Oct 23, 2017 5 min read

MCMURRAY – The soggy night didn’t slow Hannah Stuck or the Peters Township High School girls soccer team.

Stuck scored four goals – three in the first five minutes of the second half – as No. 3 Peters Township defeated No. 14 Allderdice 6-0 in a WPIAL Class 4A first-round playoff match Monday night at Peters Township.

The Indians advance to the quarterfinals to play section rival Upper St. Clair Thursday at a site and time to be determined. PT split the two games against USC in the regular season, a 1-0 victory Sept. 20 and a 2-1 loss Oct. 9.

“It’s good from a sense that we haven’t had a home playoff game in a couple of years,” said Peters Township coach Pat Vereb. “Last year, we suffered through some injuries and had to play in an (No.) 8-9 matchup and lost. It’s nice to have an easier first-round game. Now there are only eight teams standing.”

It was the second time the two met in the past week, as Peters Township (15-3) won an equally decisive match against the Dragons, 7-2, in non-section play.

“You have that concern with high school athletes that they are looking past the game because of the result from the last time,” said Vereb. “You can’t assume what happened a week ago is going to be replicated a week later. We had some ideas on how they were going to play. I would be lying if I would say there wasn’t concern.”

The Indians built their first-half lead on two corner kicks. Sarah Heisinger scored on a mad scramble in front of the net at 33:58 to give PT a 1-0 lead. Stuck followed 23 minutes later with a header off a corner kick by Rachel Raber.

“We’re pretty strong in the air,” Vereb said. “A lot of our goals this year have come on set pieces just like that. We have players that will challenge and go up for anything.”

Stuck then eliminated any chance of Allderdice trying to flip the script 20 seconds into the second half when she headed a lob entry from Mia Gentile over the oncoming goalkeeper for her second goal of the game.

Goals three and four came quickly as Struck collected a beautiful feed from junior Regan Lavigna and scored three-and-a-half minutes later. She then scored on a Natalie Daube assist less than a minute after that to give PT a 5-0 lead with 35:22 remaining in the second half.

“She was very quiet in the first half and couldn’t get a rhythm going,” Vereb said about Stuck. “We were able to continue to find her by some great plays by her teammates and she is fearless.”

Allderdice couldn’t muster any offensive attack as was limited to only three shots.

Daube finished with a goal and assist after scoring the final goal for PT with 19:32 left in the constant, heavy rain throughout the night.

No. 9 Ambridge 6, No. 8 Belle Vernon 1

After spoiling several first-half opportunities, Ambridge continued the control of play into the second half and got two goals from Abbey Sutton less than four minutes apart to defeat Belle Vernon 6-1 in a WPIAL Class AAA first-round playoff match.

Sutton’s first goal, which broke a 1-1 halftime tie, snuck past the outstretched arm of the Belle Vernon goalkeeper Erin Sassak and underneath the crossbar with 27:29 remaining in the second half.

She buried her second goal into a yawning net after Sassak challenged another Ambridge attacker to put the Bridgers up 3-1.

All of the goals for Ambridge (9-4-2) came after Belle Vernon’s Lexie Demko opened the scoring just under 14 minutes into the game when her shot slipped between the wet gloves of the goalkeeper.

“We didn’t come out and play our game,” said Belle Vernon coach Tom Cameron. “What we tried to do was to press. We’re not a pressing team because we don’t have the speed.”

Ambridge showed the mismatch in team speed in the second half with numerous breakaways and 2-on-1 opportunities, including a big stop from Sassak less than five minutes into the second half.

As the rain continued to fall, and Belle Vernon (9-3-1) fell back into a defensive game plan, Gretchen Oslick took a pass and found the bottom, right-hand corner to tie the game at 1-1 with 16:03 left in the first half.

The Leopards averted danger late in the first half when Ambridge whiffed twice on a cross attempt and Bridgers’ striker Kayt McKissic hit the left post behind Sassak four minutes before the break.

“I felt that we were playing our game until that point,” Cameron said. “I moved Lexie (Demko) back because we were trying to take that lead into halftime. We had six back and a girl was wide open in the middle of the field.”

Ambridge outshot Belle Vernon 16-3 with the Leopards only first-half shot resulted in their lone goal.

“We just didn’t generate enough offense. I was disappointed defensively,” Cameron said. “We didn’t cover for one another. We didn’t support one another. Maybe it’s my fault. Maybe I have to do a better job. When you lose 6-1 to a team you are dead even with, then I’m going to have to show a little responsibility. We didn’t play valley soccer tonight. I don’t know what kind of soccer we played tonight.”