WPIAL Soccer Watch (9/5/2023)

WPIAL SOCCER WATCH

Tuesday, September 5, 2023 

If you have any updates to provide, please share on Twitter using #WPIALSoccer and/or include Pittsburgh Soccer Now’s Twitter handle @pghsoccernow.

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For the 2023 High School soccer season, we will be using this forum to provide updates, scores, highlights, share your tweets and more from each day of action across the district during the match day, followed by a final WPIAL Scoreboard to post later that evening or early the following morning.

It’s hard to believe we’re more than a week into most High School teams getting into section competition, as the Boys take the bigger part of the Tuesday stage, with a pretty full slate, while there are some girls matches on tap tonight.

On the boys side, the results and standings are starting to show some early trends and interesting developments, including the following things that have caught our eye in week one of section play:

North Allegheny in solid early season form.  From what I saw of the Tigers, they impressed me at the JRK Memorial Classic at Pine-Richland, as they withstood an early goal against the talented, non-WPIAL Kiski School side, then turned the match in its favor with a 2-1 win last Sunday. They followed up their opening weekend with a pair of section wins vs Shaler (5-0) and defending WPIAL champions, Pine-Richland.  While Seneca Valley remains the team to beat out of Class 4A, and in Section 1, as they’ve opened with an impressive 5-1 win vs Norwin, one of the favorites in Section 2, North Allegheny has the depth, firepower and defending chops to slow down the Raiders.

While Class 3A shows most of the usual suspects (Moon, Plum, Hampton ,Mars) at the top of the standings early on, Bethel Park‘s strong start in section play shows that they’re ready to build on its first playoff appearance in seven years in 2022 when they beat Mars in the first round, and could be in contention for a Section title this season in what has to be an up-for-grabs Section 3 as most of the top teams from a year ago have lost a lot of players to graduation.  Pulling out a 2-1 win vs defending section champs Thomas Jefferson provided the start that the Black Hawks needed to make a run at a section title and deeper run in the playoffs this season.

If there were any concerns about Quaker Valley following two opening weekend losses in the East-West Classic to Wilson and Fleetwood, they were diminished last week when the Quakers took care of business against a pair of section contenders, including beating Avonworth, 3-1, and topping last year’s WPIAL runner-up, Beaver Area, 5-0.

This could really be a year of transition in Class 1A, but for now, defending champions Winchester Thurston have already picked up a few impressive wins, vs 3A North Catholic and its only section match, a 5-0 win vs Aquinas Academy, despite losing a lot of key leaders from recent WPIAL and PIAA championship winning teams.  The Bears were challenged in a very good early season non-section clash last Thursday, when they played Seton-LaSalle to a 1-1 draw.

Tuesday Matches to Watch: 

4A

Shaler (0-3-1, 0-2) vs North Hills (0-2, 0-2) — what would be intriguing about two schools that have struggled in Class 1A, Section 1, in recent years?  The neighboring rivals would love nothing more than to grab the upper hand in the series. Each played Central Catholic to very tough matches last week and an early season win could provide a boost of confidence.

3A 

North Catholic (0-3, 0-1) at Mars (2-1-1, 1-0-1) — later this month, PSN will feature these teams with exclusive coverage, but it will be interesting to see if North Catholic, which played short handed in the JRK Memorial Classic a bit short handed, can bounce back vs Mars, after a 4-0 loss to Armstrong last week to begin section play.  Mars and Hampton battled to 1-1 draw last week.

2A 

Deer Lakes (3-0, 2-0) vs Shady Side Academy (2-0, 2-0) — in recent years, this has really become one of the best rivalries in any classification.  Both teams are off to undefeated starts, and an early season win will give the victors an early season edge as they compete for a section title and Class 2A superiority.

1A 

Neshannock (3-0, 1-0) vs Eden Christian (1-1-1. 0-1-1) — Eden Christian have been a regular in the Class 1A playoffs in recent years, but they’re still without a win in section play, so they would love nothing more than to knock off Neshannock, who are off to a nice start this season.  This should be a very fun Section 1 race this season, as OLSH and Sewickley Academy are also very much looking like early season contenders too.

BOYS SCHEDULE

Class 4A
Section 1 (4A)
8:00pm	North Allegheny at Butler
7:00pm	Pine-Richland at Fox Chapel
7:30pm	Seneca Valley at Central Catholic
7:30pm	Shaler at North Hills
Section 2 (4A)
7:00pm	Hempfield at Allderdice
8:00pm	Norwin at Canon-McMillan
7:30pm	Peters Township at Baldwin
7:45pm	Upper St. Clair at Mt. Lebanon
Class 3A
Section 1 (3A)
7:30pm	Indiana at Armstrong
7:30pm	Kiski Area at Hampton
7:00pm	North Catholic at Mars
Section 2 (3A)
7:30pm	Chartiers Valley at Blackhawk
7:30pm	Moon at Central Valley
7:30pm	South Fayette at Ambridge
7:30pm	West Allegheny at Montour
Section 3 (3A)
7:30pm	Laurel Highlands at Bethel Park
7:30pm	Thomas Jefferson at Connellsville
7:30pm	Trinity at Albert Gallatin
7:30pm	Uniontown at Ringgold
Section 4 (3A)
7:30pm	Latrobe at Penn Hills
7:00pm	McKeesport at Gateway
7:30pm	Penn-Trafford at Franklin Regional
3:30pm	Plum at Obama Academy
Class 2A
Section 1 (2A)
7:30pm	Keystone Oaks at Elizabeth Forward
7:30pm	South Park at Woodland Hills
7:30pm	Steel Valley at East Allegheny
6:00pm	West Mifflin at South Allegheny
Section 2 (2A)
4:00pm	Greensburg Salem at Derry Area
7:30pm	Jeannette at Knoch
5:15pm	Leechburg at Freeport
7:30pm	Shady Side Academy at Deer Lakes
Section 3 (2A)
7:00pm	Mount Pleasant at Brownsville
7:00pm	Washington at McGuffey
7:30pm	Waynesburg Central at Belle Vernon
7:30pm	Yough at Southmoreland
Section 4 (2A)
7:30pm	Hopewell at Beaver Area
7:30pm	Mohawk at Avonworth
3:30pm	Quaker Valley at Riverside
Class 1A
Section 1 (1A)
4:00pm	Neshannock at Eden Christian
4:00pm	Our Lady of Sacred Heart at Beaver County Christian
6:00pm	Sewickley Academy at South Side Beaver
Section 2 (1A)
6:30pm	Charleroi at Beth-Center
6:00pm	Greensburg Central Catholic at Ligonier Valley
Section 3 (1A)
3:45pm	Springdale at Aquinas Academy
7:00pm	St. Joseph at Burrell
7:00pm	Trinity Christian at Winchester Thurston
Section 4 (1A)
7:00pm	Chartiers-Houston at Carlynton
4:00pm	Serra Catholic at Brentwood
7:00pm	Seton LaSalle at Bishop Canevin
Non Section
7:00pm	Geibel Catholic at Bentworth

 

GIRLS SCHEDULE

Class 3A
Section 2 (3A)
5:30pm	Uniontown at Ringgold
Class 1A
Section 1 (1A)
6:00pm	Serra Catholic at Jeannette
Section 4 (1A)
5:00pm	Our Lady of Sacred Heart at Carlynton
Non Section
6:30pm	East Allegheny at Serra Catholic
6:30pm	Kiski Area at Penn-Trafford
7:00pm	McKeesport at Yough
4:15pm	West Middlesex at Mohawk