PT stopped ‘one more goal’ shy of WPIAL finals
BRIDGEVILLE – Early in the second overtime of a WPIAL Class 4A girls soccer semifinal, North Allegheny’s Kieran Shannon fed teammate Addison Vrabel with a perfect give-and-go about 15 yards from the goal.
Vrabel tapped the shot wide of both Peters Township goalkeeper Kaylin Hoffman and the corner of the net.
A few minutes later, Vrabel returned the favor, and this time Shannon didn’t miss.
Vrabel streaked up the right sideline and tracked down a ball deep in the Peters Township end and then fed a cross into the box. Shannon, somehow, was left all alone and she scored the game-winning goal.
Shannon, unmarked, put the shot into a wide-open side of the net in the 108th minute and sent third-seeded Noth Allegheny into the WPIAL finals with a 2-1 double-overtime win over second-seeded Peters Township on a rainy Monday night at Chartiers Valley High School.
North Allegheny (17-2-1) advances to the finals later this week at F.N.B. Stadium against top-seeded Mt. Lebanon. The date and time of the championship game has not been announced by the WPIAL.
Peters Township ends its season with a 13-2-2 record and wanting one more thing:
“One more goal,” Indians head coach Rob Heuler said. “High school sports are a tough thing. You get to the playoffs and what you did in the regular season doesn’t matter.”
Peters Township spent much of the night trying to overcome a 1-0 deficit, the result of a goal by NA’s Taryn DeWitt with 18:47 left in the first half.
The Indians, who controlled play in the second half, finally got the equalizer on a corner kick late in regulation. A shot into the box by Marina Hajnosz led to the corner kick. Hasjnosz took the corner kick and sent it in front of the net, where three players attempted to head the ball. It ricocheted toward the net, and PT’s Brynn Busch, who was standing at the goal line, simply tapped the ball into the net with her heel to make it 1-1.
“Unfortunately, (NA) played great defense,” Heuler said. “In the second half, we were able to settle into our game. We played our style, which is possession-based.”
Having allowed only seven goals all season entering Monday night, Peters Township had earned a rich reputation as a strong defensive team. The speedy Indians have a talented back line, a terrific goalkeeper, they know all the angles, can swarm an opponent and quickly counter attack.
That is why PT has 11 shutouts this year.
That’s also why it was a little alarming that only 20 seconds into the semifinal Shannon got behind the defense and had a clear view of the net, but Hoffman went far out of the net and stopped a hard shot.
That signaled that this wasn’t going to be a normal night for the PT defense.
Less than four minutes into the match, Hoffman stopped a North Allegheny corner kick at the near-side post. She had to make another terrific stop 12 minutes into the first half when Shannon made a run through the middle of the PT defense. Hoffman came far out of the net to make a sliding stop.
PT didn’t have many scoring chances in the first half. Taylor McCullough did appear to have one midway through the half when she took a touch pass and charged toward the net to the goalkeeper’s right but the play was called offside.
One minute later, NA had a corner kick that went into the box and directed at the net, but again Hoffman was able to make a save low to the ground and held on, preventing any rebound opportunity for NA.
The Tigers were able to push the ball up the right sideline during the first half. Amari Ruffus, who generated several of those opportunities, struck the post with a shot five minutes after DeWitt’s goal.
PT’s opportunity in the opening half was when McCullough was fouled 35 yards out late in the half. Hajnosz took the free kick and sailed the ball wide left.
Peters Township dominated possession in the first overtime. The Indians had several scoring opportunities but couldn’t get a shot past goalkeeper Jordan Beemer. Busch was wide left with a shot early in the OT and McCullough took a cross in the box and took a shot that Beemer saved. Later, McCullough headed a shot off a cross and it went wide.
North Allegheny didn’t have a scoring opportunity in the first OT as PT’s speed and conditioning was paying dividends with more possession time.
“This is a really special group,” Heuler said while pointing at his heartbroken players. “I wouldn’t trade anything.”