Fox Chapel’s Nate Lazzara caps high school career with all-state, all-WPIAL recognition

By: Greg Macafee
Saturday, November 21, 2020 | 11:01 AM

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Throughout the 2020 high school soccer season, the Fox Chapel boys soccer team had a player to rely on when a goal was desperately needed.

Senior forward Nate Lazzara fit that role perfectly for the Foxes, who finished 11-4 and fell just short against No. 1 Peters Township, 2-1, in the WPIAL Class 4A semifinals on Nov. 4. Just like he did throughout the season, Lazzara put the Foxes on the board with a free kick 14 minutes into the game.

But the Indians came storming back and ended the Foxes’ championship aspirations with a goal in the final seconds of overtime. While it brought an end to the season for the Foxes, Lazzara said he was happy he was able to have one last go at it with friends he’s been playing with since he was young.

“It was super fun, and it was nice to see a bunch of my buddies succeed,” Lazzara said. “It was nice to see all of us succeed as a team, and we were getting great support from the community and our parents. It was just a great season and to do it with those guys, watching us grow up and get better as players, it was just really fun and something I won’t forget for a while.”

Although he didn’t come away with WPIAL gold, the senior forward, who also was a captain, finished his high school career by being named to the Class 4A All-WPIAL and the all-state teams.

Lazzara was named All-WPIAL alongside two teammates — senior Jack Nury and junior Ashton Schutzman. He was the only Fox Chapel player to be named all-state.

“Getting all-state and All-WPIAL is definitely a dream come true,” Lazzara said. “It’s fun to get recognized like that, and it’s super rewarding to get appreciated like that.”

Throughout his high school career, Lazzara has played an important role for the Foxes as he provided them with a talented scoring presence up top, who could beat defenders with skill as well as with speed and strength. But he never played a more important role than he did this year.

In the past, with other upperclassmen involved, Lazzara wasn’t depended on as much as he was this year when it came to putting the ball into the back of the net. But when the Foxes needed him the most, he delivered.

“I definitely knew that there were some big shoes to fill after losing seniors last year,” Lazzara said. “We just had a great senior class last year, and they did a great job. It was tough to repeat, but I feel our senior class was capable of stepping up and we did step up, and I think we did a great job filling those shoes.”

Lazzara plans to continue his career at the University of Rochester. With plans to pursue a degree in engineering, Lazzara said his choice just came down to a combination of everything.

“I had a lot of meetings with a lot of different coaches and Coach (Chris) Apple and Coach (Brady) Larkin, were just super welcoming and super nice to me,” Lazzara said. “It just seemed like the right fit, not only academic-wise, but soccer-wise too because I definitely wanted a balance of both.”

Greg Macafee is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Greg by email at gmacafee@triblive.com or via Twitter .

Tags: Fox Chapel