The girls soccer team is hungry for a playoff spot, and they might just be on track for such.
“It’s been a promising season so far; I’m really excited to see how far we can go because we have a lot of strong and capable players,” said senior keeper Gracie Turyan.
September 11 the girls played Avonworth who has been the Bobcat’s hardest competitor in the section for several years now. Avonworth won the WPIAL finals last year and they always put up a hard fight.
Unfortunately, when the Bobcats played the Antelopes, our Cats fell 5-2 even after putting up the first goal within the first 10 minutes of the game.
Luckily for the Bobcats, they had time to make up for the loss in their next game against Ambridge September 13. The girls racked up 7 goals to eventually win with a final score of 7-1.
On the contrary, the Bobcats sadly lost starter junior Emerson Connelly when she sprained her ankle late in the Ambridge game. Connelly and an Ambridge player reached the loose ball at nearly the same time. Connely’s foot came down on her opponent’s foot and subsequently rolled. Connelly is out of action until late October—returning just in time for playoffs.
The next day September 14 the girls traveled to Blackhawk to play a non-section game.
“It was a close match, but a hard fought win. It’s great to beat [Blackhawk] after our tie last year,” said sophomore Jocelyn Biela.
The win is even sweeter since Blackhawk’s school predicted beating Beaver Area 4-1, and obviously, that wasn’t exactly the game’s outcome. Sorry not sorry, Blackhawk.
Returning to section play, the girls faced another tough section competitor Quaker Valley September 18. For the past few years, QV and Beaver Area have consistently tied games or beaten each other by one. This year was no different when the Bobcats tied the Quakers in a 1-1 draw after double overtime.
Although the tie was not the greatest outcome, the Bobcats and Quakers will meet again later in the season.
September 20 was also a hard battle for the Bobcats. They had to play North Catholic, the WPIAL runner up in 2021. The Bobcats did a great job keeping the Trojans contained not allowing any goals from their build up, but the Trojan corner kicks were the most problematic.
All three Trojan goals resulted from corner kicks to yield a 3-0 loss for the Bobcats.
“It was a hard game without two of our starters, but I think we improvised as a team well,” said senior captain Katie Reap.
September 25 resulted in a high score and shutout for the Bobcats. They dominated Hopewell 6-0. This is significant especially since they went into overtime against the Vikings in the first game of the season.
The next game resulted in a big Bobcat win and a significant part of playoff standings.
The Central Valley Warriors and Bobcats went head to head, but the Bobcats were hungry for a win. The first time they played CV this season, Beaver Area lost 3-1 which came as a surprise to the Bobcats especially since they stomped the Warriors last season.
But September 27 the Bobcats came back from their loss and beat CV 2-0.
“[The CV game] was a hard fought and well earned win that puts us on the right path for playoffs,” said Turyan.
Coach Nick Crivelli emphasized the importance of the win against CV by saying, “that was by far the most important game of the season for us. There were tremendous playoff implications riding on the outcome. A loss would have put us in a seriously bad position. The girls responded to the pressure with a nearly flawless performance. It was by far our best outing this year as we completely dominated Central Valley for 80 minutes.”
Next the Bobcats play at Avonworth October 4.