Rolling Raiders
JACKSON TWP — “Keep bringing the pressure.”
That was Dave Sylvester's response when asked what the key is to the Seneca Valley girls soccer team making its latest playoff appearance a lengthy one.
The Raiders heard his message loud and clear in Monday night's WPIAL Class AAA first-round clash with Hempfield.
SV earned an 11-1 advantage in corner kicks and pelted Spartans' goalkeeper Samantha Orie with 16 shots as the Raiders cruised to a 4-1 victory at NexTier Stadium.
In the nightcap of the doubleheader, Seneca's boys advanced with a 4-0 shutout of Connellsville.
The Raiders' girls had already beaten Hempfield 4-0 in the teams' regular-season finale Oct. 14.
“They (Spartans) didn't play as well as I thought they would last week,” Sylvester said, “but I thought they had some nice players. I was a little worried coming into this game.”
After Hempfield sophomore midfielder Ketura Mort scored to tie Monday's game at 1 with 11:50 left in the first half, the Raiders shifted to another gear and the Spartans (9-8) simply could not keep up.
Just minutes before halftime, the Raiders were awarded a penalty kick when the pressure applied by Cassidy Testa forced a foul on the Spartans within the goal box.
Senior Alicia Hart buried the attempt in the back of the net and the Raiders led 2-1 at the break.
The goal came as a relief to Sylvester.
“After we went up 1-0, for the next (20) minutes, our play was bad,” he said. “We didn't possess the ball well and we told the girls that Hempfield wasn't going to just lay down.”
Testa had earlier scored SV's first goal off a pass from Claire Kocur in the ninth minute of play. The former had several other legitimate scoring chances in the game.“That's her work ethic,” said Sylvester of Testa, a junior forward. “She gives 110 percent every night, but has the skill to go with it. That makes her doubly dangerous.”The Raiders (19-0) kept the pressure on in the second half, taking five corner kicks and scoring two more goals — courtesy of Hart and Madeline Seibel.Orie made 12 saves for Hempfield and Jess Neill stopped four shots in net for the Raiders, who will face Fox Chapel in the quarterfinals at 8 p.m. Wednesday at the Mars Athletic Complex.Boys Soccer Seneca Valley 4, Connellsville 0Matt Saluga's junior campaign had already featured many big goals and memorable moments, but a hat trick had eluded Seneca Valley's forward.That is, until Monday's first-round playoff against Connellsville.Saluga, SV's leading scorer during the regular season, scored twice in the first half and once in the second half to power the Raiders (16-2) past the Falcons. The fact that his effort came in a playoff game and in his team's final home contest of the season made it even more special for Saluga.“I always look forward to this time of the season,” he said. “We couldn't have been more excited about playing tonight.”His first goal, assisted by Ryan Maurer, came just over four minutes into the game. He scored again before halftime for a 2-0 edge.“The first goal was very big,” said Raiders' coach George Williams, “but you're always worried about a letdown at that point. We saw it in the girls' game. The guys listened and we didn't let them (Falcons) back into it.”Maurer and Saluga both found the net in the second half, with Griffin Mathew assisting on Saluga's third goal of the night.Meanwhile, Connellsville tested Seneca goalkeeper Bryce Benjamin just twice in the game. Both saves came on weak shots.Alex Shultz had seven stops in net for the Falcons (10-8), who were making their first-ever WPIAL-playoff appearance.“This was pretty big for us,” said Falcons' coach Jason Rice. “We have a really young team with a lot of sophomores and freshmen. We'll take a lot out of this game.”The Raiders will face rival Butler in the quarterfinals Thursday at a site and time to be determined.
