PT’s Hajnosz a royal pain for Canon-McMillan
By Joe Tuscano
For the Observer-Reporter
newsroom@observer-reporter.com
McMURRAY – Her last name sounds like royalty and last night she played like one.
Marina Hajnosz (pronounced Hi-Ness) scored two goals to lead Peters Township to a 2-0 victory over section rivals Canon-McMillan in the WPIAL Class 4A quarterfinals on a chilly Thursday night.
Peters Township will play either Pine-Richland or North Allegheny in the next round at a site, date and time to be determined
“She did well, she capitalized on her two chances, made the most of her opportunities” said Peters Township head coach Pat Vereb of Hajnosz’s play. “All-around our girls defended well and limited their opportunities.”
Peters Township came into the match as the top seed in the WPIAL Class 4A while Canon-McMillan was the eighth seed.
“Overall, they are a tough team,” said Canon-McMillan head coach Matt Fonagy. “It’s always going to be tough to score against them. We had our chances. Unfortunately, we didn’t score the goals.”
This was the third straight win PT has this season over the Big Macs. The previous two were 6-2 and 3-2 in overtime.
It took the Indians just nine minutes to score the first goal of the match. Hajnosz unleashed a laser from 30 yards out that seemed to catch Canon-Millan goalkeeper Skyler Smith by surprise. Hajnosz shot caught the right corner of the net.
That’s the way the match stayed for the first half, although C-M had a couple good opportunities. One came at the midway point of the first half when Ariane Saintonge had a step on the PT defense on a lead pass from a teammate.
But the Peters Township goalkeeper, Molly Kubistek beat her to the ball by a step.
Saintonge had another chance at the 25:00 mark of the second half. A throw-in ended up at her feet in front of the goal but she was too close to the goalkeeper to get off clean a shot.
With 10 minutes remaining, Hajnosz split the middle of C-M defense on a rush but her shot was turned away
Hajnosz put the game away with a breakaway goal with 6:01 to play.