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Waynesburg holds off Yough, adds 3-AA section title

4 min read
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Waynesburg’s Kaley Pell gets tripped by Yough’s Lindsey McClaren as they fight for the ball during a match Wednesday night.

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Waynesburg’s Madison Clayton, right, celebrates with Rhea Kijowski after scoring a goal against Yough during a Section 3-AA match Wednesday.

WAYNESBURG – Joe Kijowski, Waynesburg High School girls soccer coach, grew tired of looking up and not seeing a specific banner in the Raiders’ gymnasium.

After waiting years for a section championship and a banner to hang in the gymnasium, the Raiders finally won one last year. That banner will have to come down for alterations in the near future as Waynesburg built a first-half lead and held on to defeat Yough 4-2 Wednesday night to clinch at least a share of the Section 3-AA title.

The win secures back-to-back section titles for the Raiders, who can win it outright with a victory in one of their final two section matches, Saturday at Derry and Monday at McGuffey.

“This is two years since we’ve lost on this field and it was nice to (win the section) at home,” Kijowski said. “It’s nice to see that (championship) banner up. I’ve waited years and years for it to join all the wrestling stuff up there.”

Waynesburg (10-0, 14-1) emplayed a different style than it used to defeat Yough earlier in the season, when it scored three second-half goals for a 7-4 win Sept. 20.

After having its halftime lead cut to 3-2 with 17:42 remaining, when Yough’s Justine Appolonia scored on a free kick from the top of the box, Jillian Kijowski gave Waynesburg a two-goal cushion on a penalty kick with only 5:37 to play.

The Raiders scored twice in the opening 16 minutes to forge ahead, 2-0.

Rhea Kijowski opened the scoring when she took a pass from her sister, Jillian, before beating the Yough defense and goalkeeper to give Waynesburg a 1-0 lead less than eight minutes into the game.

Madison Clayton then finished off a beautiful passing performance that began with the Kijowski sisters and scored her WPIAL-leading 46th goal of the season to give the Raiders a 2-0 lead at the 24:07 mark.

“It’s very important,” Clayton said about getting an early lead. “As soon as you score those goals your team gets hyped up. You get more excited than you already are. It also puts the other team down and gets in the opponents head.”

Waynesburg nearly doubled its two-goal lead with separate scoring chances at the end of the first half.

Kylie Sinn took a perfectly placed cross from Clayton, beat a Yough defender to head the ball inside the left goalpost but was called offside. Yough (9-2, 13-2) goalkeeper Sara Krofcheck then made a save on Bailey Fudala from point-blank range with just over two minutes remaining to keep the Cougars’ deficit at 2-0.

“Yough is a gutsy team,” Joe Kijowski admitted. “They are talented. They have a lot of heart. They didn’t quit at any point of the game. It was nice to have a great challenge like that and (Yough) should be really proud.”

Sinn made it 3-0 with a goal, but the Cougars trimmed the Waynesburg lead seconds after a no-call for Rhea Kijowski when she was dragged down in the box to potentially set up another penalty kick. Yough’s Natalie Vilchek raced down field to score on a breakaway a cut the lead to 3-1 only nine minutes into final half.

“We were a little bit more disciplined than we have been,” Joe Kijowski said. “We had to be after that last game we played against them. We were a little sounder defensively and did a much better job communicating.”

The Waynesburg defense avoided a collapse that almost cost it the game at Yough.

“They are a really good team,” said Waynesburg senior defender Elle Hampson. “They pressure our defense a lot. We don’t see that much during the season and it challenges us. We learned who their best players and strengths were, which helped us a lot.”

It was the 13th consecutive win for Waynesburg, which has nine shutouts during that streak and has outscored its opponents 104-11 on the season.

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