A-K Valley girls soccer preview: Plum driven to add to impressive resume

By: Michael Love
Thursday, August 25, 2022 | 10:09 PM

The WPIAL girls soccer championship games will be back at Highmark Stadium for the second year in a row, and Plum hopes to again reserve a spot in the Class 3A game in early November.

Runners-up to Mars the past two seasons — 2020 at North Allegheny and last year at Highmark — the Mustangs hope to continue a three-year run of success that includes a 54-7-2 overall record, three straight section championships, a 34-game section win streak and a pair of PIAA tournament appearances, including last year’s run to the semifinals.

It would’ve been three straight state-playoff trips, but only the WPIAL champion advanced in 2020.

“Last season was an exciting and challenging ride throughout the entire season,” said Jamie Stewart, who enters his fourth season at the helm of the Mustangs. “I think the girls battled through adversity to continue to have success.”

Stewart said the team, led by senior Pitt commits Kaitlyn Killinger at forward and Kaley Simqu on defense, is ready to again defend all it has achieved.

“The girls are excited for the new section and another season,” said Stewart, who will guide is team into section battles against the likes of local foes Gateway, Franklin Regional, Penn-Trafford and Penn Hills after two years of battles at the top of the section against the likes of Oakland Catholic and Thomas Jefferson.

“They have put a lot of work in during the offseason to be mentally and physically ready for the upcoming season.”

All of the teams in the Alle-Kiski Valley are gearing up for the start of the regular season this weekend and next week.

Plum leads the A-K Valley with 10 consecutive berths in the WPIAL playoffs. Freeport has made it nine straight years, while Kiski Area is going for its seventh in a row. Burrell is next with six, and Deer Lakes and Springdale check in with five consecutive appearances.

The WPIAL playoffs are slated to begin Oct. 20. As is the norm, the top four teams and ties that can’t be broken in each section will enter the playoffs.

Springdale is the last A-K Valley girls soccer team to claim a WPIAL championship, having captured the Class AA crown in 2009, the final year of just two classifications.

The WPIAL went to three classes in 2010, adding a Class A division.

Springdale was in the mix last year, as a blend of talent from seniors to freshmen led the Dynamos to a Section 1-A co-championship with Greensburg Central Catholic and the WPIAL semifinals.

A 1-0 heartbreaker against eventual WPIAL champ Seton LaSalle in the semifinals ended Springdale’s shot at WPIAL gold. Then WPIAL power Freedom denied the Dynamos a spot in the PIAA playoffs.

“We have a lot of important players returning, and everyone is really excited and ready to do everything we can to go one step further this year and get to Highmark Stadium,” Springdale coach Marc Bentley said.

Offseason realignment placed Springdale in Section 1 with Seton LaSalle and Steel Valley, while GCC and perennial playoff contender Serra Catholic also loom in the section.

“It’s a really tough section with three of the four semifinalists from last year,” Bentley said. “Seton will be strong again, and Riverview has one of the best talents in the entire WPIAL in Lola Abraham, so there will be no easy games. We want to be challenged, though, and I’m confident in the ability of our group to rise to the challenge.”

Riverview is just two years removed from not having a team because of low numbers.

The Raiders came back last year with 14 games and went 4-10 overall and 4-8 in Section 1-A.

They hope to take that next step this year, and they are fueled by the goal-scoring prowess of Lola Abraham, an All-WPIAL junior striker who scored 43 times last year.

She tallied three goals in Riverview’s 5-3 scrimmage win over Valley on Wednesday. Riley Ulrich scored twice.

Apollo-Ridge tied Serra Catholic for third place in Section 1 last year behind GCC and Springdale. Led by a quartet of returning all-section performers, including Valley News Dispatch All-Star Paige Crawford, a sophomore forward who scored a team-best 17 goals in 2021, the Vikings are poised to return to the WPIAL playoffs.

A clerical error prevented Apollo-Ridge from taking part in the WPIAL playoffs in the previous two-year alignment cycle. But all of that is behind the Vikings, who will mix it up in Section 2-2A.

The section, with a distinct A-K Valley flair, features traditional and newer area matchups.

Shady Side Academy, which went 9-0-1 last year to claim the section crown, has moved to Section 4. Section runner-up in 2021, Deer Lakes, and playoff qualifiers Burrell and Freeport return, as does Valley and Highlands.

Knoch, led by All-WPIAL performer Macrina Robb, a sophomore forward, makes the move down from Class 3A.

Apollo-Ridge, Knoch, Kiski Area and Highlands saw change at the top in the offseason and are led by new head coaches.

Dave Anderson makes his varsity head coaching debut at Kiski Area. He is well known to Cavaliers soccer faithful as an assistant with the boys program.

“The transition was very smooth,” Anderson said. “I already knew a good portion of the team families and players from being around the school soccer programs as well as having a senior of my own. Some of the girls I had coached when they were younger. The girls have been nothing short of awesome. They accepted the whole coaching staff and got to work. I think teamwork, on and off the field, is a strength of this team. They have had each other’s backs and want to compete as a team. I am really proud of how they have come together.”

Sarah Bonelli Christopher takes over at Apollo-Ridge, her alma mater, from Matt Ross, who was the program’s head coach since its inception in 2015. Ross remains with the team as an assistant.

“I think every game in the section is going to be a pretty competitive battle,” Bonelli Christopher said. “They will be tough games, close games, and we’ll have to be ready every night.”

Matt Skoda, who coached the St. Joseph boys team for a decade, is Highlands’ third coach in as many seasons.

He inherits a Golden Rams team that hopes to turn around its fortunes of the past two years. Youth, low numbers and injuries helped conspire against Highlands, which went a combined 0-25 the past two years after a WPIAL playoff trip in 2019.

Carlo Prati is ready to make his mark as head coach at Fox Chapel after serving as a girls assistant the past four years under former head coach Peter Torres.

Since 2018, the Foxes are 37-28 with three WPIAL playoff appearances. Fox Chapel captured a section championship in 2020 and is coming off a trip to the WPIAL Class 4A semifinals last fall.

Players to watch

Lola Abraham, Jr., M/F, Riverview

Leah Brockett, Jr., F/M, Burrell

Paige Crawford, Soph, F, Apollo-Ridge

Grace Gent, Sr., F, Springdale

Kaitlyn Killinger, Sr., F, Plum

Makayla Mulholland, Sr., M, Fox Chapel

Aleah Parison, Sr., F, Freeport

Briana Ross, Soph., F, Springdale

Kaley Simqu, Sr., D, Plum

Macrina Robb, Jr., M, Knoch

Ava Weleski, Jr., M, Plum

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.