Oct 26, 2019 4 min read

MARS – Looking through the raindrops that collected on the lenses of his glasses, Canon-McMillan boys soccer coach Larry Fingers couldn’t have been happier with the first 74 minutes.

Despite a yellow card he received for arguing midway through the first half, Fingers watched his Big Macs try to once again beat down the door to the WPIAL finals.

“It’s tough be beat down that door,” Fingers said. “We had a game plan in place. It could not have gone better. It was perfect.”

Yet, with six minutes left in regulation, a bleak ending to a semifinal looked inevitable for Canon-McMillan, again. A third consecutive year that would end with the Big Macs one win away from playing for a title.

Then it all changed.

Fighting off a defender, Joey Fonagy tied the match with a header of a Luke Gladden free kick with 5:17 left. Less than three minutes later, also following a Gladden free kick, Owen Maher soared in and headed home a rebound into the yawning net as fourth-seeded Canon-McMillan stunned top-seeded Plum, 3-2, in a WPIAL Class 4A semifinal Saturday afternoon at Mars High School.

“Luke hit it deep, the keeper hit it up and it came back to me,” Maher said. “I just finished it. That comeback was insane. There was no quit.”

The game-winning goal for Maher came with 1:52 remaining in regulation. It sends Canon-McMillan (14-3-1) to the championship against section rival Mt. Lebanon. The day and time of the match at Highmark Stadium has yet to be determined.

Maher’s marker also ended two consecutive years the Big Macs have been snakebitten in the semifinals. Last year, Seneca Valley scored a late goal to break a tie and beat C-M, 3-2. Two years ago, North Allegheny thumped the Big Macs, 9-0, in the semis. Both of those games happened on the same field as Saturday’s match.

“We came in thinking about the last two years losing here,” Fonagy said. “It wasn’t going to happen a third time.”

It is the first championship appearance for Canon-McMillan since it defeated Fox Chapel in the Class 3A final in 2015.

“It’s funny, you got to the finals but if you change the contrast a little bit, we’ve been in the semifinals three straight years,” Fingers said. “There are probably 90 percent of high school soccer teams that would trade their situations for that.”

Plum (16-1-2), which suffered its first loss of the season, found itself with a pair of one-goal leads in the second half. A disputed penalty in the box allowed the Mustangs to take a 1-0 lead on a Lucas Gildea penalty kick with just under eight minutes into the second half.

Fonagy matched that two minutes later with a penalty kick of his own, going center cut to beat Plum goalkeeper Gabriel Kuhn and make it 1-1. The quick answer by the Big Macs allowed them to stay in their defensive game plan against speedy Plum.

“I asked the coaches, ‘Do we switch out of it?'” Fingers said. “We had a specific plan to defend Plum and a specific plan on how to play the midfield and attack. (My assistants) said to just keep doing it.”

Plum regained a one-goal lead when Tyler Kolankowski finished a perfect pass from Andrew Koma to give the Mustangs a 2-1 advantage with 12:54 left in the second half.

“I don’t want to say I was super confident down twice in the second half,” Fingers chuckled. “At the same time, we have a resilient group that works for each other. If you should be confident, it would be with this group.”

It was the first time all season Plum had allowed an opponent to score three goals.

“We knew we were going to get that third goal,” Fonagy said. “Whenever it was 2-2 it was nothing but positive energy. It’s finally good to play (in the final) instead of watching.”