What to watch: Can Seneca Valley boys soccer improve on early WPIAL mark? Butler girls volleyball faces test
JACKSON TWP — George Williams and his Seneca Valley boys soccer coaching staff stress “the first five,” typically in minutes — at the beginning of a match, the outset of the second half and after netting a goal.
The Raiders (9-1, 4-1) did pretty well during the initial half of their 10-game WPIAL Section 3-4A slate, too.
“Definitely not perfect — far from perfect — but we’ve put a lot of good things together that we’ve been working on,” Williams said. “It’s nice to see some of those start to become successful a little more consistency. ... We are actually happy with where we are at this point. Not satisfied, though.”
With a 1-0 win at North Hills on Thursday night, Seneca Valley improved to 4-1 in section play. The Raiders have won three in a row, including a 3-1 home win over North Allegheny last week. Seneca Valley scored early on in both halves against the Tigers, but allowed a goal right away after the marker in the latter.
“It helps, but whenever we get that one goal at the start, we can’t just give up,” SV senior forward Owen Eastgate said. “We’ve gotta just focus and play like it’s 0-0, and get those other goals.”
Composure in those sorts of spots will be a key going forward.
“If anybody plays this game — and I think it’s common for a lot of sports, too — after you score a goal, your team’s on a high, and sometimes there’s a natural tendency to have a lax in concentration for a little bit because, ‘Hey, we just scored! We’re great!’” Williams said.
At the beginning of a game, “sometimes one team is more ready than the other one, and you can get an advantage. Same thing (with) the beginning of the half,” Williams said. “Those are times where it’s important to really keep your concentration.”
The Raiders’ only section loss was in overtime, at the hands of Fox Chapel, which currently sits in the top of the standings with a 5-0 mark.
“Sometimes, you play a team like that that can put you under a little bit more pressure than you’re used to,” Williams said of Fox Chapel. “It can expose some things maybe you’re not quite as strong at and make you think, ‘OK, maybe I’m not as good as I thought I was.’ ... We can keep them in mind while we’re training and trying to get better.”
Junior forward Jacob Prex said he didn’t feel any drop-off in morale after the defeat. Eastgate admitted it bothered the team.
“We were kinda mad at ourselves,” Eastgate said. “We needed to ... connect better passes. In the Fox Chapel game, we were just kicking the ball. We just weren’t connecting as a team.”
Seneca Valley visits Butler on Tuesday as a primer for its rematch against the Foxes a week later.
“I just think we just have to play as a team and not give up on any plays and just keep going,” Eastgate said. “Even if we got the loss ... just focus on the next day.”
At the moment, the Golden Tornado (5-4, 1-3 in WPIAL Section 2-4A) are fourth in the standings, a match behind Pine-Richland. Only three teams from the section reach the postseason, which makes Tuesday’s matchup against the Rams (5-3, 2-2) a crucial one.
Tami Caraway’s Mars team had to get past Tom Phillips’ Yellowjackets to earn the WPIAL Section 2-3A crown a season ago. Freeport (6-2, 3-1) trails only the Planets (7-2, 4-0) in the standings.
The teams face off for the first of two regular-season clashes Tuesday. Mars has won 15 straight sets since its non-conference loss at North Catholic on Sept. 2.
