Sometime during the offseason, Mark Perry, the current Center High School boys' and girls' soccer coach, will sit down with officials from the newly formed Central Valley School District.

With all the coaching positions opened up at the new high school formed by the merger of Center and Monaca, Perry will talk with officials and discuss the pros and cons of his one-year handling the dual roles of serving as soccer coach of the boys' and girls' teams.

The pros should be easy to see.

In his first year at the helm, the Trojans girls' team cleared the WPIAL first-round hurdle that had been the stumbling block the previous two years and the final Center girls' soccer season was stretched a little further with a WPIAL semifinal appearance and entry into the [PIAA] playoffs.

"We just wanted to make it past the first round this year," said senior midfielder Madison Taylor, who had experienced consecutive first-round losses.

"Our season had a lot to do with our coach. He had a game plan and knew what he wanted us to do."

Center capped off a 14-2-1 regular season with a Section 2-AA title. Its strong regular-season record was rewarded with a No. 3 seed in the Class AA bracket.

In the playoffs Center won a pair of lopsided games against McGuffey, 4-0, and Mount Pleasant, 8-2, before bowing out to eventual WPIAL champion Springdale, 4-1. The Trojans edged District 10 champion Villa Maria, 3-2, Tuesday and will play South Park Saturday at a site and time to be determined.

"The girls exceeded expectations," Perry said. "Having never coached girls on the high school level, there is always that little bit of nervousness of how they would accept me as a coach. I really enjoyed coaching the girls. The success we had was just a bonus. The future looks great for the program."

The reason Center exceeded expectations and the promising future both have to do with the youth on the team. Only two seniors started for Center. Freshman and sophomores were thrust into key starting roles.

The two senior starters happened to be two of the better seniors around, however. Madison Taylor and Addie Lucci were the leaders of the team in terms of leadership and scoring. Taylor, a midfielder, leads all scorers with 18 goals and Lucci, a forward, has 16 goals.

"Madison was our most consistent player all year," Perry said. "We moved Addie up to forward where she creates a lot of problems for the other team. Those two have really stepped up."

Taylor and Lucci have meant more to the team than just the 34 goals they have scored. Their presence has helped bring along the talented group of underclassmen who figure to be the leaders of the team next season when they play as the Central Valley Warriors.

"Being around the seniors, our younger players became more comfortable," Perry said.

"They were gaining experience and our youth really didn't show much. I think everyone forgot that we were young."

Sophomore Megan Hampe is another top goal scorer. She has 12, including a hat trick in the 8-2 win against Mount Pleasant in the WPIAL quarterfinals.

In the loss to Springdale, it was junior Hannah Wytiaz keeping the score close with Center's lone goal. The lack of experience finally caught up to Center in that Springdale game against one of the more senior-dominated teams in the WPIAL.

The Trojans closed the WPIAL portion of their season with a loss to the Class AA champion. Back in September they opened the season at Seneca Valley, the WPIAL Class AAA champion. Those two matches were just part of a challenging schedule of games Center went through.

"The schedule was very difficult," Perry said. "But at the same time, staying competitive with those tougher teams gave us some confidence. We were able to play with that confidence and the girls started to believe it.

"When they were stepping on the field they were expecting to win games instead of hoping to."

Along with Hampe and Wytiaz, junior goalkeeper Alex Watts and junior forward Courtney Miller are other top players who figure to make up the nucleus of the team next season.

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