Bentworth girls’ historic season ends
McMURRAY – McConnellsburg had a dozen healthy players, but proved you only need 11 if they’re good enough.
The Spartans ended Bentworth’s historic season with a 2-0 victory in the first round of the PIAA Class A girls soccer playoffs Tuesday at Peters Township.
It’s the first state playoff win in program history for McConnellsburg, which was the runner-up in District 5.
“It’s what we’re used to,” McConnellsburg coach Josh McKelvy said about having a small squad. “We had games earlier this year where we played with 10 girls, sometimes 11 girls and no subs. We come from a tiny school and we always have a small squad, so conditioning is key. I told them at the beginning of the season they have to be able to run for 80-minutes plus and they’ve climbed on board with that thinking, so it’s easy to coach and train them.”
The Spartans (20-3) had possession for stretches in the middle of the first half. It led to a goal when Marin Deshong scored with just over 12 minutes remaining in the first half.
The goal came on a bit of a strange sequence. A ball came in toward goal that was going wide, but had a bunch of English on it and ended up spinning back to stay in play. The ball ended up rolling across the goal line and DeShong beat everyone to it to tap it in.
Bentworth (20-2-1) had its chances at an equalizer in the second half.
First was a long, accurate shot by Meredith Allender three minutes into the second half that McConnellsburg keeper Kya Washabaugh leaped to make a save.
Then on a corner a few minutes later, Joa Johns got a chance, but her shot hit the crossbar and went out of play.
Bella Moyer got some space in the 60th minute, but her shot went wide.
Moyer got a free kick from 25 yards a few minutes later, btu her attempt sailed just over the crossbar.
All those missed chances came back to haunt the Bearcats as Gemma Gordon scored for the Spartans with 16:49 remaining to make it 2-0.
“You could see the tables turned in the second half and they started to wear out, but they were up a goal,” Bearcats coach Tyler Hamstra said. “With 30 minutes remaining we had to go for it, so we went to a back three (on defense). The second goal was probably going to be the winner for either team, but time starts to not be on your side 10 minutes after half time. That’s part of it. That’s why you always want to be tied or up a goal and not chasing the game.”
The Bearcats’ season concluded, but they won the program’s first WPIAL title and return plenty of starters, including their entire forward line of Moyer, Megan Keturakis and Brielle Dillon.
“The seniors we have had an amazing career,” Hamstra said. “They’re probably the most underrated class we’ve had in program history. For the underclassmen, I felt like we had the same messages from the coaches every single game and I think that caught up to us tonight. We have stuff to work on, game planning stuff. We need to iron those things out and they have to work to replace a lot of these key seniors. We have a nice freshman class that could take the bulk of that duty as well as the returning girls that will be sophomores, juniors and seniors.”