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Friday, November 1, 2024 | 5:55 PM
Fox Chapel’s Emily McKee works past Plum’s Catie Weiss during their WPIAL Class 3A semifinal on Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2024, at Martorelli Stadium in Ross.
Fox Chapel’s Maddie Grimsley celebrates with teammates after scoring against Plum during their WPIAL Class 3A semifinal on Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2024, at Martorelli Stadium in Ross.
Fox Chapel’s Alyssa Quackenbush hugs Maddie Grimsley after scoring against Plum during their WPIAL Class 3A semifinal on Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2024, at Martorelli Stadium in Ross.
When the Fox Chapel and South Fayette girls soccer teams meet for the WPIAL Class 3A championship Saturday afternoon at Highmark Stadium, a back-to-back champion is guaranteed to be crowned.
The Foxes (18-2-1) made a magical run last year as the No. 6 seed in the Class 4A bracket and defeated No. 1 North Allegheny for the team’s first WPIAL crown since 1985.
The Lions (18-3) bested the Class 3A field in 2023 to win the program’s first WPIAL championship.
The top two seeds in this year’s Class 3A tournament survived their first three playoff tests. Now they will do battle for gold at 3:30 p.m.
“The girls are super excited,” Fox Chapel coach Carlo Prati said. “I think last year was an unbelievable run having to go on the road to beat the No. 3 seed, the No. 2 seed and then the No. 1 seed at Highmark. We knew that everyone knew how good we could be coming into this year, so we were going to have a target on our backs all season.
“But not once have the girls been nervous about it. They’ve just played their game. They never thought about being ranked here or there or what seed we were for the playoffs. They’ve just gone out and played and performed each night.”
Fox Chapel advanced to the WPIAL title game with a 3-0 victory over No. 4 Plum on Tuesday.
South Fayette and No. 6 Mars went to a penalty-kick shootout before the Lions outlasted the Planets, 4-1, to earn the right to defend their championship.
“The girls are pretty excited to be back at Highmark. It took a lot of hard work throughout the season,” South Fayette coach Nicholas Rosser said. “We knew it wasn’t going to be easy to get back as a lot of teams were looking to knock us off. But the girls believed they could do it. They’ve really wanted this chance to win it again.”
Fox Chapel and South Fayette met in the regular season finale Oct. 16, with the Lions coming out on top 2-1. With the postseason looming and the playoff seeds already determined, both teams rested some of their players.
“It was good to see them on the field because we had never played them before,” Prati said. “They are really fast and really well-coached. We had a feeling that we would meet them in the playoffs at some point.”
Added Rosser: “We did get an idea of what we both can do. They are a pretty impressive team to watch play. They have so much talent up top, through the midfield and in the back. They move the ball really well. It’s going to be a real battle on the field (Saturday).”
Fox Chapel has been dominant in the playoffs, outscoring its three playoff opponents — Indiana, Montour and Plum — by a combined 18-1.
“The girls have been super focused since the start of the playoffs,” Prati said. “They knew they had to step up and be accountable for each other.”
Sophomore Emily McKee and senior Maddie Grimsley tallied first-half goals for Foxes in Tuesday’s win, and senior Alyssa Quackenbush scored in the second half. The defense limited the normally potent Plum attack to just three shots overall and none on goal.
“Our defenders have just been lights out, (junior) Cassie Classen, (senior) Mya Dipasquale, (sophomore) Caylie Wilkinson and (senior) Bella (Urso),” Prati said.
“They’ve been so good working as a team back there. They know how each other plays. Mya’s usually a left back, but losing Anna Troutman to graduation after last year, Mya’s really stepped up into that center back role and has been so good.”
The Foxes’ only other loss in the regular season came against Class 4A No. 1 Peters Township on Oct. 14, and they tied Class 4A No. 2 Seneca Valley, 2-2, on Sept. 19.
The Indians and Raiders met for the Class 4A title Friday evening at Highmark.
South Fayette’s path to the WPIAL title game featured a 4-0 win over No. 15 Kiski Area, a 1-0 overtime triumph over Bethel Park and Tuesday’s shootout victory over Mars.
Freshman Gabby Beinecke, the team’s leading scorer with 26 goals to go with 14 assists, scored the overtime winner against the Black Hawks in the quarterfinals on an assist from sophomore Abbey Spalla.
The semifinal triumph over the Planets was the Lions’ 13th win in a row. Spalla, Beinecke and juniors Quinn Miller and Mia Deramo scored in the shootout.
Senior Emily Sinton is second on the team with 19 goals, and she also owns 14 assists. Deramo has tallied 14 goals and a team-best 16 assists.
South Fayette also downed Mars in a semifinal shootout last year.
“It was a battle the whole way,” Rosser said of Tuesday’s victory. “We knew going in that it was going to be similar as last year. We just didn’t know it was going to be the exact same way as last year with the shootout. With the PKs, that is something we work on every day at the end of practice. The girls are really focused on that knowing that could come into play when we face these tough teams.”
Michael Love is a TribLive reporter covering sports in the Alle-Kiski Valley and the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh. A Clearfield native and a graduate of Westminster (Pa.), he joined the Trib in 2002 after spending five years at the Clearfield Progress. He can be reached at mlove@triblive.com.
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