‘Lotz’ of goals lead Glads to first section win

South Allegheny’s Ella Lotz had a hat trick and Jaz Farnan had two goals and an assist in a 7-3 win over visiting Serra Catholic.

The South Allegheny girls soccer team managed its first Section 3-1A win of the season Monday evening in a 7-3 home win over Serra Catholic.

The catalyst for the Gladiators (3-5, 1-4) was Ella Lotz, who managed a hat trick and could have had a few assists as well. Her performance was praised by SA coach Kyle Griffin, who said that she’s consistently a difference maker for his team.

“Ella’s the heart and soul of our team,” he said. “She’s the one that’s always battling for us, and there’s a reason she’s one of our captains. She’s a great leader for our team and she always keeps us going.”

Jazlyn Farnan also had two goals and an assist for the Gladiators while Ronnie Acrie posted a goal and an assist. Aubrey Pacewicz added a goal as well.

On the other side, Isabella Dumbroski tallied two goals and Milena Poziviak added another along with an assist. Both goalkeepers, Serra Catholic’s Kelly Morrissey and South Allegheny’s Keelyn Hamilton, had strong performances with six saves.

“We just have small changes to make individually and as a whole,” Serra Catholic coach Tori Fedora said. “They won because of some small things that we need to address, so we just have to go through and fix those things.

“We have to be first to the ball and emphasize playing together with a passing, possession game.”

The Eagles (0-5, 0-4) got their first chance in under three minutes as Dumbroski was played through but had a shot saved by Hamilton. Serra Catholic wouldn’t be denied, though, and bagged a goal seconds later as Dumbroski played helper for Poziviak to open the scoring quickly.

South Allegheny replied immediately with a goal of their own as Acrie was able to latch onto a ball pinging around the Serra backline and turn it past Morrissey to quickly tie it at 1-1.

Lotz scored her first goal in the 13th minute when she played a great corner into the box that couldn’t be held out of the net by Morrissey.

However, the Gladiators only led for 16 seconds as Dumbroski got the ball off the Serra kickoff and eventually slotted one past Hamilton to make it 2-2.

Farnan started to work her way into the play at the end of the first half, but she started taking her chances in the second half.

After she was unable to score on two chances, she got a throw-in from Acrie and managed to make her move into the Serra Catholic box before scoring to make it 3-2.

A few minutes later, a tough ball came into the Eagles’ box and couldn’t be corralled by Morrissey, and Farnan reached it once again to dribble around her and slot it into an open net.

But again, Dumbroski had an instant reply and ripped a shot into the back of South Allegheny’s net just 40 seconds later.

That made the score 4-3 and ended the Serra Catholic scoring, but the Gladiators had more work to do offensively.

Lotz scored her second goal after getting a pass from Hamilton and dribbling around a few SC defenders before finding the back of the net.

Lotz added another goal before Pacewicz scored on a feed from Farnan to cap the scoring at 7-3 in favor of the Gladiators.

South Allegheny will search for another win Wednesday at Seton LaSalle. Serra Catholic will also play a section match against Carlynton.