MP boys, girls highest seeded area soccer teams
Jonathan Guth | TikTok成人版
Mount Pleasant’s boys and girls soccer teams received the highest seeds among the 11 local squads as the WPIAL released its playoff pairings Wednesday afternoon.
The Lady Vikings were slotted fourth and the Vikings were given a No. 5 seed, both in Class 2A. Both teams were Section 4 champions.
Mount Pleasant was one of four area schools to put both their boys’ and girls’ soccer teams into the postseason. The others were Laurel Highlands, Belle Vernon and Southmoreland.
Also qualifying for the playoffs were the Beth-Center boys and the Brownsville and Waynesburg Central girls.
Mount Pleasant girls coach Rich Garland wasn’t surprised at being seeded fourth. South Park was the top seed, followed by Freeport and Quaker Valley.
“I kind of expected a third or a fourth depending on how they viewed Quaker Valley and their tie with Avonworth,” Garland said.
The Lady Vikings were 10-0 in their section and 13-4-1 overall with close losses to other Class 2A section champions South Park and Freeport. Mount Pleasant’s other two losses were against Class 4A playoff teams Peters Township and Penn Trafford.
Quaker Valley also was a section champion that went 13-1-1 overall, including the tie with Avonworth (9-8-1) which tied for third place.
“I think what surprised me about my bracket is there are only two teams I haven’t seen this year, one is my first opponent, Avonworth and the second is Belle Vernon,” Garland said. “Everybody else we’ve played this year. So familiarity is the key to my bracket.
“But I’m not looking ahead. We’ve got to take care of Avonworth first.”
The Lady Vikings host the Lady Antelopes in a 6:30 p.m. game Tuesday.
“Our team will be watching film of them on Sunday just to kind of see if there are any tendencies we can pick up that either we can attack or defend against,” Garland said.
A win over Avonworth could set up a third meeting with Deer Lakes which finished second to Mount Pleasant in Section 4 with its only two losses of the season coming to the Lady Vikings, 2-1 and 3-0. The Lady Lancers are the fifth seed and play No. 12 Shady Side Academy in the first round.
“Deer Lakes is a challenging team,” Garland said. “They gave us fits the first time. If you look across the 2A landscape Deer Lakes is 15-2 which is the best record overall of the second-place teams. So I think the committee did some strong research to figure out how to place those teams.”
Garland pointed out Mount Pleasant’s tougher non-section schedule was by design.
“We wanted to beef up our non-section schedule. The other 2A teams we played are one and two in the rankings,” Garland said. “Penn-Trafford always plays fast and is always a talented team. And going up against Peters Township, the top-rated 4A team, our speed of play has to increase and one way to do that is to face the type of competition that we see there.”
The Belle Vernon boys had to compete in a preliminary-round match in Class 3A on Thursday night against Ringgold (8-9). The Leopards (8-10-1) won the match, 2-1, to advance to Saturday’s first-round match against top-seeded Hampton. The game is scheduled to begin at 12:30 p.m.
The Laurel Highlands and Beth-Center boys play first-round games Saturday.
The Mustangs (11-7, tied for fourth in Section 2), led by Cole Radcliffe, the school’s career goals leader, are seeded 13th in Class 3A and are at No. 4 Moon (10-1-1, first in Section 4) at 3 p.m.
The Bulldogs (10-6, second in Section 2) are seeded eighth in Class A and play No. 9 Eden Christian (8-9, third in Section 1) in a 12 noon match at West Allegheny.
The Mount Pleasant and Southmoreland boys play Class 2A first-round matches Monday.
The No. 5 Vikings (14-1, first in Section 4) host No. 12 Elizabeth Forward (11-6, third in Section 3) and the No. 16 Scotties (8-10, fourth in Section 4) are at No. 1 South Park (17-1, first in Section 3), both at 6:30 p.m.
In addition to the Lady Vikings, four other area teams play first-round matches on Tuesday.
Also in Class 2A girls, No. 9 Belle Vernon (13-4-1, second in Section 1) is at No. 8 Burrell (9-5-2, third in Section 2) at 6:30 p.m. and No. 14 Southmoreland (7-9-1, tied for third in Section 4) goes to No. 3 Quaker Valley (13-1-1, first in Section 3) for a 6 p.m. match.
In Class A, No. 14 Brownsville (11-4-2, tied for second in Section 2) takes on No. 3 Seton LaSalle (12-4, second in Section 3) at Peters Township in an 8 p.m. match and No. 11 Waynesburg Central (8-4-2, tied for second in Section 2) plays No. 6 Winchester Thurston (10-5-1, second in Section 4) at Norwin with a 6 p.m. start.
The Lady Falcons feature one of the WPIAL’s top freshmen in Gloria Kovscek who was second in the WPIAL in goals scored with 32.
That’s more than Lady Vikings senior star Morgan Gesinski, who had 28 goals to increase her career total to 125, but Gesinski’s team has played a more defensive style this season, according to Garland.
“First, every team focuses on stopping Morgan. She’s been dealing with that all season,” Garland said. “She’s responded well. She’s been able to work with the entire team to help our defensive effort and we’ve had quite a number of shutouts (13). It’s been a total team effort.
“So we’re just thankful to be here and see if we can compete for another title.”
Mount Pleasant has gone 1-1 in the playoffs the last two years after reaching the WPIAL final and the PIAA semifinals in 2022 when it finished with a 21-3-1 record.