Achilles Vassilicos had grown tired of seeing the same scenario play itself out.

Too many times, the Penn-Trafford girls' soccer coach had witnessed a Western Pennsylvania team travel to the state final in Hershey with the attitude of "just being happy to be there," and he wasn't about to let his team follow suit in its championship tilt against Conestoga on Saturday.

"Knowing the history that since 1992 when the girls' championship was instituted, there's only been a few girls teams from the West that have won it," said the Warriors' second-year coach.

"The trap in that is you go there and you're kind of satisfied to be there and you don't go for the win. We worked through that mentally. We went with the type of attitude in this game that we we're going for the win."

Unfortunately for Vassilicos and Penn-Trafford (21-4-1), the positive attitude couldn't make up for the fact that the Warriors were unable to score any goals against a stingy Pioneers team that only surrendered seven goals the entire season.

As a result, Conestoga (23-2-1) dealt Penn-Trafford a 2-0 defeat in the PIAA Class AAA state final at Hersheypark Stadium.

Vassilicos said that nerves played a big factor in the loss, a factor that was especially evident early in the match when Conestoga sprinted out of the gates by scoring both of its goals in the first 14 minutes.

"It was tough," Vassilicos said. "Being in that type of environment, it affected them somewhat.

"It was very difficult for us to dig ourselves out of that hole."

To make matters worse, after jumping to the advantage, the Pioneers adjusted their formation by dropping many of their players back into a defensive-minded position. It made Penn-Trafford's comeback attempt that much tougher, and forced them to make some alterations to their attack, as well.

Some of the changes, however, eventually led to some scoring opportunities for the Warriors, including close calls from senior forward Deanna Rowe and senior midfielder Brittney Contacos.

"We sent everybody up," Vassilicos said. "We needed to attack with big numbers when they played that way. We sent seven players up and that's when we got our opportunities to equalize."

But the Warriors could never get those equalizers, and were forced to settle for silver instead of gold. Despite the tough defeat, it was still quite a successful campaign for the Warriors, who cruised through a difficult Section 1-AAA schedule with an unblemished 14-0 mark.

After dropping their first two games of the season, the Warriors rattled off a 19-game unbeaten streak, which finally came to an end with a 2-1 loss to Seneca Valley in the WPIAL semifinals.

"I'm very proud of how far these girls went," Vassilicos said. "The one thing that sticks out in my mind was the character of this team. We just knew we needed to take it one step at a time and not take anybody for granted.

"We've tried to develop a culture here. We go out there and play as hard as we can regardless of the score."

Penn-Trafford will lose a bunch of integral parts from this team -- including Contacos, who is headed to play at Ohio State -- but Vassilicos said he is excited about the prospects of not only next year's team, but in the following seasons, as well.

Vassilicos stressed the importance of having a core of players that would have spent three seasons with him, including a talented sophomore class of which he spoke highly.

"Who knows next year," Vassilicos said. "But we are going to be strong again in a year or two. And we think we will be back [in the PIAA final].

"These seniors who are graduating this year are a group that I only had a chance to work with for two years. I think beginning next year, I will have a group of players that have been with me for awhile."