ADAMS TWP — Mars stepped onto the field on Wednesday night with intentions of taking the first step toward a fourth consecutive WPIAL Class AA girls soccer championship.

Hopewell stopped the journey short.

Shannon Shawgo scored with 7:48 to play and lifted the Vikings to a 2-1 victory over the top-seeded Planets at the Mars Athletic Complex.

“It’s big for us,” said Hopewell coach Martin Byrnes. “With our history against Mars — it’s been a brutal one — it’s good to get a win here.

“They played fantastic,” he added of his team. “I think it means a little bit more being at their park and winning here.”

The Vikings (14-4) dictated the pace of play for much of the contest, owning a 10-2 advantage in shots on goal and a 21-5 tally in overall shots.

“Hopewell played hard, they’re a good team and they moved the ball around well,” said Mars coach BlairGerlach. “They could possibly make some noise going forward.”

Hopewell earned twice as many corner kicks than Mars with six and two of them resulted in goals.

The Vikings struck first with just under nine minutes remaining in the first half when Abby Losco took a corner. The junior sent the ball sailing toward a crowd of players in front and Mars goalkeeper Sarah Dailey positioned herself nicely, but the ball deflected off her hands and found its way into the net.

“In practice she’s bent corner kicks in like that before,” said Martin of Losco. “She just put it there toward the near post and the bounce went the way that it did.”

Hopewell appeared to make it a 2-0 cushion after a cross from Stephanie Lias found Losco, who connected with a header into the net. However, a Viking on the far side of the play was whistled offsides.

Mars (15-2-2) trailed 1-0 at the midway point, but answered early in the second half.

Sabrina Edwards played the ball up to Kaitlyn McKenzie, who fed Tori Kopchak on the right side. The freshman fired a strong shot past Hopewell keeper Emilie Hovanec for an equalizer with 33:08 to go.

The match remained deadlocked until a corner kick was grounded in front of the net and ricocheted amongst a few players before Shawgo buried it for the game-winning goal.

“It’s not really what we practice, but I’ll take it,” said Martin with a laugh. “Ugly goals count just as much as the pretty ones. We’ve had our share of pretty goals this year. It’s nice to punch in some ugly ones.”

Dailey made eight saves to keep Mars in the game, while Hovanec finished with one save for Hopewell.

Mars standout senior midfielder/forward Amber Fichter had to sit out the game after receiving two yellow cards in the regular-season finale. The Planets, who received a bye into the quarterfinals as the No. 1 seed, had already lost seniors Karli Paracca, Lydia Dennis, Olivia Haefner and Maggie Sarver to season-ending knee injuries.

“We had four seniors out with ACL tears and one out serving a suspension,” said Gerlach. “We played without five players, four of those definitely start and two of the seniors that were out accounted for 70 goals last year.

“For us to still be a one seed is a (heck) of an accomplishment in the regular season,” he added. “It says a lot about our youngsters coming up.”

Hopewell was fully equipped, although Gerlach wasn’t sure that should have been the case.

“They had a player get two yellow cards in their last game when they played Knoch (in the first round) and they didn’t sit her. They played her,” he said. “It’s one of those things that the official made a mistake in that game and wrote down the wrong number and everybody in the world knows that they had a girl that should have been sitting out and she was a big part of their team tonight, but it is what it is.

“It changes things, but here’s the deal: They outplayed us tonight. They worked hard. They did a lot of the right things and the most important thing in the playoffs — they did enough.”

Wednesday’s upset marked the final game for a Mars senior group that helped post a combined 84-5-4 record over the past four seasons, won three WPIAL titles and claimed a PIAA crown in 2011.

“They’re the best class we’ve ever had here,” said Gerlach. “The success that they’ve had is ridiculous. ... That’s a career.

“I can’t ask for anything different from these girls. They work their socks off. They’re a great group of kids,” he added. “I just wish the senior class could have been intact to see this last thing through because we wanted to be that first team to win four WPIALs in a row.”