WEEKLY HS SPOTLIGHT: Montour Girls Entering New Territory; Games To Watch This Week

Each week we will feature a High School team during the season.  Here’s my piece I did on the Montour girls team: Montour girls in unfamiliar territory while defending WPIAL title in Tuesday’s Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.    
Last year was Montour’s first year winning a WPIAL playoff game — and they went on to win the WPIAL, beating Mars, 3-1 in the Championship game at Highmark Stadium.
The Spartans are off to a 2-1, 1-0 Section 3-AA, start this season.  Now that they’ve reached new heights, and coach Lee Coughenour knows they won’t be surprising anyone and he has talked about building a stronger foundation to their program.  You will note that they are playing a tough non-section schedule.
We will now have a link on this site to the Pittsburgh Tribune Review’s Main Soccer Page that includes up-to-date standings, here on Pittsburgh Soccer Report.
Here are some of the key games to look out for this week in HS Boys and Girls Soccer this week:
Tuesday, Sept. 15 
GIRLS
Fox Chapel at Plum – the last two undefeated teams in Section 3-AAA meet.  FC has a strong team this year, but 4-1 loss at Upper St. Clair early in the season may have been a bit of a reality check.
BOYS
Central Catholic at Bethel Park – First section games for all teams in Section 4-AAA.  Should be a good section test for both. These are two teams that regularly make the WPIAL playoffs.  Central looked strong in the scrimmage at Fox Chapel from what I saw.  In two non-section matches, they’ve lost 3-2 to a very strong Canon-Mac team and tied the defending WPIAL Champs and PIAA runner up Peters Township, 0-0.  Bethel lost 1-0 to Peters, but had an impressive 1-0 win over Upper St. Clair.
South Park at Elizabeth Forward – battle of teams off to unbeaten starts in Section 3-AA. Can EF knock off South Park that always seems at the top of this section.
Montour at West Allegheny – Section 5-AA may be one of the best in all of the WPIAL with three legit title contenders it seems every year.  Two of those meet for the first time on Tuesday.
Wednesday, Sept. 16 
GIRLS
Upper St. Clair at Allderdice – Upper St. Clair is one of the stronger teams traditionally in WPIAL AAA — and Allderdice, now out of the City League, is playing well early in the season.   Will be a good test for Upper St. Clair.
Thursday, Sept. 17
BOYS
Mars at Shady Side Academy – Mars has run their section winning streak to 20 games.  If there’s one team that can beat them it’s Shady Side.  I’ve been part of this rivalry I know that this is a game that both teams have circled on each others calendars.  Although it’s early in the season — this could very well be a key game that will decide the outcome of Section 3-AA.
Saturday, Sept. 19
Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic vs Springdale – now that North Catholic has moved to new location, they are going to slowly building a more competitive soccer program.  With a 2-0-1 start, we’re starting to see that happening this year. Springdale is usually a formidable program who play a tough non-section schedule.  Despite a 2-2 record, they did beat the defending WPIAL Boys Single-A Champs Winchester Thurston, 1-0 last week.