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North Allegheny storms out to early lead, and never looks back in 3-0 win at Norwin

WPIAL Girls Playoffs: Class 4A Quarterfinal

FINAL: North Allegheny 3, Norwin 0

 

Defending WPIAL Class 4A Girls champions North Allegheny raced out to an early lead at Norwin and never looked back.

The Tigers scored three first half goals and shut down the Knights en route to a 3-0 win in the WPIAL Girls Class 4A quarterfinal on Thursday evening.

Ed Thompson Photo Gallery 

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How It Happened

As both teams lined up to start this game, many looked across the field seeing very familiar foes.

One of the best out of section rivalries for girls’ high school soccer in our region, these two programs play each year out of section and have met four times in the last three years in the playoffs, including NA’s 2-0 WPIAL title win.  

North Allegheny went right back to a mismatch they exploited in the last meeting, playing through Lucia Wells on the left side.

Wells took a ball from Sarah Schupansky (Pitt Commit) blasted a shot that was forced out by Norwin’s keeper Waszkiewicz for a corner. The following corner by Schupansky was turned away but received her own corner kick and came across the 18 and fired a ball through the hands of Waszkiewicz and to the feet of Anna Bundy just a 1:10 into the game.

North Allegheny would continue the pressure coming from the combination play of Schupansky and Wells. Wells would create another corner opportunity. Schupansky would play a short corner and get the ball back again this firing a ball into the six-yard box and it would deflect off of a Norwin defender for the own goal and a 2-0 lead.

Norwin started to find some opportunities with maybe the biggest coming from a turnover created by Kennedy Soliday, who found a lane to pass the ball to Katelyn Kauffman (Pitt Commit) who was brought down in the box and no call was made.

North Allegheny would see an innocent ball get through the Norwin back line and watch it turn into a foot race between Schupansky and Waszkiewicz, a race that Schupansky would win as she touched the ball left past Waszkiewicz then drove home her shot into goal for a 3-0 lead in the first half.

The rain would start to fall and the ball would start to find it’s way into the NA side and Norwin would start creating chances. 

Kennedy Soliday carried the ball down the left side rocketing a shot into the hands of Werner. Norwin would find another great scoring chance when Kauffman sent a cross over the back 4 of NA and a sliding Lacey Bernick (Pitt Commit) would get her right foot on the ball but just wide.

North Allegheny would take the lead into the half at 3-0.

Norwin came out in the second half on a mission to get their first goal of the game. The pace of play picked up immensely on both sides as Norwin would control the possession and shots in the first 10 minutes of the half.

Norwin would earn a Penalty Kick after an NA handball call. Norwin’s Kauffman would bury the shot but the goal was disallowed as a Norwin player clearly entered the box early. The score remained 3-0 for North Allegheny.

North Allegheny primary playing defense but would still find opportunities to get dangerous shots of on the Norwin goal keeper Waszkiewicz who would come up big on several occasions. 

The Tigers will now face Peters Township in the Class 4A semifinal on Monday.

Glory on the Grass

Riverhounds MF Kenardo Forbes

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