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From left, Mars’ Piper Coffield, Aly Cooper, Leana Cuzzocrea and Gwen Howell hold their trophy in celebration of their 2-1 victory against Plum in the WPIAL Class 3A championship.
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Mars girls soccer is the Post-Gazette girls Team of the Year once again after third consecutive unbeaten season

Emily Matthews/Post-Gazette

Mars girls soccer is the Post-Gazette girls Team of the Year once again after third consecutive unbeaten season

When it comes time to select the best girls team of the year from the WPIAL or City League, the Post-Gazette always tries to keep things fresh, rather than selecting the same team year after year.

Apparently, Mars girls soccer didn’t get the memo.

After completing a third consecutive unbeaten season while winning their third consecutive WPIAL and PIAA Class 3A titles with a 63-match unbeaten streak, the Planets have ascended further into rarified air. They are one of only three teams to win three consecutive Class 3A state titles, and the only team to do so without a loss. They also finished the season ranked No. 5 in the country in the final United Soccer Coaches rankings — their second year in a row finishing in the top five, after a No. 1 finish a year ago.

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Although there were several worthy candidates, a resume like that is simply too good to pass up.

Mars players Austin Cote (22), Tucker Kush (14) and Quinn Fuller (2) celebrate the school's first state lacrosse championship. The Planets defeated Marple Newton, 9-6, to win the PIAA Class 2A title.
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For their remarkable accomplishments, the Mars girls soccer team is the Post-Gazette girls Team of the Year for the 2021-22 school year, winning the award for the second year in a row. The award takes into consideration all girls teams in the WPIAL and City League.

“I think that any conversations that happen about rankings typically happen after the season,” said coach Blair Gerlach, who has now won four WPIAL and PIAA titles with the Planets. “We try to be very focused as a program on just trying to improve and just trying to get better. We know that we’re not going to take anybody by surprise these days. All we’re trying to do is be as consistent as we possibly can.

“Just for the girls to get the recognition they’re getting is awesome. It’s a testament to how hard they work and the consistency they found to make things happen.”

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Although Mars made it look easy at times, the Planets had to overcome a bit more adversity to three-peat as WPIAL and PIAA champions than at any point in their previous two title runs.

In 2020, Mars won 15 of 19 games by shutout and outscored its opponents by a combined score of 111-5 — including 38-0 in seven playoff contests. In 2021, the Planets had their offensive numbers nearly cut in half, but their trademark defense and goaltending was as stout as ever, outscoring their 21 opponents by a combined score of 62-4.

Mars finished the season 20-0-1, with its only blemish coming in a 0-0 draw vs. Seneca Valley to open the season in a game treated mostly like a scrimmage by both teams. This time, though, the Planets had to come from behind for a 2-1 win in double overtime in the state title game.

“A lot of our games were very close, especially Montour and Plum and South Fayette,” Gerlach said. “The girls just started to show a level of resilience of doing what we could to find a way to win. They grinded it out, and that kind of became their identity.”

As a junior, midfielder Piper Coffield led the team in scoring with 19 goals and 13 assists, including a career-best four-goal performance in a 6-0 win against rival Oakland Catholic in the WPIAL quarterfinals. She headlines an upcoming senior class that has never lost a game in high school.

“Last year, we had that grit, and we really banded together,” Coffield said. “We were so bought in. It almost makes it that much sweeter that it was so close in the state final, and we had to scratch and dig and claw our way back up.

“I knew this season was going to be an adventure. I felt pressure, but I had such a good team around me.”

Coffield, an Indiana recruit, is the younger sister of Pitt freshman Ellie Coffield, who won back-to-back Gatorade Pennsylvania Player of the Year awards for the Planets as a junior and senior. Not far behind her on the scoring sheet was senior midfielder Aly Cooper, who finished with 16 goals and 10 assists — including the biggest goal of the season for the Planets.

With Mars and Radnor tied, 1-1, in double overtime of the PIAA Class 3A championship game, Cooper took a feed from defender Brooke Hamlett inside the box and chipped the ball right over the goalkeeper’s head and into the back of the net. The golden goal gave the Planets a 2-1 win and set off a raucous celebration on the pitch.

“Actually, before [Hamlett] kicked it up to me, I got pushed down. You can kind of see that I’m mad when I get up,” Cooper said. “I get up slowly, and I’m thinking, ‘You should have called that.’ But if they called it, then I wouldn’t have scored. I guess getting up slowly led to me getting in the right place at the right time. I was just exhausted. I was like, ‘This game needs to be over.’

“And it was with my left foot, which is not even my dominant foot. I don’t even know how it went in.”

Over the past three seasons, Mars holds a record of 61-0-2. The Planets have outscored foes by a combined score of 302-19, with 47 shutouts in 63 matches. This past season, senior goalkeeper Megan Boddy split time between the pipes with sophomore Kate McEnroe, with Boddy playing the first half of most games and McEnroe playing the second half.

With the graduation of key players such as Cooper, Boddy and midfielder Leana Cuzzocrea, Gerlach and his staff will have more tinkering to do as they prepare to begin their quest for an unprecedented fourth consecutive state title. But with several standouts coming back and a star like Coffield leading the way, there might be no end in sight for this budding Mars dynasty — and the Planets could soon find themselves in uncharted territory.

“You always feel the buzz going into high school season when we all see each other and everything,” Coffield said. “I’m super, super excited.”

Steve Rotstein: srotstein@post-gazette.com and Twitter @SteveRotstein.

First Published: July 21, 2022, 9:30 a.m.
Updated: July 21, 2022, 9:42 a.m.

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From left, Mars’ Piper Coffield, Aly Cooper, Leana Cuzzocrea and Gwen Howell hold their trophy in celebration of their 2-1 victory against Plum in the WPIAL Class 3A championship.  (Emily Matthews/Post-Gazette)
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