C-M, Norwin get their meeting
This was supposed to be a meeting that took place last season.
Canon-McMillan, coming off a trip to the PIAA championship game, was the second seed behind Norwin in last year’s WPIAL playoffs, which both teams entered with unbeaten records.
But the Big Macs were upset, 2-1, in the quarterfinals by Fox Chapel in what head coach Dave Derrico called his team’s “worst game of the season.”
That forced the Big Macs to wait an entire year to get a shot at Norwin, which won last season’s WPIAL championship before losing to Upper St. Clair in the PIAA semifinals. Norwin beat Upper St. Clair in last year’s WPIAL final.
That wait will come to an end Saturday (3:30 p.m.) at Highmark Stadium in Pittsburgh when the Big Macs (18-0-1), seeded second in this year’s playoffs, face the the top-seeded Knights (19-0-1) in the WPIAL Class AAAA championship game.
“I’ve been looking forward to this all season,” said Canon-McMillan head coach Dave Derrico. “These are the two best teams. I thought we were going to play all season long. It’s going to be one hell of a finals.”
The Knights have been watching the Big Macs from afar as well.
“Even though we were worried about handling our own business, we always had an eye on Canon-Mac,” said Norwin head coach Lauren Karcher. “You know who the other good teams are and what they’re doing.”
The game will feature not just the top two Class AAAA teams in the WPIAL, but in the country. A number of national publications have both teams ranked not just in their top 25, but in their top 10.
“We don’t make a big issue out of the rankings,” said Derrico. “Most of the girls don’t even know about it. The only reason I know is that one of my assistant coaches keeps an eye on it. We could be ranked 100th or 1,000th and it wouldn’t matter. You still have to play the game.”
Both teams have their star players, from Aideen O’Donoghue, Sabrina Bryan and Addie Roman, among others on the Canon-McMillan side, to Alyssa Victor, Emily Harrigan and Lexie Kolano for Norwin.
Those players will get plenty of attention, but Karcher knows it’s not always the stars who score the big goals in championship games.
“A lot of times in this type of game, it’s not somebody that you’re looking for who scores the big goal,” said Karcher. “We know that every player that Canon-McMillan puts on the field, every girl on their bench is a good player capable of beating us.”
The two teams appear to be evenly matched. In games against common opponents, Canon-McMillan is 14-0-1, while Norwin is 12-0-1. The Big Macs have eight shutouts behind goalie Megan Virgin, while her Norwin counterpart, Sam Wexell, has recorded 12 shutouts.
“They’ve got 12 shutouts, so you know they’re doing something right,” Derrico said.
Both have been solid behind very good defenses, which could mean the game could come down to an unexpected goal.
“You’re always worried about the flukey stuff,” admitted Karcher. “More imporantly, you worry about how your team responds to that type of thing.”
Canon-McMillan is hoping what Derrico feels is an advantage in size and a more difficult schedule can help win the day.
“Norwin is quick and talented,” he said. “But I would put the weight of our scheduled over theirs. We play a lot of good teams in our section and I don’t know that their section is as deep. But we’ll see.
“It worked out that the two best teams are meeting in the final. It’s awesome that it’s happening like this.”