Norwin clinches Section 3-AAAA title by beating rival Penn-Trafford

By: HSSN Staff
Monday, October 15, 2018 | 10:51 PM

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A year after the balance of power in a decades-long girls soccer rivalry shifted to Penn-Trafford, Norwin regained command.

The top-ranked Knights swept the regular-season series from Penn-Trafford and clinched the Section 3-AAAA title with a 4-1 victory Monday night at rain-soaked Knights Stadium in North Huntingdon.

It was the teams’ last game before the WPIAL playoffs begin. Norwin took a step closer to a potential No. 1 seed in the 12-team bracket.

Defending WPIAL champion Penn-Trafford could be in action as early as Saturday.

Sophomore Morgan Sigut had a goal and an assist for reigning PIAA champion Norwin (14-2, 12-0), which was coming off a 2-0 nonsection loss to North Allegheny on Friday.

“When that final buzzer rang, you heard the words coming out of the girls’ mouths,” Norwin coach Lauren Karcher said. “They said, ‘That’s what we needed to do.’ We played as a whole team, and everybody played their part. Nobody was selfish, and everybody stepped up and took it to the next level.”

Penn-Trafford (12-4, 10-2), which has 10 shutouts, allowed Norwin to score four goals in each game.

The series has seesawed over the years. Either Norwin or Penn-Trafford have won the title in the section they share every year since 2007.

Since 1997, Penn-Trafford has 10 titles, and Norwin has nine. They have three shared titles.

Norwin swept the series in 2015 and ’16 before the Warriors went 1-0-1 against the Knights last season, before beating them in the WPIAL final, 2-1, in overtime.

After a tight first half and even tighter opening minutes of the second half that saw the Warriors narrow the gap to a goal, Norwin added two late scores.

While the ball seemed to be trapped between the 25-yard lines for most of the first half, Norwin took advantage of the possessions it had in close.

Sigut managed to get a lightly struck shot past Warriors goalkeeper Megan Giesey. The slow grounder didn’t seem to have much on it, but Giesey could not get to it, and it was 1-0 in the 12th minute.

“Once we started playing to feet and working the ball around, she got a chance to take a shot,” Karcher said. “We were just glad to see it go in.”

Sigut took a bump on the head and left the game early for precautionary reasons.

After a number of collisions and speed-aided bumps in tight spaces — the result of normal physical play between the rivals — the Knights struck again just before halftime.

Freshman Paloma Swankler took a pass in front from sophomore Lacey Bernick, and when her shot was deflected, sophomore Katelyn Kauffman, a Pitt recruit, did the rest to make it 2-0 in the 40th minute.

“She flicked it, and I had no one on me so I just buried it,” Kauffman said. “I was able to clean it up and put it into the back of the net. We always talk about the first five minutes being so important. Getting that first goal was huge.”

Kauffman said the loss to North Allegheny was the result of a slow start, the opposite of what happened last night.

“Kate played on a whole new level today,” Karcher said. “She turned it up. We talk about taking it up an notch and giving it everyting you have. She played her best game tonight.”

Penn-Trafford, determined to slow down Norwin and limit what the Knights could do with their speed, would not go away.

After she was fouled — on a delayed call — Kiley Dugan put the Warriors on the board in the 48th minute with a free kick from 18 yards. The shot sailed over the head of Knights’ keeper Liz Waszkiewicz to make it 2-1.

An own goal by Penn-Trafford gave the Knights a 3-1 lead before a heavy shift in momentum led to another score in the 69th minute.

“We had some big breakdowns and that really hurt us tonight,” Penn-Trafford coach Jackie Bartko said. “Norwin played a great game. They have great team speed. We talked about getting creative in the final third (of the field) and we needed to do a better job of that.”

Swankler wrestled the ball from a defender inside the Warriors’ 20-yard line and rammed into Giesey, who came out to defend. With Giesey down, Swankler tapped in a short shot to extend the lead to 4-1.

Waszkiewicz made three saves for the Knights, while Giesey stopped eight shots on net.

Norwin outshot the Warriors, 16-5.

“It may have been nerves for us coming in here tonight,” Bartko said. “Our girls know we have a good team but we need to calm down and play our game.”

Bill Beckner is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Bill at bbeckner@tribweb.com or via Twitter @BillBeckner.

Tags: Norwin, Penn-Trafford