Bentworth girls breeze past Chartiers-Houston in section opener
ELLSWORTH – Bentworth has a newly hung banner commemorating last year’s WPIAL Class A girls soccer title at the midfield stripe of Ellsworth Stadium.
The Bearcats certainly looked the part of a defending district champion on Wednesday night.
From the start, Bentworth was in control in its Class A Section 2 opener against Chartiers-Houston and broke through with three first half goals to leave little doubt its section winning streak would continue.
Bentworth went on to win 6-0 to run its section winning streak to 17 games.
“(Chartiers-Houston) is young and we just wanted to impose our will physically,” Bearcats coach Tyler Hamstra said. “I just knew we’d get chances. I think the key to that was working to get a goal scoring opportunity that was a higher percentage. Take that extra touch or two and we did that, especially in the first half.”
The last time the Bearcats dropped a section match was against Chartiers-Houston, a 1-0 road loss on Sept. 16, 2024. The Bearcats haven’t lost a home section game since a 4-0 setback against Waynesburg on Sept. 27, 2023.
They made sure that streak continued by jumping on the Bucs early.
Joa Johns scored in the 10th minute. Chartiers-Houston keeper Adrinna Rozzo rushed off her line to challenge Johns, but Johns was able to get her shot off and it went into the middle of the net.
“Joa has taken a big jump and now we have five people that can really attack,” Hamstra said. “She is just so fast and can create so many issues. Teams have to look at it and think about not having to just focus on one or two people. Joa can certainly make a third defender pay.”
Megan Keturakis doubled the lead seven minutes later when she slotted a low shot from the left side past a diving Rozzo and into the bottom left corner of the net.
In the 32nd minute it was Bella Moyer’s turn to join in on the fun. A miscommunication in the middle of the Chartiers-Houston defense left the ball free for Moyer to strike into the net with force from 10 yards out.
Chartiers-Houston entered Wednesday off a successful weekend at its own tournament where it won two games, including a 4-0 victory against Waynesburg.
But the Bucs (0-1, 2-3) couldn’t get much going against Bentworth (1-0, 4-0). Bentworth controlled possession and aside from a couple free kicks and a corner the Bucs didn’t test Bearcats keeper Julia Brandau much.
The Bearcats got a fourth goal three minutes into the second half when Brielle Dillon raced down the right side, cut in and ripped a shot past Emma Deyell, who took over in net to start the second half for the Bucs.
Dillon’s goal gave four different Bentworth attackers a goal on the night.
“All of us are very different with our attack,” Keturakis said. “Bella is very good on the ball. I think I run very hard off the ball that she plays. Brielle can dribble very well and Madelyn Johns plays really good balls in too.”
Moyer punctuated her evening by scoring on an impressive free kick from the left side from 25 yards out with 25 minutes remaining. Moyer ripped a high-arching shot that pierced the net just underneath the crossbar.
“I had a feeling, because we had practiced (free kicks) at practice recently,” Moyer said. “Coach Tyler hit some with us at practice and the angle he hit it, was the same that I had on mine tonight. I just knew I had to hit it on the inside of my foot to curve it into the back of the net.”
Keturakis scored her second goal a few moments later to put the game into mercy rule.
Chartiers-Houston’s Grace Littlecott nearly broke the shutout on two occasions in the final 20 minutes. Twice she nearly got free in a one-on-one with the goalkeeper, but Brandau raced off her line to grab the ball before Littlecott could get a shot off.
The Bucs’ best chance came when Brandau made a save and the rebound chance bounced off Bearcats defender Tessa Bennati and wide of the goal.