PIAA BOYS SOCCER: Panthers come short in the final, 1-0-Pittsburgh Post Gazette

HERSHEY, PA.--the smallest guy on the field was the biggest play of the night in the game of football championship PIAA Class AAA boys Saturday night at Hersheypark Stadium.

Unfortunately for WPIAL champion upper St. Clair, T-Ben Donnie plays for other children.

Donnie tap-in goal off a cross by Nick Langanelli only 1: 17 in the second half was enough for unbeaten Conestoga to remain so, taking a 1-0 victory and PIAA Championship trophy back to Chicago.

The loss ruined of upper St. Clair chance to win the first boys soccer PIAA Title since back-to-back Championships in 2003 and ' 04.

The pioneers (24-0-1), ranked nationally by ESPN rise, were mercury-fast offense and defense and upper St. Clair reeling early. But upper St. Clair has gathered even after a quick goal second half by Donnie and only lost leveling chances over the last 10 minutes.

The first was artificial. The Panthers batted the ball in from the right side and Conestoga when a player was unable to remove, upper St. Clair Matt Kiernan received and fired from 12 yards. But Kiernan was slightly the balance when he shot just enough to pull the width of the target ball with 10: 30 remaining.

Then, with Panthers (20-2-2) play with an extra forward and pushing hard, an upper St. Clair strike hits the hand of a Conestoga defender in the box. Everyone, including the player pioneer who drew back his hand, waiting for the whistle. Instead, silence, except for the roar of disapproval from the upper St. Clair bench and fans.

Remained little more than three minutes, and had called the shootout, the Cubs would have had the opportunity to work for the entire second half.

"It is very bad, the arbitrators had a large share of the result," upper St. Clair coach Uwe Schneider said. "But when they did not invite the Handball. All we have seen.

"Ref simply do not have enough courage to interrupt. This is not the issue that was better at this point. We have worked hard to find here.»

Not an opinion Schneider was sour-graping, was not. It was like to be praised for promotions of Conestoga and the excellent work which the upper St. Clair running with an excellent way to keep up once.

"They are not only sports, that is good," Schneider said.

This includes Donnie, who is barely 5 feet. But Donnie is an exciting and intelligent player and instincts kicked in when he saw Langanelli pick up a ball from Bryan Kozlowski and jump down the right side.

First published on 20 November, 2011 at 12: 00 am

Ridge Girls Soccer season ends in final Championship-Patch.com

Ridge high school girls Varsity Soccer team has encountered Lenape regional championship in the NJSIAA Group 4 on Saturday at The College of New Jersey. Largely for Lenape scored twice in the first half, giving them a lead that led to victory 2-0. The victory was a repeat of his victory over Lenape girls soccer championship game in Ridge State in 2008.

IN THE SHORT

Ridge was slow to gain steam at the beginning of the game, there is no way to high powered by Lenape Indians. Lenape took advantage and Courtney Kovac scored in just the fifth minute of the game. Ridge makes an offensive run, but Lenape will have precedence, directed with 10 minutes left, half with a goal of Katie Rigby who would pick up 2-0 half the score.

It was clear to everyone that the bold Ridge was not abandoned by any account, and the second half was a different group.

"For us the second half, is a new game," said Ridge coach Katie Donahue. "I felt that our role was somewhat less timid, started to intensify shortly and will be us."

The Devils took it to Lenape whilst retaining the ball for the Indian end for more than half. Although there were two opportunites, Ridge was fought by a smothering defense that stopped any advances that have been made against them.

DIABOLOS KEY PERFORMERS

Elise Romano, midlfielder -Romano was the stopper in the defence and the starter on offense for the Devils, Kelly McWhorter, forward McWhorter -had a pair of chances in the penalty area and got an elbow to the side for its efforts, Cefelli, midfielder Gigi -Cefelli fed promotions and had a great shot late in the second half of this Lenape of Allison Johnsonthat would be heaven to quit? Jackie Tobia, midfielder -Tobia was active side to side and edge to edge working the ball into the end of Lenape.

THEY SAID

"When we arrived at what I said on the first ten minutes we need to make sure that the game does not follow. When we went down, I didn't know how to react, because we haven't downwards by one goal to you you don't know how many games. For the second half I said that we should go and start connecting the ball and we had some difficulty with this, we still did not win the first balls to win. We knew the attack was unlimited, attacks with numbers and speed and we simply could not hold the ball.

"It's frustrating because I know that I am not playing our best game, collectively and individually.  But we hold our head up high knowing that we came here and left its all about the field that the second half. Unfortunately, this must be the string together for 80 minutes. Hats off [Lenape], these are the champions. They did what they had to do today, and is a fantastic group. "— Ridge coach Katie Donahue

"The first half we came out a little sluggish, we were not ready. They got two balls in the us. The second experiment, put our heads a little bit. Half-time, we said "we cannot miss it, you must enter a fight ' and the second half to put the fight and took 0-0, had more shots on goal than them.  He gave us all of us.  It was a long period. It is just good to get here. " Senior Captain Jackie Tobia

Boys Soccer: Mather advances to 2A final - Chicago Sun-Times

November 4, 2011 2:52PM The tried and true method of beating a Public League soccer team has always been to play a more physical style.

That won’t work against Mather. The Rangers proved that by knocking off defending state champion Peoria Notre Dame 3-0 in the Class 2A state semifinals Friday at Lincoln-Way North.

Mather (20-3-1) will attempt to become just the second Public League team in the 40-year history of the state tournament to win a state title on Saturday when it takes on Marmion or Chatham Glenwood, joining Harrison, which won the 1973 crown under a single-class system.

“We played today for the Public League and tomorrow we will represent the city of Chicago in the state final,” Mather coach Branko Cvijovic said. “The whole three million of Chicagoans are rooting for us, so we are pumped.”

Notre Dame (20-6), which had been seeking its third state title in four years, had a distinct size advantage and tried its best to intimidate the Rangers, but those efforts went for naught.

Mather grabbed a 1-0 lead just 44 seconds into the match when senior Qudus Lawal headed a cross from Hassan Ibrahim past diving Irish goalie Mitchell Auer for his 36th goal of the season.

“We practice that a lot,” said Lawal, who came to the United States last year from Nigeria. “I have to be in the front to flick it over. That was what I did.”

The Irish were held to only four shots and had just one good opportunity to equalize. That came at the 32:50 mark of the first half when Scotty Cicciarelli’s point-blank shot was stopped by Mather goalie Edwin Garcia.

The Rangers controlled much of the play after that despite being slowed by Notre Dame’s physical play, which was matched by Mather.

“We showed that we can play a physical game today,” Cvijovic said. “This was lacking in the past. We always had skills. The Public League teams could not keep up physically. This is just a testament that Public League teams can play.”

There was plenty of skill on display as well, as the Rangers finally broke down the Irish defense in the second half with some fine transition plays. Lawal and senior Steven Younus worked a nifty give-and-go in the box to produce the second goal, which Younus scored with 29:12 left in the second half.

Juan Mendez made it 3-0 with 11:52 remaining when he ran onto a cross from Chisom Ogbana and finished from 10 yards out. The final margin would have been greater if not for Auer, who stoned Lawal twice on breakaways.

“I must tell you that it is not about the physique,” Lawal said. “It’s about working hard, the way you can handle the ball and the way you win those 50/50 balls.”

The Rangers did that well throughout and as a result became the first Public League team to make the state title match since Schurz in 1977.

“We were faster than them,” Younus said. “They couldn’t stop us. We passed the ball and we opened the spaces. That’s why they were using physical play against us.

“I think we play as a team, we share the ball, we never play selfish. That’s what our coaches taught us.”