Plum boys soccer celebrates WPIAL championship anniversary

By: Michael Love
Saturday, October 11, 2025 | 11:01 AM

Two decades have passed since the Plum boys soccer program experienced one of its greatest seasons.

The 2005 Mustangs won 22 games and lost just twice.

Plum captured the WPIAL Class 3A title and made it all the way to the PIAA semifinals.

A sizeable group of players from that team gathered last Thursday at the current Plum team’s section matchup with rival Norwin at Mustangs Stadium to reminisce and be celebrated.

“It is super exciting for so many of the guys and the coaches to be together again,” said Michael Tardio, a senior on the 2005 team and a current Plum boys assistant coach.

“Me and my core group of senior best friends, we lived together in college, so I’ve always seen those guys. But there are a couple of guys, and we haven’t all been together with the coaches, both Rick and Jeff (Nese). I haven’t seen them often. It is great to see everyone. It is an awesome experience to see faces that you haven’t seen in a while and see all the faces at the same time. And the parents, for as much as it was an amazing time for us as players, it was that same special time for them to be together, as well.”

Joining Tardio and Rick and Jeff Nese at the on-field recognition ceremony were team members Evan Phillips, Shawn Westerlund, Kevin Hanlon, Matt Kraemer, Anthony Russo, Clayton Kubrick, Chris Yankowski, Paul Paradise, John Kraemer, Nick Russo, Jon Fisher, Brice Lott, Zack Matthews and Michael McDade.

“That season was a culmination of four years of us believing that we could do it,” Tardio said.

“It all kind of started with the seniors when we were freshmen. We established the work ethic that we needed over the summer. Every year, we would grind it out. By our sophomore year, most of us were starters or getting significant varsity time. We were just building that momentum.

“Our junior year was the first time we had beaten Fox Chapel twice in the regular season. We won the section. We just came up short in the (WPIAL) quarterfinals against Fox Chapel. That kind of motivated us over the summer to where we knew we were legit. We just had to put forth the effort.

“Over the summer, whether there were six of us, 10 of us, or whatever, we were up at the high school just practicing and playing. By the time the season rolled around, we knew we had a tight-knit group that could fire on all cylinders.”

Before all the success, there was a little bit of growth where the Mustangs started the championship season 1-1-1 in section play.

Plum regrouped and refocused and went on a 12-game winning streak to close the regular season with 55 goals scored against only five allowed to capture the section title for the second year in a row.

The WPIAL playoffs continued the run as the No. 2-seeded Mustangs beat Kiski Area, 5-1, and Seneca Valley, 6-2, to reach the semifinals.

An unlikely goal scorer came up big for Plum in its semifinal victory over Chartiers Valley.

Kubrick, a sophomore, had scored only two goals all season, but he found the back of the net in the first half. It was the game’s only goal, and it propelled Plum to the finals against top-seeded Peters Township.

The Mustangs scored first in the final as Paradise scored with about 10 minutes left until halftime off a throw-in from McDade.

Peters Township scored right before halftime, but Plum wouldn’t be denied.

Kubrick came up big again with his second consecutive game-winning goal, and Matthews, the goalkeeper and that season’s Valley News Dispatch Player of the Year, and the Mustangs defense kept the Indians off the board the rest of the game for the first WPIAL title in program history.

The run continued in the state playoffs with a 7-0 win over City League champion Schenley and a 3-2 triumph over Cathedral Prep that saw McDade net the game-winner on a free kick with 54 seconds left in regulation.

Plum fell to District 1’s West Chester Henderson, a team with several players who would go on to play Division I college soccer, 1-0 in the state semifinals at Shippensburg.

A controversial penalty-kick goal with 3:26 left was the difference.

Lott came close to tying the game, but his shot rang off the crossbar.

“It was just a great run,” Tardio said.

“It all came down to the hard work we put forth. We had star-studded firepower up top which scored a ton of goals for us, but defensively, we didn’t give up many goals. When we needed to lock it down, we did. It was truly one of the best times of all of our lives. It’s something we talk about a lot every time we are together. For me, these guys are my best friends. A couple of them were in my wedding.

“Being on the coaching staff now, we made our run to the (WPIAL) finals last year, I told those guys that there are moments in your lives when you graduate, you land your first job, you get married, you have kids. Those are all special singular moments. But when you win a WPIAL championship, that is a culmination of months of preparation and work that snowballs to something that’s so awesome. There aren’t many things in life that can truly replicate that feeling that you have.

”

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.

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