WPIAL Boys Scores (10/1/2020): Canon-Mac, Upper St. Clair play to wild 4-4 draw

File Photo courtesy of Ed Thompson

It was a relatively light night of WPIAL boys action on Thursday, with only Class 4A, Section 2, with a full slate of in-section games being played.

And that’s where things got really wild at Upper St. Clair, where the Panthers and Canon-Mac played a back-and-forth affair.

Was it really a crazy game?

“Something like that,” Larry Fingers, Canon-McMillan’s veteran coach quipped when asked about the see-saw battle between the neighboring rivals who’ve been known to play more tightly-contested, defensive struggles.

The Big Macs stormed back after trailing 4-2, with two very late second half goals, including a Joey Fonegy penalty kick with 4:27 left that cut the lead to 4-3.

The game-tying goal came a minute later, as a free kick into the box from Mason Le was bobbled in the scrum, and somehow found its way into the goal to force the match to extra time.

The scoring began in the first half with a fantastic finish by USC’s Anderson Laudares off of a beautiful service from William Bacdayan in the 21st minute. Then the Big Macs responded when Fonagy hit the equalizer in the 25th minute.

“They (Upper St. Clair) played well for large pieces of the game, then we did for stretches,” FIngers said. “But our kids showed a lot of resiliency, again. We’ve fought from behind in other games too this season.”

Once the match entered overtime, neither side could pick up another goal, and the match ended in a deadlock.

Canon-Mac came awfully close in the dying moments, as Fonagy was sniffing a hat trick getting behind the USC back line before he was challenged and knocked to the ground as he made his way into the box.  No call was made on that final sequence.

Anthony Bellino also scored for Canon-Mac, along with Fonagy, who had a brace.

Meanwhile, this draw kept both sides (Canon-Mac now 2-2-1 and USC at 3-2-1) from gaining on section leaders Peters Township, who beat Bethel Park, 2-0 to remain in control of the section with a 6-0-1 record.

“Every game in our section’s been close,” Fingers added. “It’s been a wacky year. Lots of goals scored on set-pieces and not in the run of play. We’ve prepared our players to keep playing through the final week of the season, and hopefully they’ll be playing their best come playoff time.”

 

	Teams	Result
WPIAL Class 4A Section 2 (4A)
	Canon-McMillan at  Upper St. Clair	4-4
	Mt. Lebanon at  Baldwin	0-3
	Peters Township at  Bethel Park	2-0
WPIAL Class 4A Section 3 (4A)
	Allderdice at  Connellsville	5-1
WPIAL Class 3A Section 3 (3A)
	Ringgold at  Albert Gallatin	2-0
WPIAL Class 3A Section 4 (3A)
	Kiski Area at  Woodland Hills	4-0
WPIAL Class 2A Section 1 (2A)
	Avonworth at  South Park	1-2
WPIAL Class 2A Section 2 (2A)
	Burrell at  Leechburg	1-0
WPIAL Class 1A Section 4 (1A)
	Brentwood at  Bentworth	2-1
Non-Conference
	East Allegheny at  Carrick	4-1
	Fox Chapel at  Shady Side Academy	2-0