Sep 18, 2019 3 min read

Name: Paige Marshalek

School: Bentworth

Class: Senior

Sport: Soccer

Marshalek’s week: The talented forward recently reached impressive milestones in her high school career. Marshalek became only the fifth player in PIAA history to record her 100th career assist, which occurred in a regular-season game against McGuffey.

This week, Marshalek became only the second player in Bentworth history to reach 100 career goals. Her teammate, Jocelyn Timlin, accomplished the feat last season. Marshalek passed the century mark in a 13-0 victory over Charleroi on Monday, scoring five times.

Marshalek entered the season with 84 goals and 94 assists.

“I’m very shocked and surprised,” said Marshalek, who has been mulling NCAA Division II offers but as of yet has not made up her mind on which school to attend.

“Both (accomplishments) are positive attributes,” she said. “Goals are always great but the feeling you get by helping other people score goals is really great, too.”

The Bearcats, who finished last season as the WPIAL runner-up to Freedom in Class A, have a 4-0 record in Section 2 and are 7-1 overall through Tuesday. They are tied with Chartiers-Houston for first place in the section.

“She is a true power forward, big and strong,” said Bentworth head coach Tyler Hamstra. “She holds the ball up well, has the strongest shot on the team and works well with Jocelyn. She takes all of our free kicks and has a strong throw.”

Marshalek is such an athletic talent that she also participates on the boys golf team, because they are sometimes short of players. Soccer takes precedent in the scheduling part of her day, but she’s glad she can help.

“I really wasn’t planning on playing this year,” she said. “They need an extra player so I did it.”

A great one-two punch: Many of Marshalek’s assists have come from Timlin’s goals. Timlin has 125 career goals heading into Wednesday, a school record.

“They are physically different from each other, and that’s one of the things that helps them both,” said Hamstra. “Their skill sets are different. It’s that diversity that makes it so hard to defend.”

The two girls make defending the Bearcats attack very difficult, and shadowing one or the other is nearly impossible.

“They know how much they need each other,” said Hamstra. “They put their egos aside. They know there’s only one soccer ball. It’s competitive, but they both know they need each other to accomplish their goals.”

Marshalek said the loss to Freedom last year is a motivating force for this team.

“It was such a positive thing,” said Marshalek. “Through the season, we kept saying ‘Road to Highmark (Stadium).’ I don’t know if we really thought we would get there but making it that far was truly an amazing experience.”

Compiled by Joe Tuscano