Tied, 3-3, in the seventh round of penalty kicks in the WPIAL Class AAA girls' soccer championship, Seneca Valley coach Dave Sylvester turned to a freshman midfielder who never had attempted a penalty kick in high school.

Morgan Williams did all she could to ignore the enormous pressure.

"Instead of walk, I ran up to the ball," Williams said, "just so I didn't have to think about it."

Whatever method she used, it worked.

Williams' kick sailed into the back of the net, and it turned out to be the winner after Peters Township defender Christine Aaron's penalty kick sailed over the crossbar.

Second-seeded Seneca Valley outlasted fifth-seeded Peters Township, 2-1, yesterday at Elizabeth Forward High School, winning penalty kicks, 4-3, for the Raiders' second WPIAL title in the past three years.

Seneca Valley (21-0-1) had to come from behind to do it.

Peters Township (18-2-2) scored first when forward Hannah Caso took a rebound and sent the ball past Seneca Valley goalkeeper Keara Lydon early in the first half.

Sylvester said his team did not panic.

"This team has never hung their head when they've been down, and that's a credit to them," he said.

Seneca Valley tied the score just before halftime with a goal from Kate Kelly. The score stayed at 1-1 the rest of regulation.

Peters Township coach Pat Vereb said he thought his team had the advantage in overtime, but the Indians could not put much pressure on Lydon with their penalty kicks.

Springdale's Brittany Loveland was tired of losing WPIAL title games against South Park. After two consecutive title-game losses, Loveland made sure the Dynamos won one before she graduated.

A senior forward, she scored the go-ahead goal in the second half to lift Springdale (18-1-2) to a 2-1 victory against South Park (18-2-2) in the Class AA final.

"I'm very happy for the seniors," Springdale coach Jerry Concannon said. "For a lot of them, they've been in this game for three years in a row. To come up short the last couple times, it's a great thing for them to get this win."

South Park had beaten Springdale in the '07 and '08 WPIAL Class AA championship games, and the Eagles had won the past four postseason games between the schools.

The two teams played to a 1-1 tie in the first half.

The Dynamos scored first when Alexa Sarsfield scored about midway through the first half. South Park tied it when the ball deflected off a Springdale player into the net. Eagles forward Cassie Raymond was credited with the goal

"We were really upset, but we knew we were the better team," Loveland said about the own goal. "It had an effect, but then we bounced back."

Loveland scored on a penalty kick with 20:17 left to put the Dynamos up for good.

A win would have given top-seeded South Park a record fourth consecutive WPIAL title. The Eagles already own the record for most all-time WPIAL championships with five.

Instead Springdale -- the first school to win a Class AA WPIAL championship in 1997 -- claimed its second league crown.

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