Boys soccer section play kicks off in Tuesday’s 3 things to watch in high school sports

By: HSSN Staff
Monday, September 3, 2018 | 9:33 PM

Eight times in 18 years the WPIAL has crowned either Peters Township or Upper St. Clair as boys soccer champs in its highest classification.

Tuesday, these South Hills neighbors meet for the first of two Section 2-4A matches at Upper St. Clair.

Peters Township has won five district crowns this century, with the latest being back-to-back WPIAL titles in 2013 and ‘14. Upper St. Clair has three championships, with the most recent coming in 2011.

The Indians won the section a year ago with a perfect 10-0 record and reached the WPIAL Class 4A finals where they lost to North Allegheny.

The Panthers finished in second place, a distant four games behind the Indians. USC fell in both regular season matches, 1-0 and 4-0. In fact, the Panthers haven’t beaten the Indians since September of 2015.

Peters Township, ranked No. 2 in the Trib HSSN rankings, come into the section opener with a 1-1 overall record while Upper St. Clair is 0-1.

Section opening consolation

Four years ago, Winchester Thurston shocked the boys soccer district by winning the WPIAL Class A championship. A year later, Seton LaSalle was back on top in Class A with the school’s third title in six years.

Now the top two teams in the Trib HSSN’s latest Class A rankings are set to square off in a nonsection match Tuesday.

Both teams are 0-1 after they each lost to Deer Lakes over the weekend.

Both the Bears and Rebels reached the Class A semifinals a year ago, but lost in the Final Four — Winchester Thurston to eventual champion North Catholic and Seton LaSalle to Springdale.

The two met in the WPIAL Class A consolation match where the Rebels blanked the Bears, 2-0, to earn a trip to the state playoffs.

Section serves up

Tuesday marks the opening of section play for most teams in WPIAL girls volleyball.

There are a couple of matches between district postseason teams from a year ago, including an interesting matchup in Section 1-3A in Monroeville.

Gateway hosts Armstrong. The Gators qualified for the playoffs a year ago in 3A while the River Hawks were a playoff team from 4A in 2017.

Armstrong is ranked No. 2 in the latest Trib HSSN 3A rankings after they reached the semifinals in the highest classification a year ago but dropped to 3A for the next two years.

Don Rebel is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Don at drebel@tribweb.com or via Twitter @TheDonRebel.

Tags: Armstrong, Gateway, Peters Township, Upper St. Clair, Winchester Thurston