Since the first day of preseason practices, anything less than a championship season would have seemed like a disappointment for the Upper St. Clair boys' soccer team.

With nine starters back from last year's PIAA championship team, the Panthers have remained focused while living up to the preseason hype thus far. USC remained unbeaten and united by defeating Section 5-AAA rival Chartiers Valley, 3-1, for the WPIAL Class AAA championship Saturday at Elizabeth Forward.

The Panthers (24-0) won their PIAA first-round match, 5-0, Tuesday night against City League champion Allderdice (17-5) at Elizabeth Forward. They advance to play Fox Chapel (18-3-2) tomorrow in the quaterfinals.

Despite the perfect record, the pressure remains on Upper St. Clair to go all the way to the PIAA title. Quaker Valley is the last WPIAL boys' soccer team to go through a season without a loss or draw. The Quakers did it eight years ago by going 27-0 and winning the PIAA Class AA title for a second consecutive season.

USC is faced with a challenge similar to what the Quakers faced eight years ago. QV entered the 1996 season with 10 returning starters from its 1995 state championship team. Like the Quakers at that time, USC is currently listed in various national scholastic top-20 polls. The National Soccer Coaches Association ranking has USC first in the nation.

Senior midfielder Scott Dillie snapped a 1-1 tie early in the second half with a goal against upstart Char Valley. The 11th-seeded Colts had pulled upsets against previously unbeaten Hampton and Baldwin to reach the final.

Dillie scored his 13th goal of the season with a bending free-kick that fell inside the right post about a minute after CV (14-7) shocked the Panthers with a goal by senior forward Brian Braithwaite.

Senior forward Andy Machi staked USC to a 1-0 halftime lead with a goal and senior center midfielder Mitch Minerd added an insurance tally with about 12 minutes left in the contest, giving USC its first WPIAL title since it defeated North Allegheny in overtime four years ago.

"It was a pretty close game," USC coach Uwe Schneider said. "Char Valley did everything they could to make it hard for us and interrupt our normal precision passing game. They put the pressure on us. We got some great individual efforts by some of our players."

Joe Diederich was the starting keeper who came up with several clutch saves against the Colts, who lost in their two previous meetings with the Panthers this year.

Schneider recognizes the talent of this year's team is exceptional. However, he said there are other reasons for success this season. He does not believe his talent is so much superior to the rest of the WPIAL that his players only have to show up.

"These kids just love the sport and they just want to play for each other," Schneider said. "We don't really talk about all the other things [rankings and an unbeaten record] that are going on right now. They are just focused on playing and having fun. That's what really sets them apart. It gets hard to keep it up when everybody is out to beat you. But so far these players have maintained their focus and maintained their composure every game."

Upper St. Clair entered the playoffs on a roll and hope to continue that momentum in the PIAA playoffs. USC proved its state title from a year ago was no fluke when it won games Oct. 8-9 traveling to the other side of the state against District 11 powerhouses Emmaus and Cumberland Valley.

"It was a team-building trip and I think it brought the team even closer together," Schneider said. "It was a good experience for us to do that."

Talk of winning another state title has been on the backburner until now because of the WPIAL playoffs.

"It's really been our goal to win the WPIAL this year because it had eluded us for awhile," Schneider said. "Quite a few of our guys played in the WPIAL finals two years ago when we lost to Mt. Lebanon and then last year we lost in the semifinals, so that was our main goal this year.

"Now we can focus on the state tournament and try to take it as far as we can."