Bentworth uses skill, grit to reach girls soccer semifinals
The Bentworth girls soccer team celebrates its WPIAL Class A quarterfinal win over South Side Beaver Thursday night.
Bentworth’s Paige Marshalek takes a free kick and scores the third goal of the game against South Side Beaver.
Katie Roupe/Observer-Reporter Bentworth’s Jocelyn Timlin, at right, battles for the ball with South Side Beaver’s Laina Delourmel Thursday night.
McMURRAY – Paige Marshalek, one of Bentworth’s talented freshmen, left the Bearcats’ girls soccer playoff match Thursday night against South Side Beaver in the first half after taking a shot to the mouth, courtesy of a Rams player’s head.
Marshalek eventually returned and delivered three perfectly placed free kicks that served as knockout punches to South Side Beaver.
Marshalek scored on a free kick from 30 yards early in the second half, then set up two tap-in goals by senior Bea Kossel with free kicks as Bentworth won 3-1 in the Class A quarterfinals at Peters Township High School.
It already has been a landmark week for Bentworth (17-1). The Bearcats won the first playoff match in program history Monday against Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic (1-0) and will end the week in the semifinals Saturday against Shady Side Academy (14-3), a 5-0 winner over Carlynton.
“I watched Charleroi make a run (to the WPIAL finals) last year. I went to every playoff game they had last year and thought maybe we can do that, too, in four years, when all these freshmen are seniors,” Bentworth coach Tyler Hamstra said. “We’ve started doing some things faster than I expected.”
Marshalek, one of the many freshmen who play key roles for Bentworth, had a hand in all three goals. She scored the first on a free kick from 30 yards less than four minutes into the second half. It was a perfectly placed kick that sailed high, just over the outstretched arms of SSB goalkeeper Kat Sweger to make the score 1-0.
“We regrouped at halftime and knew that if we kept (calm) in the second half then good things could happen,” Marshalek said.
Less than five minutes later, Marshalek was awarded another free kick from almost the same spot on the field. The kick was nearly identical to her goal, only this time Sweger batted the ball away just before it entered the net. The ball fell to the turf to Kossel, who fought off a defender and had an easy tap-in goal that gave Bentworth a 2-0 lead.
“I told them all year that once you get the first goal, then you have to get the backbreaker,” Hamstra said. “That second goal was the backbreaker.”
South Side Beaver (11-8-1), the fourth-placed team from Section 4 and an upset winner over Mohawk in the first round, pulled to within 2-1 on a goal by Kaitlyn Knox with 10:34 remaining. Marshalek, however, set up the clincher with another free kick that went into traffic in front of the net. Kossel was able to get her foot on the ball and put it in the net for her second goal, with 9:33 to play.
“In the playoffs, set pieces and dirty goals will win for you,” Hamstra said. “That first free kick was all skill. The next two were grit.”