Central Catholic on Wednesday night, head coach Bob Acor and his three seniors, Kaydan Buckingham, Lexi Durkacs and Kayla Brose shared a poignant and tear-filled embrace that all four will remember the rest of their lives.

“I have coached all three of them since they were 10,” Acor said while fighting off his emotions. “They are hard workers, as were the girls before them, and these three have taught the younger ones to work hard.

“They have a lot to be proud of and I wouldn’t trade them for anything.”

The fourth-seeded Buccaneers (15-3) fought hard all night but they could not overcome the scoring prowess of GCC’s Riley Kerr. The junior tallied four goals to pace the fifth-seeded Centurions.

Kerr opened the scoring with 15:39 to go in the first half and extended the lead to 2-0 with 2:38 to go before the intermission.

Up 2-0 at the half, the Centurions extended their lead to 3-0 when Alexia Graham scored 21 seconds into the second half.

Chartiers-Houston’s Lexi Durkacs scored on an assist from Mia Reddrix with 16:52 to play to get the Bucs on the scoreboard, but Kerr tallied her third goal a little more than a minute later, on an assist from Graham, to put the match out of reach for C-H.

Sara Felder closed the scoring for GCC with a tally with 2:21 remaining.

“I thought we were pretty evenly matched after watching film beforehand,” Acor said. “I thought we could hang with them.

“We had a couple of opportunities early that we didn’t capitalize on. The corner kicks killed us today. That is what took the steam out of our sails. That is a good team and I hope they go all the way.”

The Bucs have nothing to hang their heads about. After all, they lost a lot of players from last year’s team and still won the Section 2 title.

“We didn’t expect this,” Acor said of the level of success the team reached. “We had 10 freshmen coming in and graduated seven or eight seniors last year, with five or six of them being starters.”

Acor again talked about his mall group of seniors.

“They worked their heart out and are great girls,” he said. “Lexi was hurt her sophomore and junior years had a great season and has a lot to be proud of as she finished with 32 or 33 goals.”

While the sting of the loss still hurt, Acor knows the future is bright as the Bucs started four freshmen, two sophomores and pair of juniors to go with the three seniors.

“Our freshmen group was strong from camp all the way through,” he said. “We have a lot coming back and some eighth graders coming into the mix next year, so hopefully we are winning this next time.”

CUSTOMER LOGIN

If you have an account and are registered for online access, sign in with your email address and password below.

NEW CUSTOMERS/UNREGISTERED ACCOUNTS

Never been a subscriber and want to subscribe, click the Subscribe button below.

Starting at $3.75/week.

Subscribe Today