Let’s geaux Beaux: Sophomore powers Seneca Valley past Peters Township in Class 4A finals
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Saturday, November 7, 2020 | 9:53 PM
Seneca Valley’s Beaux Lizewski celebrates his game-winning goal in double overtime with Zack LaValle during the WPIAL Class 4A championship game against Peters Twp. on Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020, at North Allegheny.
The Seneca Valley boys soccer team celebrates with the WPIAL Class 4A championship trophy after defeating Peters Twp., 4-3 in double overtime, on Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020, at North Allegheny.
Seneca Valley’s Beaux Lizewski celebrates his hat trick goal in double overtime to defeat Peters Twp. in the WPIAL Class 4A championship game on Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020, at North Allegheny.
Seneca Valley’s Beaux Lizewski (17) celebrates his first goal with Caiden Oros (25) and Connor Schmidt during the WPIAL Class 4A championship game against Peters Twp. on Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020, at North Allegheny.
Seneca Valley’s Beaux Lizewski celebrates his game-winning goal in double overtime next to Peters Twp.’s Dominic Sambuco during the WPIAL Class 4A championship game on Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020, at North Allegheny.
Seneca Valley’s Jonathan Pruce heads the ball over Peters Twp.’s Mason Lewis during the WPIAL Class 4A championship game on Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020, at North Allegheny.
Peters Twp.’s Zach Gallagher heads the ball next to Seneca Valley’s Chase Thomas during the WPIAL Class 4A championship game on Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020, at North Allegheny.
Peters Twp.’s Andrew Massucci celebrates his goal during the first half of the WPIAL Class 4A championship game against Seneca Valley on Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020, at North Allegheny.
Peters Twp.’s Joseph Tomari (4) celebrates his goal with Luke Holmes during the first half of the WPIAL Class 4A championship game against Seneca Valley on Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020, at North Allegheny.
Seneca Valley’s Connor Schmidt moves the ball past Peters Twp.’s Aidan Martik during the WPIAL Class 4A championship game on Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020, at North Allegheny.
With just under five minutes to go in the second overtime of the Class 4A WPIAL championship match Saturday, Beaux Lizewski found the ball bouncing in the box in traffic.
The Seneca Valley sophomore chested the ball down, dribbled around the goalkeeper and calmly put it into the back of the net for the golden goal.
Lizewski’s 106th-minute goal was his third of the match as Seneca Valley defeated Peters Township, 4-3, to claim district gold. It is the second WPIAL championship for the Raiders in the last three years.
“It was a mix between me and four defenders,” Lizewski said of his game winner. “It just happened to fall to me. I took it around the keeper and scored.”
Seneca Valley began the match with intense pressure in the opening 15 minutes. The Raiders were rewarded with the first Lizewski goal in the 13th minute. After winning a corner kick, Seneca Valley played it short before chipping the ball into the box. Lizewski’s header flew past the keeper for the early 1-0 lead for the Raiders.
Peters Township responded in a big way over the next 25 minutes. The Indians got the equalizer with a header of their own off of a set piece. Luke Holmes took a free kick from 40 yards out and found Joe Tornari for the head-in.
Three minutes later, Andrew Massucci got his fourth goal of the playoffs when he dribbled through three Seneca Valley defenders in the 18-yard-box and drilled a shot low and past the keeper. The 30th-minute goal gave Peters Township a 2-1 lead.
That score looked to stay going into halftime. However, with less than a minute left in the half, momentum for the Indians turned into a fortunate bounce. Another long free kick into the box for Peters Township found the head of a player. This time, though, it was the head of Seneca Valley’s Kyle Majeski, who unintentionally directed the ball past his own keeper for the own goal.
“I think we started playing much more of our style of soccer, which is up-pace and aggressive,” Peters Township coach Bob Dyer said. “I think that was the difference in the end of the first half.”
Seneca Valley turned up the pressure after halftime, dominating the first 15 minutes of the second half. Facing a two-goal deficit in the 50th minute, Lizewski sent a free kick into the box in direction of Nathan Eastgate. The Raiders’ leading scorer redirected the kick with the back of his neck and past Peters Township’s Derek Ligouri.
Four minutes later, Lizewski got his second goal off of a Jacob Bruno pass toward the top of the box. The pass split the defenders, and Lizewski beat Ligouri to the ball and chipped it into the open net to tie the match 3-3.
“We were losing a lot of individual battles in the first half,” Seneca Valley coach George Williams said. “We needed to turn that around, and we slowly were able to do that in the second half.”
Both teams had chances to win in regulation that barely missed. The best came in the 72nd minute when Massucci created space in the box and drilled a shot past the Seneca Valley keeper. The shot struck the right post and deflected back into the arms of Ryan Krumenacker for the save.
“Difference in the game, isn’t it?” Dyer joked. “We had opportunities to win the game. We just didn’t finish them. That’s just unfortunate.”
Seneca Valley’s Krumenacker, a sophomore, made five saves. Senior keeper Adam Davies had started in the quarterfinals and semifinals for the Raiders but was unavailable to play in the title match, giving Krumenacker his first minutes of postseason play.
Seneca Valley had the best opportunity in the first overtime with less than a minute to play. In a play similar to Lizewski’s second goal, a ball driven into the box deflected off of Ligouri’s hands. The Raiders chipped a shot over the goalie and towards an apparent empty net. Aiden Martik was there to keep the Indians alive. The defender made an acrobatic kick-save to bail out his team and hold the match at 3-3.
“You see that, and you think, ‘Oh no, is the way it’s going to go?’” Williams said. “But, like you tell your players, you turn around and work just as hard to try to make that happen again. And, man, did they do that.”
On the game-winning goal, three defenders stood at the goal line after Lizewski cleared Ligouri. This time, nobody was able to turn aside the shot, and the golden goal set off the shirtless Lizewski into a crazy celebration with the bench and student section.
It was the third trip into double-overtime for Peters Township (13-2-1) in as many playoff matches, but the magic finally ran out on the top-seeded Indians in the finals. The season ended one step short of the ultimate goal, but for Dyer and the seniors, it was a season to put Peters Township back on the map after a rare playoff miss a year ago.
“Last year, we were at an all time low for our program,” Dyer said. “We didn’t qualify for the playoffs for the first time in probably 25 years. And this senior class was able to lead us back to where we think is where we belong in the WPIAL finals. I thanked them, because it’s their leadership that put this program back to where it is.”
The season continues for Seneca Valley (14-1-1) in the PIAA tournament. The Raiders will take on either the District 6 or District 10 champions on Saturday in the state quarterfinals.
“Fortunately, we have a week to heal and to gather some information on who we can potentially play,” Williams said. “We have to play even better to win a state championship. It’s one game at a time, though.”
For Lizewski, the sophomore is glad to extend the season even longer for his fifteen senior teammates.
“We do it here for the seniors,” Lizewski said. “I still have two years. This is all for the seniors. They worked hard for all of this, and I’m just happy that they got to win the WPIAL championship.”
Tags: Peters Township, Seneca Valley
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