Winchester Thurston has built up a pretty good rivalry with Greensburg Central Catholic over the past few years.
Since 2017, the two teams have met eight times in the regular season in Section 2 action and have a 4-4-0 record against each other. In addition, the pair met three of the past four years in the WPIAL Class 1A playoffs with the Centurions taking the title game battle each of the past two years and the Bears winning a quarterfinal matchup in 2017.
This season, however, the WPIAL pulled Winchester Thurston out of Section 2 and away from Greensburg Central Catholic and deposited the school squarely in Section 3, which left the Bears without a rival and with their only chance of seeing the Centurions in the playoffs.
“I’m curious that that’s why the WPIAL moved us this year,” Winchester Thurston coach Adam Brownold said. “But as long as we make to the WPIAL final, we’ll play whoever.”
With Greensburg Central out of its section, Winchester Thurston needed to find a new rival. Instead, the Bears found two in Springdale and Eden Christian.
“Eden’s a great team and we’re going to see them again,” Brownold said. “Right now, they could be our new GCC.”
Winchester Thurston got its first taste of its potential new rival Tuesday when the two squared off for the first of their two section matchups. The Bears, though, had just enough extra juice as junior midfielder Alex Hauskrecht scored the only goal of the match with 34:29 remaining in regulation for a 1-0 victory at Warriors Field.
Hauskrecht is the only all-WPIAL player that returned this season for Winchester Thurston.
“He can play pretty much everywhere up and down the field that we need him,” Brownold said. “He’s a smart player, good vision, good voice and he’s a really good team player.”
While Hauskrecht has done his part to generate offense, the defense has been stellar in front of second-year starting goalkeeper Otto Graham. The Bears have only allowed three goals in their six matches — two in one game against Class 4A Pine-Richland — and have four shutouts.
Part of that comes from the fact the team has some stellar defenders led by senior Massimiliano Menoli and Thomas Votruba-Drzal.
“My goalkeeper keeps himself clean, then Massi and Thomas in the middle, they’re used to being back there,” Brownold said. “They’ve played in high-pressure games and they’re smart players.”
At the end of the day, though, Winchester Thurston has one goal in mind and that’s a WPIAL championship. The Bears won their only title in 2014 against Sewickley Academy and would like to add a matching trophy to the case.
And playing in this new section might be enough to get them over the hump.
“This is a strong section playing Springdale a couple of days ago and playing Eden,” Brownold said. “It helps us.”
Class 2A
Last season, Elizabeth Forward surprised South Park in their final Class 2A Section 1 match with a 3-2 victory that gave the Warriors their first section title since 1997.
On Thursday, the Eagles have their first opportunity to exact a modicum of revenge when the two meet for the first time in 2021.
And both are coming on a bit of a roll.
Elizabeth Forward (4-1-0, 3-1-0) shrugged off a loss to Avonworth with a 3-0 upset of a highly regarded Belle Vernon squad, followed by a 10-2 thrashing of South Allegheny on Tuesday in which Anthony Valerio and Nicholas Snyder each had hat tricks.
South Park, though, has been playing at another level.
Andrew Stewart scored the only goal for the Eagles in a 1-0 victory against Keystone Oaks Tuesday night. South Park (6-0-0, 5-0-0) has shut out its past four opponents and has only allowed two goals all season.
“We have a very young team, so it’s nice to see what’s been happening,” South Park coach Jon Cantwell said. “We have a team that’s mostly underclassmen, so you don’t know what you’re going to get each game.”
Despite the disappointing end to its section slate, South Park hasn’t really emphasized Elizabeth Forward.
At least not yet.
“They won the section, so you always get up for playing a team like that. We deserved everything that happened to us in that game last year,” Cantwell said. “But it sticks with you, watching someone else celebrating a section title on your home field.”
Class 3A
Mars went almost four full seasons without a section loss.
Now the Planets have lost twice in the past two weeks.
On Tuesday, Kiski Area did the honors with a 4-2 victory against the host Planets. It is the first time Mars has lost two section matches in a season since 2013 when the team went 12-6-0 overall, 8-4-0 in Class 2A Section 4 and was eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by South Fayette.
Kiski Area had four different goal scorers, but what made things interesting was that one of them was a midfield shot from junior Maddox Anderson.
He also happened to be playing as the Cavaliers goalkeeper at the time and picked up the win between the pipes.
Valley
Valley has opted to fold its boys soccer program this season.
It had been playing in Class 2A Section 2.
Last year, the Vikings finished the season 0-10-0 and had not won a match since a 5-1 victory against Derry on Oct. 3, 2019.
Team rankings
(records through Tuesday)
Class 4A
1. Peters Township (7-0-0)
2. Seneca Valley (8-0-0)
3. Fox Chapel (7-1-0)
4. Norwin (6-1-0)
5. Canon-McMillan (5-1-1)
Class 3A
1. West Allegheny (8-0-0)
2. Franklin Regional (6-1-0)
3. Hampton (6-0-0)
4. Moon (6-1-0)
5. Plum (6-2-0)
Class 2A
1. Quaker Valley (6-0-0)
2. Shady Side Academy (3-0-0)
3. South Park (6-0-0)
4. Elizabeth Forward (4-1-1)
5. Charleroi (5-1-0)
Class 1A
1. Winchester Thurston (5-0-1)
2. Sewickley Academy (6-0-0)
3. Greensburg Central Catholic (5-1-0)
4. Eden Christian Academy (7-1-0)
5. Our Lady of the Sacred Heart (5-1-0)
First Published: September 24, 2021, 9:45 a.m.
