It wasn't the way it wanted the season to end, but the Mars boys soccer team had as great a ride as any team in the program's history.

A 2-0 defeat at the hands of South Park in Saturday's WPIAL Class AA quarterfinals at Peters Township couldn't diminish what the Planets (15-5-1) were able to accomplish, as they went undefeated in section play for the first time in the program's history.

"The kids did those two things. More power to them," said Mars coach Blair Gerlach. "People thought, 'Oh, they lost nine seniors from last year's team so they won't be able to kick it.

"Well, these kids put a heck of a season together," Gerlach added.

South Park (17-4-1) got both goals from T.J. O'Brien, with the second coming about two minutes before halftime.

"That was kind of deflating," said Gerlach. "If it was 1-0 at the half, it's all right, but in playoff soccer that's tough. The better team won, and I think they are the best team out there."

The Planets had faced South Park Sept. 11 in the Pine-Richland Tournament. Mars lost that contest 2-0.

"The game was a lot like we expected," said Gerlach. "We knew they had a strong team player to player. Their lineup is stronger than 99 percent of the teams out there."

If you don't think a place here or a place there matters in cross country, try telling that to the Elk County Christian boys squad.The top two teams at District 9 Class AA meet last Saturday in Ridgway advanced to the PIAA Championships Saturday in Hershey.Northern Potter finished first and Karns City second, even though both teams finished with 99 points. ECC finished third with 100 points.Travis Hendell led Karns City with a ninth-place finish (19 minutes, 2 seconds), but the Gremlins had five of the top 26 runners.In the boys AA meet, the only other area runner to advance was Union's Brett Moore, who finished sixth with a time of 18:46.Moniteau's Eric Hillard was 15th overall and Chris Switzer was 16th, but they missed advancing by two and three places, respectively.Moniteau placed sixth and Union placed 12th out of 14 teams.In the girls meet, Moniteau's Alyssa Deal (11th place, 22:59) and Karns City's Genny Davis (14th place, 23:04) also advanced to the state championships."I feel bad because we didn't win the championship, but I was pleased how well we ran as a team," said Karns City coach Don Loughry. "We could have won the title, but we could have very easily finished third and not gone to states."The girls team representatives from District 9 will be Elk County Christian (51) and Rocky Grove (71). Moniteau finished in sixth place out of 12 teams with 151 points.The following are Karns City, Moniteau and Union results, with state qualifiers in bold:Boys AAKarns City9-Travis Hendell 19:02, 20-Chris Harmon 19:37, 23-Andrew Harmon 19:45, 25-Chris Prokay 19:46, 26-Travis Fiscus 19:49, 72-Justin Smith 21:28, 78-Eli Good 21:52Moniteau15-Eric Hillard 19:27, 16-Chris Switzer 19:32, 32-Aaron Smith 20:10, 45-Matt O'Malley 20:34, 47-Mike Pope 20:41, 60-Doug Gebhart 21:03, 79-Andy Weichey 21:54Union6-Brett Moore 18:46,83-Jason Custer 22:00, 86-Broghan Gearhart 22:27, 98-Chris Beichner 24:27, 103-Josh Bowser 25:00Girls AAMoniteau11-Alyssa Deal 22:59, 28-Alison Metz 24:26, 29-Amy Gladd 24:29, 37-Samantha Kristufek 25:0065-Nikki Stiner 26:20, 68-Michelle Gebhart 26:42, 69-Jenna Beatty 26:42Karns City14-Genny Davis 23:04Union53-Meagan Booth 25:52, 78-Asten Himes 27:31

Slippery Rock's Clint Orloski placed 16th overall in the Class AA boys meet Saturday, advancing him to the PIAA Championships this Saturday in Hershey.Orloski had a time of 17:46 to help the Rockets place 11th as a team while Grove City was right behind in 12th place. Youngsville (111) edged Greenville (112) for the team title.In the girls meet, Calley Bridges led the Rockets with a 41st place finish (22:20) as Slippery Rock finished in ninth place (260) and Grove City 22nd (569).Villa Maria won with 126 points.The following are placewinners for Slippery Rock and Grove City boys and girls teams with state qualifiers in bold:Slippery Rock Boys16-Clint Orloski 17:46, 57-Rob Whitt 19:01, 60-Jeff Lyons 19:03, 72-Dan Hartzell 19:13, 93-Ryan Beilstein 19:38, 94-Chase Conti 19:39, 117-Kevin Kauffman 20:08Grove City Boys35-Zach Hoagland 18:29, 76-Nick Gonchar 19:21, 82-Alec Miller 19:25, 84-Brad Ballantine 19:25, 86-Adam Stillwaggon 19:27, 108-Dan Fenstermacher 20:00, 110-Ryan Devine 20:01Slippery Rock Girls41-Calley Bridges 22:20, 44-Jill Laux 22:21, 55-Brittany Lyons 22:45, 56-Amanda Kellogg 22:46, 64-Janelle Hartzell 23:06, 66-Allison Plummer 23:08, 72-Sarah Thompson 23:15Grove City Girls65-Nikki Greenawalt 23:08, 113-Abbey Consbruck 24:57, 124-Lena Walter 25:17, 130-Ariana Thompson 25:44, 137-Nicolette Hickly 26:04, 167-Julia Anderson 30:15

Grove City 2, Girard 0 -The Eagles wrapped up a 16-0-2 season with the District 10 Region 1 title, thanks to goals by Ashley McKnight and Christy Allison, with this win Saturday.Megan Ferderber added an assist and Emma Stapleton made 16 saves for her 11th shutout of the season.On Wednesday, Grove City will face the Corry-Villa Maria winner at 5 p.m. in Meadville.