The Mars High School girls soccer team increased its unbeaten streak to 78 consecutive games with a narrow 1-0 overtime win against Penn-Trafford on Monday night in the first round of the WPIAL Class 3A playoffs.
“We kept the play in their end most of the night, but couldn’t score until the overtime period,” Mars coach Blair Gerlach said. “They played great defense. They must have cleared 8-10 balls out of the goal area. It was very stressful. It was a wake-up call for us.”
Gwen Howell scored the golden goal off a corner kick by Addison Girdwood seven minutes into the overtime period.
Kate McEnroe picked up the clean sheet for the Planets (15-0).
Penn-Trafford finishes the season with an 8-7-4 record.
Also in Girls Class 3A
Moon 9, Indiana 0: Hailey Longwell scored four goals and assisted on another as No. 2 seed Moon (17-0) dominated visiting Indiana (6-10-1). Syd Felton added two goals and two assists. Kayla Leseck, Skylar Leseck, and Alexandra D’Alesio also scored for the Tigers.
Latrobe 6, Ringgold 1: Robin Reilly scored three goals and assisted on two others as the No. 5 seeded Wildcats (11-2-2) recorded the first playoff victory in school history with their blowout of the visiting Rams (11-7-1).
Oakland Catholic 1, Elizabeth Forward 0: Mia Lowry scored the golden goal to give the No. 10 seeded Eagles (9-6-1) an overtime victory over the No. 7 seeded Warriors (15-3-1). The goal came at the 13:29 mark of the overtime period.
Franklin Regional 1, South Fayette 0: Abby Paterline scored on a penalty kick with 16 minutes left in regulation to give Franklin Regional (11-5-2) the only goal it needed in its road victory over the Lions (11-6-1).
Thomas Jefferson 1, West Allegheny 0: Natalie Lamenza scored the deciding goal to give the No. 4 seeded Jaguars (17-2) to a narrow victory over the visiting Indians (11-8).. Clean sheet Abby Atkinson
In Boys Class 2A
McGuffey 2, Knoch 1: The host Highlanders (13-5-1) opened the scoring with 1:26 left in the first half when Nate Kler connected on a penalty kick. The Knights (10-9) evened the game at 1-1 with a goal by its leading scorer Caleb Oskin with 35:09 left in the second half. It was Oskin’s 31st of the season. McGuffey’s Larry Goodman scored the game winner with 27:56 left off a pass from Dylan Stewart.
West Mifflin 1, Belle Vernon 0: Nick Kosuda scored on a shot from 30 yards out with 28:20 left in regulation to give the No. 12 seeded Titans (11-7-1) the deciding goal in their road upset of No. 5 seed Belle Vernon (13-5). Flynn McCracken made seven saves to record the shutout. It’s the first playoff win for West Mifflin in more than 20 years.
Beaver 8, Brownsville 2: The No. 6 seeded Bobcats (12-6) scored five goals in the first half and rolled to an easy victory over the visiting Falcons (11-8). Jamie Bonnar had four goals for the Bobcats.
Quaker Valley 6, Freeport 0: Nick Allan had two goals and two assists to lead the No. 2 seeded Quakers (16-3) to a shutout of the visiting Yellow Jackets (7-10). Bennett Haas, Matteo Castellini, Ben Henry and Sutton Hoehl rounded out the scoring for the Quakers, while Isaac Waller recorded the clean sheet.
South Park 6, Mount Pleasant 0: Cam Loveland and Danny Battista each scored twice as the top-seeded Eagles (18-0) remained unbeaten with a shutout of the visiting Vikings (9-9-2). Ben Ambrose and Jack Ozimek also scored for the Eagles, while Cooper Hockendoner recorded the clean sheet.
Avonworth 2, East Allegheny 1: Rowan Carmichael scored the golden goal in double overtime, with the No. 10 seeded Antelopes (11-5-1) playing with a man down to upset the No. 7 seeded Wildcats (13-4).
Correction: The Mars girls soccer team’s unbeaten streak is 78 games. Earlier versions of this story had an incorrect number.
First Published: October 25, 2022, 1:38 p.m.
