1 Is Enough
WEXFORD — Fox Chapel entered Newman Stadium having not given up a regulation goal yet this postseason.
In the 63rd minute of the teams' Class 4A girls soccer semifinal tilt on Monday night, Seneca Valley senior midfielder Natalie Matthews changed that, providing all that was required in the Raiders' 1-0 triumph.
SV advances to its second WPIAL final in four seasons.
Minutes before what turned out to be the match's lone marker, SV charged toward a lead pass deep in the Foxes' side of the field. As Fox Chapel's Carlie Barnett cut the chance off, the Raider attacker inadvertently collided with goalie Molly McNaughton, who would limp off of the pitch afterwards.
Her absence would prove to be crucial.
Not long after, Matthews lined up 22 yards away for a free kick. She'd lift it over Sydney Schutzman, a usual defender momentarily filling in for the starter, and into the net's top right corner.
“You couldn't have floated a better ball than (Matthews) did,” Fox Chapel coach Peter Torres said. “(SV) knew the situation. They saw us put a field player in. We don't have a backup goalkeeper.
“(I have) 100% confidence that (Schutzman) could've made any other save. But that ball, the way it dipped in over her head, it would've been a difficult player for any goalkeeper.”
“We wanted to get on goal,” Seneca Valley coach Mark Perry said. “Especially when their goalie wasn't in the game.”
The Raiders notched seven shots in the first half while allowing the Foxes none. Matthews had placed three corner kicks into the box, but only defender Olivia Kamarec could get a touch on one for a header shot just over 21 minutes in.
“I thought, in the first half, that we were nervous,” Perry said. “With the veteran team we have, we shouldn't have been. We wanted to attack and get a goal. No one's scored on them for, like, two weeks. We were pretty confident that, if we could get one, we had a good chance,”
The Foxes played conservatively with an organized defensive unit. They didn't commit many players to the attack.
“If I went in as a ninth seed, I'd probably do the same thing and try to be more defensive-minded and get one ball,” Perry said.
A little over five minutes after conceding the goal, Schutzman was back at her usual post. She almost leveled the contest with a header off of midfielder Makayla Mulholland's free kick. The ball deflected off of the crossbar of the football goalpost above Virginia Fronk, though. The SV goalie saved another header with less than six minutes to go.
“We just didn't get that one connecting header or any flighted ball in for one of our girls to finish off,” Torres said.
A usual starter at forward, SV junior Julia Lozowski wasn't able to play, having gotten hurt in the celebration that followed Zoe Simpson's game-tying score in the quarterfinals against Norwin. Perry hopes to have her back when the Raiders play next.
“It feels good to be going to Highmark,” Perry said. “When we lost to NA at home, we were 6-3-2. Now we've won ten in a row. We're playing our best right now.”
The Raiders play either Moon or Peters Township for the WPIAL title at 8 p.m. Thursday at Highmark Stadium.
