Jul 17, 2015 5 min read

Laurel Carpenter helped Peters Township win two PIAA Class AAA titles, a WPIAL title and finished her high school career with 47 goals.

Kyra Murphy was one of the top goalkeepers in the state as a senior last fall, recording 13 shutouts and making several big stops in the playoffs for Canon-McMillan.

Her teammates, Allie Thomas and Abby Gillespie, were leaders in the Big Macs’ march to the state title game. Thomas, a Winthrop recruit, produced a big goal in the PIAA playoffs against State College and Gillespie, a quick, yet physical defender, scored the penalty kick goal that ended Peters Township’s season in the WPIAL quarterfinals.

Now, the four are teammates at the sport’s highest level for high school athletes. They are members of Beadling Soccer Club’s U18 team that will compete in the US Youth Soccer National Championships July 22-27 in Tulsa, Okla. Round-robin action will begin Tuesday and the championship matches will be decided over the weekend.

The Gunners’ head coach, Erik Duffy, has not had trouble getting the group – which also includes players from Upper St. Clair, Chartiers Valley, North Allegheny, Penn Trafford and Hopewell – to play as a team.

“The biggest challenge is always getting them to buy into our philosophy – how we want to play and how we want to train,” Duffy said. “High school soccer is a good tool for them to prepare fitness-wise, but when they come out of there it’s a much different game and at a much higher level.”

Thanks to the work of Murphy, a Duquesne recruit, Gillespie, an Edinboro recruit, and Carpenter, who will play collegiately at West Virginia; the Gunners have been difficult to score on. They currently hold a 20-0-2 overall record, allowing one goal or less 21 times.

The Gunners won five consecutive games at the Region I tournament in Barboursville, W.Va., to clinch a spot in the national championships.

“Our work ethic is the same,” Gillespie said of her teammates. “We always find a way to pull away with wins. Even if we are down, we find a way to come back. It’s great playing with all these girls. They are all great players and our chemistry has just clicked.”

The team began training at the conclusion of the high school season and has not stopped since. Success did not always come easily, but Duffy saw the group begin to click when it defeated three of the top programs in the country at a tournament in Richmond, Va., in March.

Beadling, the oldest soccer club in the country, has sent 12 teams to the national championships, including three this year. Along with U18, the club is sending its U19 club and U16 teams to Tulsa. Many of the teams feature players from the South Hills, including Veronica Latsko, a former Peters Township standout and current Virginia Cavalier, who plays for the U19 club.

It’s no coincidence that the bulk of the club’s roster consist of players from what is now a soccer hotbed south of Pittsburgh.

“When you look at the South Hills, there are a lot of quality high school teams that are in the playoffs every year like Peters Township, Upper St. Clair, Bethel Park and Canon-McMillan,” Duffy said. “They are all WPIAL playoff perennial contenders. They have tradition and they come from bigger youth programs, so they have the advantage of learning the game at a younger age.”

The years spent on the pitch led Gillespie and her teammates to the top in the state in the WPIAL, but now, they are preparing to see how they stack up against the best in the country.

“It’s been an amazing ride,” Gillespie said. “I couldn’t ask for a better opportunity. We’re all excited to get down there.”

Jefferson-Morgan’s Rece Henneman, who led all area boys basketball players in scoring the past two seasons, will continue his playing and academic career at Carlow University.

A two-time Observer-Reporter first team all-district selection, Henneman averaged 25.2 points and 10 rebounds per game for the Rockets as a senior, leading them to the WPIAL Class A playoffs and eclipsing 1,000 points for his career.

California’s Tray Matthews, who averaged 16.3 points per game for the Trojans, will play at Penn State Fayette next season. Matthews helped the Trojans reach the WPIAL quarterfinals and te first round of the PIAA play-in bracket.

Olivia Gray added another accolade to her already illustrious high school softball career.

Gray, the Pennsylvania High School Softball Coaches Association’s Class AAA Player of the Year, was named to MaxPreps’ Medium Schools All-American Softball second team Saturday.

A Pitt recruit and the O-R Player of the Year, Gray batted an area-best .611 and led Trinity in doubles (15), home runs (7) and runs (44) to help the Hillers reach the PIAA Class AAA championship game as a senior this spring.