Cougars upset after Rebels’ adjusments

“Hungrier” Seton LaSalle, the No. 12 seed, traveled to Charleroi and handed the No. 5 seed a 3-2 loss.

In a closely-matched matchup to open up the WPIAL Class 2A boys soccer playoffs, it was No. 12 Seton LaSalle that traveled to No. 5 Charleroi and returned with a 3-2 win.

“They had a great season,” Charleroi coach Tim Laskey said about his squad. “We got outplayed by an equal team.

They outplayed us, and they were hungrier than us. That’s what happened tonight, but I told them not to let it dictate what they accomplished throughout the season.”

The Rebels (13-4) finished third place in a stiff Section 3-2A and felt like playing against top opponents twice this season set them up well for postseason play.

“Our section is very good, there’s no doubt about that,” Seton LaSalle coach Nick Balzer said. “But their section is just as good as well. You come out and play a game, 80 minutes, whatever happens happens. Playing some section games against South Park and Elizabeth Forward, those can prepare you for a lot of things.”

Charleroi (14-2) opened the scoring as Dylan Klinger set up an Otis McIntyre goal and Blake Pendo scored the last goal of the match, but it was the Rebels that managed three goals in between that won them the match.

Seton LaSalle’s Tyler Kovalcik had a goal and an assist as Gavin McMahon and Darius Norkevicus also scored. Jack Lyons also picked up an assist in the match.

After 10 minutes of action, it was the Rebels that started to put some pressure on. They had the ball deep in the Charleroi box before goalkeeper Max Goodwin claimed it before they narrowly put a corner wide. Seton kept pushing, but it was soon Charleroi that would break through with the first goal of the match.

With 21:34 left in the first half, Klinger got the ball on the right wing with two defenders to beat and managed to do so, squaring a ball over to McIntyre who did the rest. He faked his shot initially and rolled it over to set himself up in point blank range, and he finished the chance to make it 1-0.

From there on, the Rebels came back and started to grab some momentum.

They had a shot saved a minute later, and a few more minutes passed before they opened their account to tie it.

There was 13:41 remaining in the first half when Lyons got on the ball and played a perfectly-timed through ball to Kovalcik, who got onto it and slotted a shot past Goodwin into the back of the net.

Things got chippy towards the end of the first half after a hard chal lenge from Norkevicus resulted in a yellow before Charleroi’s Ethan Hartley was given a yellow a few seconds later as tempers were flar ing.

In the meantime, Landon Barcus was robbed of what looked to be a certain goal by a great diving save by Brooks. His outstretched left hand rejected Barcus and allowed the Rebels to take the lead a few minutes later as Charleroi lost possession to Gavin McMahon, who launched a long shot over the head of Goodwin and into the back of the net to make it 2-1 heading into the halftime break.

The Cougars had a few chances to equalize early in the second half, but they went untaken as Brooks stood tall in goal. He made a strong save on Klinger and watched as Barcus fired an effort just over his net as well.

Eventually, it was the Rebels that were able to tally the next goal to make it 3-1 with 11:37 to play.

Kovalcik played Norkevicus on the left side of Charleroi’s box, and he was able to weave through traffic and fire home to put up the winning goal for Seton LaSalle.

Charleroi had its back against the wall from that point on, and the Cougars dominated possession as they sent numbers forward.

Pendo scored with five and a half minutes left as he beat a defender and had a long shot that slipped right through the hands of Brooks, but the home Cougars couldn’t manage a tying goal.

The Rebels will take on No. 13 Burrell (9-9) Thursday, which also came up with an upset win in penalty kicks over No. 4 Quaker Valley. The Bucs prevailed 5-3 on spot kicks to win a scoreless match.

As for the Cougars, they will have to turn their attention to next season as Gage Patterson, Barcus, Matt Burkholder, Nico Fiordigigli, John Herard and Emmanuel Deliscard will depart the program.

“I look forward to the opportunity to continue to grow as a program, and that’s what we worked on this year,” Laskey saud. “We’re not just building for this season, we’re building for future years, especially with the freshmen and everybody getting playing time. The focus is to continue to build every year, and hopefully we can pick up where we left off this year next year.”

Central Valley 4, Elizabeth Forward 2

The Warriors’ season came to an end with a 4-2 loss to visiting Central Valley Monday at Warriors Stadium.

Luca Valerio and Luke Holdren had goals for Elizabeth Forward (12-5-1).

Cam DeVincentis had a pair of goals for Central Valley (14-4-2). Teammates Owen Shearer and Jackson Super each had one.

No. 9 Central Valley will move on to face No. 1 South Park in the quarterfinals.