WPIAL Boys Class 2A Playoffs — Quarterfinal Round Scoreboard

Photo courtesy Beaver Area Boys Soccer (Twitter)

The WPIAL soccer playoffs continue Thursday, with Quarterfinal Round action in Boys Class 2A and Girls Class 3A and Class 4A.

The upset of the WPIAL soccer playoffs thus far came on Thursday, as No. 1 South Park were taken down by Beaver Area, 2-1.  Also, No. 3 North Catholic fell to Section rival, Deer Lakes, 1-0.

The other top four seeds, another pair of Section rivals, Quaker Valley and Avonworth, each advanced to the semifinal round, which will be played either Monday or Tuesday at nuetral site(s).

WPIAL Boys Class 2A Playoffs Schedule & Bracket

Updated Bracket 

Quarterfinal Round (Thursday, October 23)

FINAL:   #6 Deer Lakes 1, #3 North Catholic 0

FINAL:   #2 Quaker Valley 3, #10 Shady Side Academy 2

FINAL:  #4 Avonworth 4, Mt. Pleasant 0

FINAL:  #9 Beaver Area 2, #1 South Park 1

First Round (Monday, October 20)

#3 North Catholic 7, #14 Yough 1

#4 Avonworth 3, #13 McGuffey 0

#6 Deer Lakes 5, #11 Central Valley 1

#1 South Park 1, #16 Southmoreland 0

#10 Shady Side Academy 4, #7 Seton LaSalle 1

#2 Quaker Valley 5, #15 Highlands 1

#5 Mount Pleasant 2, #12 Elizabeth Forward 1

#9 Beaver Area 6, #8 Charleroi 0

 

PSN’s Class 2A Tournament Outlook

South Park comes in once again as the much-deserved favorites as they are not only the defending two-time Class 2A WPIAL champs, but they have completed yet another impressive regular season campaign.

While some may think it South Park may coast to another WPIAL title, this is a 16-team field with a lot of strong contenders.

South Park (17-1-0 overall, with its only loss coming to Class 3A Moon in extra time) deserves all of the accolades, as this is a program that is a model of consistency under the direction of Head Coach Jon Cantwell.

One coach pointed out that South Park are difficult to play as they not only have one of the top goal scorers in the district in Caden Loveland, but are extremely well-organized and difficult to break down, with 13 clean sheets this season: “You can defend them well, even start to see an opening. But Jon (Cantwell) is so composed and doesn’t care if he wins 1-0 or 15-0. His teams are always really patient and disciplined. Talented for sure. But it’s an attitude and an understanding and a confidence.”

There’s no shortage of talented teams lurking to deny South Park’s three-peat bid.

The WPIAL seeding committee went with another program that has also been dominant at this level for decades — Quaker Valley — as the No. 2 seed, but particularly North Catholic, Avonworth (the No. 3 and No. 4 seeds) along with Deer Lakes (No. 6) have the talent to win a District title.

Quaker Valley — as they’ve done in recent years — got off to a bit of a slow start this season — with a 1-2 record, splitting matches in the East-West Classic against Eastern PA schools (Fleetwood and Wilson) then lost its section opener to Beaver (1-0). Since that point, they’re without a loss — as they head into the tournament with a 15-match unbeaten run (14-0-1).

North Catholic came out of the gates in very impressive fashion, with two wins at the JRK Memorial Classic back in August, including 5-1 win against host Pine-Richland, then a 2-0 victory vs one of Class 1A’s top teams, Winchester Thurston.

The Trojans came down to earth when they entered section play, taking a humble, 3-0 loss to Deer Lakes, but since that point, they’ve put it all together as one of the best possession teams you’ll see play at any level of the WPIAL, with a strong cast that includes shifty play maker Angelo Amelio, Justin Garvey and Brody Kennedy — plus goalkeeper Dylan Shantz, who one coach said was ‘a difference maker’ in an early season contest against his team.

One coach hailed North Catholic as a team that plays like “Poetry in motion, classy style and refreshing to play quality footy on both sides of the ball.”

Avonworth’s teams the past few years aren’t afraid to throw numbers forward into the attack, as they are more than capable of can scoring in bunches.  When this team gets on the front foot, they’re hard to slow down — with 115 goals in all competitions this season is second only to the potent group from Deer Lakes.  The ‘Lopes have numerous contributors from the WPIAL runner-up squad ready to make another run.

Speaking of the Lancers, with Avonworth finishing second to Quaker Valley and Mt. Pleasant in great form coming out as Section 4 champs, Deer Lakes dropping to 6-seed may feel like a slight to the classification’s highest scoring outfit who enter this tournament with a chip on its shoulders. This is a senior-heavy group, with key players who contributed to the last Deer Lakes WPIAL title team in 2022, as freshman.

Deer Lakes have played well when going up in competition (beating 3A Mars 1-0, Gateway 8-2, losing 3-2 to 4A top seed Fox Chapel and North Hills in OT).

In fact, in an early season Coaches Corner, one coach commented on Deer Lakes’ scoring prowess: “The entire Deer Lakes squad looks incredible. The combination of size, speed, and skill on that team in our first match was incredible and they looked, at times, like they could score at will.”

However, less than favorable results from their second go-around vs section rivals North Catholic (2-1 loss) and Shady Side (2-2 draw) cost them Section title.  Still, they have to be considered a legit contender in this field.

Are there any potential sleepers lurking among Class 2A boys’ field? 

Mt. Pleasant is in great form — having knocked off Charleroi late in the season (1-0) to take the Section 4 title outright.

Head Coach Floyd Snyder III felt like his team’s lack of finishing early in the season held his team back, where they dropped four of its first 11 matches.

“Our lack of finishing has kept our games tighter than they should be this season. We’ve been outshooting our opponents by at least a 3:1 margin in almost every match,” Snyder told PSN in late September.

“While our shot selection hasn’t been great, we’ve also failed to capitalize on many open opportunities.”

Since losing 2-0 to South Park in a non-section match, Mt. Pleasant have reeled off seven straight wins while surrendering one goal — and continued that into the First Round, with its narrow win vs Elizabeth Forward.

Ellsworth always has Shady Side playing well on this side of October with a quality roster with players capable of giving the best defensive teams fits. The veteran coach raved about contributions from Liam McKim, “who keeps chipping in goals” and Mark Bence, “has been a workhorse for us.”

In a very tough section with Quaker Valley and Avonworth, Beaver Area were tabbled as a potential sleeper by some coaches.  However, because they play in one of the largest sections in the District (nine teams) — the majority of their competition this season has come ‘in-house’

Beaver Area didn’t just beat Charleroi on Monday — they blitzed the second place team from Section 4, beating them going away, 6-0 — to keep the dream alive.

Now, they get the reward of playing the top team in the classification — South Park.

Class 2A Boys Soccer Players to Watch

South Park 

Aidan Battista (Senior — Defender)

Cooper Hochendoner (Senior — Goalkeeper)

Caden Loveland (Sr., MF)

Shady Side Academy 

Mark Bence (Senior – MF)

Liam Cowan (Sophomore – Goalkeeper)

Manek Gerhardy (Senior – MF)

Avonworth 

Carter Berad (Senior – Defender)

Deer Lakes

Wesley Boyle (Senior – Goalkeeper)

Cuyler Crim (Senior – Goalkeeper)

Peyton Kushon (Senior –Forward)

Jacob Orseno (Senior — MF)

Collin Rodgers (Senior — Forward)

Zane Spence, Deer Lakes (Senior — Defender)

Beaver

Anthony Furda (Junior – Forward)

Caleb Kullen (Senior — MF)

North Catholic

Justin Garvey (Senior — Forward)

Brody Kennedy (Senior — MF)

Arthur Mendonca (Junior — MF)

Angelo Amelio (Senior — MF)

Charleroi 

Ethan Hartley (Senior — Forward)

Luke Mazon (Junior – MF)

Blake Pendo (Sophomore — MF)

Seton LaSalle

Tyler Kovalcik (Sophomore — Forward)

Darius Norkevicus (Senior — Forward)

Mt. Pleasant

Damien Oher (Senior — Defender)

Yough

Isaac Pacacha (Junior — Forward)

Central Valley

Owen Shearer (Sophomore — MF)

Quaker Valley

Tanner Shultz (Senior — Defender

Southmoreland

Jack Smith (Senior — MF)

Mt. Pleasant

Tyke Snyder (Sophomore — MF)

Elizabeth Forward

Luca Valerio (Junior — MF)

Check out the results from Monday’s First Round action below.

WPIAL Boys Soccer Class 2A Playoffs First Round Scoreboard