Overtime goal ends South Fayette’s season
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FAIRVIEW – The South Fayette High School boys soccer team executed the game plan exactly how it was drawn up for the 80 minutes of regulation.
It wasn’t until after 80 minutes that it had a breakdown as Erie Cathedral Prep’s Tyler VandeMerwe took a pass from Jack Foht and scored on a breakaway to give the District 10 champion a 1-0 overtime victory over South Fayette in a first-round game of the PIAA Class 3A playoffs Tuesday night at Fairview High School.
VandeMerwe’s goal with 6:07 left in the first overtime was all Cathedral Prep needed to move on to the quarterfinal round Saturday.
“We believed a lot of teams that played (Cathedral Prep) this year gave them a tremendous amount of respect and a lot of space,” said South Fayette coach Rob Eldridge.
“We wanted to take away that space. We wanted to change the windows and make it a condensed match where they had to think quickly and play beyond their tempo.”
That’s exactly what the Lions did for much of the game, and when they didn’t, three-year starting goalkeeper Tim Locher was up to the challenge.
Locher made leaping saves in the first half, including his first difficult stop on Cathedral Prep’s John Peterson after the latter split two defenders down the field in the 25th minute. He then tipped another shot over the goal to force a corner when Jack Foht tried scoring from deep for Cathedral Prep (18-1).
“Timmy is certainly a Division I-caliber goalkeeper,” Eldridge said. “He does a good job organizing everybody in front of him. He is a great athlete.”
The best chance for South Fayette (14-6-2) came in the first half when forward Jared Renz took a shot from a bad angle and it rolled across the crossbar and out of bounds with 6:33 left in the first half.
The Lions controlled the play for a majority of the match, their most consistent pressure coming in the final three minutes of regulation when they had two corner kicks and another free kick but failed to break a scoreless tie.
“Our kids are accustomed to battling 80 minute and beyond,” Eldridge said.
“Our goal was to put Cathedral Prep in a situation it was uncomfortable with. I think we achieved that. Our kids showed a lot of desire, heart and commitment. I couldn’t be more proud of the way our season ended.”