The Peters Township girls' soccer team entered the WPIAL Class AAA championship game last night without a loss to a WPIAL team this season.

But, on the WPIAL's largest stage, that all changed -- and Mt. Lebanon's Samantha Kovarik was the prime reason.

Kovarik, a senior midfielder and one of the WPIAL's top talents, scored two goals to lift the Blue Devils to a 3-2 victory against Peters Township (17-2-2) in the title match at Elizabeth Forward.

The win gave the Blue Devils (21-1) their sixth WPIAL title; the first since 2000.

Mt. Lebanon jumped to a 3-0 lead and had to hang on for the victory.

Kovarik's first goal was a case of being tremendously opportunistic, as a throw-in bounced around deep in the Peters Township end with seemingly no one wanting to wrangle it. So Kovarik darted to the ball, softly struck it from about 14 yards with her left foot and it went skyward and lobbed over Peters Township goalkeeper Megan Junker and into the net.

Peters Township was lucky the lead didn't expand to 2-0 late in the first half, but Junker made an athletic save on a Jackie Molinda shot with about four minutes left.

There was nothing Junker could do early in the second when Kovarik showed superior talent on her second goal of the game and 17th of the year. She made a run down the left side, pulled up, stopped her momentum and blasted a left-footed shot from 28 yards that found the upper-far corner of the net.

"She is one of the most dynamic players to play in the WPIAL in the last 10 years," Peters Township coach Pat Vereb said of Kovarik. "She made two brilliant plays. We were aware of her, we prepared for her, and she still made plays. I'm not saying without her they wouldn't have won, but she certainly changed the whole flavor of the game on her own."

Kovarik's second goal came two minutes after halftime.

Mt. Lebanon got a sizable piece of insurance with 14:49 left when freshman Katherine Touscany scored.

But Peters Township valiantly kept fighting, and almost pulled even.

The Indians' two goals came in a span of 4:13 in the second half, when Lauren Ray scored with 12:50 remaining and Ali Forbrich buried a shot with 8:37 remaining to make it 3-2 and make the final few minutes interesting.

"There was no quit in our team and we were pleased with the way the girls responded," Vereb said. "We needed this game to last about five more minutes."

It won't be hard for Nikki Doria to remember her 100th career goal.

The South Park senior nudged in Julie Lindenfelser's misdirected shot in the 55th minute, snapping a scoreless tie and leading the Eagles to a 1-0 victory against Springdale in the WPIAL Class AA final at Elizabeth Forward.

South Park (18-3-1) won its third consecutive WPIAL championship and beat the Dynamos (18-3-1) in the title game for the second year in a row.

After the game, Doria cradled the ball used to score her milestone goal. It was inscribed with "100" and autographed by her teammates.

"It's such a fairy tale for me," said Doria, who has 29 goals this season. "I have to give all the credit to Julie. She set me up perfectly."

Running in from the right side, Lindenfelser drilled a shot toward the far post. When her shot was wide, the senior was nervous that a prime scoring chance had been wasted.

"Thank God Nikki was there," she said. "I'm so happy she was there. To get her 100th goal, that was nuts."

South Park coach Shelly Thropp said the WPIAL title this year is arguably the most gratifying of the three. The Eagles entered this season minus five starters from their PIAA championship team of a year ago.

"This feels like the first championship, not the third straight," Thropp said. "This is a brand-new team. Half of our girls didn't even play in last year's [title] game."