Oct 10, 2016 3 min read

Matt Blair doesn’t need names on the back of the uniforms or even numbers to recognize the players who make up Waynesburg High School’s boys soccer team.

“Heck, I’ve been coaching most of these kids since they were on the 6-under team,” he said.

So it’s appropriate that Blair was on the sideline as coach when the Raiders overwhelmed Washington, 12-0, last week to clinch the Section 3-AA title.

It’s the first time the Raiders won a section title since the 1996 team accomplished it.

Twenty years is a long time to wait, which is why this season has been so satisfying.

“The last time we won a section title was my first year of teaching at the school,” said Blair. “This is the team we were trying to build for a long time.”

Entering today’s match at Yough, the Raiders are 9-1 in the section, three matches ahead of Charleroi with two remaining, and 11-1 overall. This extent of the success of this season was unexpected, considering the Raiders were 6-8-2 last season and finished out of the playoffs with a 5-6-1 mark in Section 6-AA.

“This season, we were cautiously optimistic,” Blair said.

The season got off to a rough start, a 5-3 loss to Monessen in a scrimmage that was not as close as the score might indicate.

“They handled us,” Blair said. “It was like a cold smack in the face but it sparked us to do better.”

The Raiders have not allowed more than two goals since and have six shutouts. Part of that has been because of the strong play from junior Will Behm, senior Cody Grando and sophomore Caleb Blair. Senior Jonathan Sakai and sophomore Scott Benco have shared the goalkeeping duties.

Blair felt the turning point in the season came in a 4-1 win at Charleroi, the middle of three straight away matches, and pushed the second-place Cougars down a notch.

“I can’t praise our defense and midfielders enough,” Blair said of the pressure the Raiders place on opponents. “We also have good goal scorers.”

Two seniors – Nathan Blair and Jim George – and sophomore Jack Church form a solid midfield core. They open opportunities for freshman Gavin Benson, who has had a breakout season with 23 goals, and junior Blake Brewer, who has scored 15.

“It’s nice to have Gavin,” said Blair. “We had the core group around him.”

The last time Waynesburg made the playoffs was 2012, so the seven seniors on the roster would have been freshmen the last time it happened.

“This is a good group,” Blair said. “They work hard and that is important.”