From fourth place in their section, to the second best team in the state -- that is how far the current seniors have carried the Springdale girls' soccer program in the span of four years.

The Dynamos wrapped up the most successful girls' soccer season in school history with a 21-2-2 record, a Section 3-AA title, a WPIAL Class AA title and a PIAA Class AA silver trophy after a 1-0 loss to Loyalsock Township Saturday in Hershey.

"Even though the season did not end the way we wanted it to, we made a great run and came together," senior Alexa Sarsfield said. "I think the difference this year was our experience."

That experience was built along a four-year span that saw the seniors put the Springdale team on the map and turn it into one of the elite programs in the WPIAL.

From nine wins as freshmen to 22 as sophomores and 20 as juniors, the senior class had already made a name for itself entering its final season. But there was plenty of unfinished business.

For all the regular-season success and playoff runs, Springdale only had a pair of section titles to show for its efforts and had one large monkey on its back. The hurdle the past two seasons had been the WPIAL title game and PIAA semifinals and both hurdles were painted blue and white as in the blue and white South Park Eagles.

It was starting to become the same old story for Springdale each year. A postseason rivalry emerged between the two schools that are a 50-minute bus ride away on opposite ends of Allegheny County, but much closer in terms of talent.

Class AA girls' soccer in the WPIAL has been defined by these two programs during the past three seasons. In 2007 South Park edged Springdale, 2-1, to win WPIAL gold and again, 2-1, in the state semifinal.

Then again last season, South Park edged Springdale, 1-0, to win WPIAL gold and again 1-0 to reach the state title game.

Heading into their senior season, there was no sense of urgency or pressure to finally get over the South Park roadblock. With the way the Dynamos responded, one might have thought there was. They turned the tables on the Eagles this year to win the WPIAL title, 2-1, and repeated that effort in the PIAA semifinals with another 2-1 win.

"I thought we fought harder and with emotion this year," Springdale senior forward Brittany Loveland said.

"We didn't play with emotion in the past years. This year we wanted to go to Hershey. The outcome was not great but it was a great experience."

Springdale coach Jerry Concannon was battling a cold through the state title game. Coaching a team through games and practices all the way until Nov. 21 probably had a lot to do with that. It was the longest season in Springdale history.

"It is a little bit of a hard emotion to deal with getting there knowing that you could have probably won that [state title] game," Concannon said.

"At the same time they are very pleased with the fact they wrote a different story this year. It had become the same old, same old in the WPIAL final and state semifinal and to get through that hurdle and present themselves at the state title game, that was a highlight of our season to be able to do that and definitely something they are going to reflect back on."

Loveland topped 100 goals during her four years at Springdale. Alexa Sarsfield, Ally Overly, Cayley Perrett, Sabrina Adams, Stephanie King and Maura Gilmartin were also part of a senior class that helped change the face of the Springdale program.

"I think it is going to be hard to do," Concannon said of seeing the most successful senior class in program history graduate.

"I am going to miss them personally and miss their talent on the field. I will say the kids we have coming up are also talented and great kids. As any program evolves we will continue to evolve with ours. We have good things to come in the future."

Mike White's "High School Sports Edition" videos are featured exclusively on PG+, a members-only web site from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.