Shady Side Academy freshman Neely Hawn took a break between two ice hockey games to play in the WPIAL Class 1A final.

And, boy, were the Bulldogs happy she was able to make it.

Hawn was late to the game at Washington & Jefferson’s Cameron Stadium and took off immediately after the final horn. In between, the midfielder scored the only goal in a 1-0 victory over Aquinas Academy to help Shady Side Academy to its fourth consecutive title.

“I was like, thanks Neely. Bye. I’d like to give you a medal,” Shady Side Academy coach Betsy Gorse joked. “We have her medal and she’ll get it.”

She deserved it.

With the game scoreless early in the fourth quarter, Hawn was able to pop a shot past Aquinas Academy goalkeeper Maryam BouSamra with 12:20 remaining in regulation.

“Neely has never played field hockey before this year, but she’s got the ice hockey experience,” Gorse said. “She has been learning the game and she has been able to sneak in behind folks and get goals.”

It was especially frustrating for Aquinas Academy, which was making its first appearance in the final. The Chargers pressed the attack in the first quarter and pummeled Shady Side Academy junior goalkeeper Thea Conomikes with nine of the 13 shots they mustered in the match, but she turned them all aside.

Including the championship match, Aquinas Academy lost four one-goal games to Shady Side Academy this season.

“They fought hard the whole game,” Aquinas Academy coach Jen DeWitt said. “I’m just proud of them getting here for the first time in Aquinas history, the fought for it and they deserved to be here.”

Class 2A

Penn-Trafford sophomore Ava Hershberger has been the driving force on the Warriors throughout the season. It was only appropriate that she also gave the team all the scoring it needed to win its sixth consecutive WPIAL Class 2A title.

Hershberger scored the only goal of the match with 2:39 remaining in the first half and her older sister Gwen stopped three shots in the net as Penn-Trafford pulled out a 1-0 victory over Fox Chapel.

“It was very exciting,” Ava Hershberger said. “It was definitely a tough game with Fox Chapel.”

Hershberger was personally shut out in the semifinals against Latrobe, but she rebounded to score her 39th goal of the season when it counted.

Of course, a little bit of luck never hurts either.

“I think it hit someone’s foot and we got a corner,” Ava Hershberger said. “It went to the top and I shot it and it hit a defender’s stick and found the goal.”

Penn-Trafford’s six consecutive titles are the most in the classification and second behind North Allegheny, which won at least seven in a row from 1998-2004. The WPIAL does not have records from 1995-97.

“I wouldn’t have thought when that we would have seven [overall including 2011], but six in a row,” Penn-Trafford coach Cindy Dutt said. “Fox Chapel played an awesome game, they always brought it in the big games and I’m glad it was a good win against a good team.”

Class 3A

A driving rainstorm could not hold down WPIAL leading scorer Rylie Wollerton.

North Allegheny had no chance.

Wollerton, the Pine-Richland senior midfielder and Louisville recruit, scored the opening goal of the match with 9:47 remaining in the first half and the defense made it stand up in a 3-1 victory over the Tigers.

It is the Rams’ third consecutive title and fourth in the past five years.

“I think, what I’m really proud of is that the team retained its composure and it was a hunger to do it again,” Pine-Richland coach Donna Stephenson said. “There wasn’t a pressure to do it again, but a hunger and these seniors wanted it.”

Wollerton also added a much-needed insurance goal, her WPIAL-leading 56th of the season. just 1:20 into the third quarter to give the Rams and insurmountable two-goal lead. Pine-Richland has not given up two goals in a match all season.

“She got one in for us right away, an early goal, which was really important and set the tone,” Stephenson said. “Riley, the vision she has of the field, she’s definitely a difference-maker.”

North Allegheny broke up the Rams’ shutout bid when junior Lauren Kampi scored with less than six minutes remaining in regulation. But Pine-Richland’s Georgia Rottinghaus iced it with a goal with 21.3 seconds remaining.

First Published: October 31, 2021, 1:20 a.m.