WPIAL Soccer Boys Class 2A Semifinal Round Scoreboard: Top seeds South Park, Quaker Valley display plenty of attacking firepower to advance

#1 South Park vs#4 Avonworth   

Kickoff:  8 p.m. at Dormont Stadium

ROSTERS:  South Park | Avonworth

How they got here: Top seeded South Park defeated Yough, 2-0, then were pushed a bit by section rival, but found a couple late goals to overtake Keystone Oaks, 3-1 in the quarterfinal.

Avonworth have been impressive so far.  The ‘Lopes posted a 4-0 win vs McGuffey, then rolled to a 4-1 win vs Belle Vernon, playing an impressive brand of possession-based soccer.

Fast start, strong combination play fuels Avonworth to convincing, 4-1 win vs Belle Vernon

These two teams played earlier this season in a non-section match, with South Park winning 1-0, but as Angell stated, both sides were not at full strength.

“We both have teams that played skilled, but hard and clean,” Angell said of his next round opponent, who won their regular season meeting, 2-1.

“We played them earlier this year. Those Saturday, non-section games, sometimes can be odd. Neither team was at full strength. We had a few players missing, but I know them well enough to know that they weren’t at their best either. I am sure that both teams will be ready to go.”

Key Players: Kaiden Fischer — a non-stop, speedy winger/forward, is South Park’s leading scorer, with 17 goals in the regular season.  Avonworth has a balanced attack, led by Calder Mahan, who scored 10 times this season, but forward Abdul Basit can be a handful in stretching defenders and is clinical in the box, while all-WPIAL selections Rowan Carmicheal and Eli Whalen do a lot of the dirty work winning balls and controlling tempo..

#2 Quaker Valley vs #6 Shady Side Academy

Kickoff 6 p.m. at Dormont Stadium

ROSTERS:  Quaker Valley  |  Shady Side 

How they got here:  10-time WPIAL champions Quaker Valley got off to a good start to the tournament, posting a 9-1 win against Jeanette on Monday, then beat Elizabeth Forward, 7-0.  Shady Side shut out Beaver Area, 3-0, then overtook Hopewell, 3-1, with a comeback in the second half.

Key Players: Quaker Valley has a balanced attack led by Kiril Grin (14 goals), Nick Allen (13) and Bennett Haas (11). In the win vs EF, Haas scored four goals, while Grin had three assists. Amir Awais leads SSA in goals, with an impressive 34 tallies — good for third in the WPIAL.

This history between these two teams battling it out in this classification is pretty fascinating.

These two schools have quite an interesting playoff history — meeting  four years in a row in the WPIAL Finals from 2016-2018.  In all three matches, Quaker Valley were the higher seed and took the title in 2016. But in 2017 and 20187, Shady Side pulled out miraculous wins that included one win with two bicycle kick goals — one that leveled the match in the dying moments of regulation and another came for the golden goal winner, then the next year, they won a penalty kick shootout, 3-0.

Bicycle kick equalizer & 2OT winner lift Shady Side boys to improbable 1st WPIAL boys title

The Quakers got some revenge the following year, by winning in the 2019 semifinal round, and have won two more WPIAL titles since that time.

Quaker Valley beats Shady Side, 2-0, to advance to fourth straight WPIAL final