Seneca Valley Soccer Settles for State Silver After Loss to CBE

By: HSSN Staff
Saturday, November 21, 2015 | 9:26 PM

Five years ago, Central Bucks East lost 2-1 in an overtime heartbreaker to Landisville Hempfield in the PIAA AAA boys soccer title match. In their first championship appearance since then, the Patriots made sure history would not repeat itself. Austin Prime was great in primetime as he made eight saves en route to a 2-0 victory over the Seneca Valley Raiders Saturday night in Hershey.

Central Bucks East scored early as Brian Gilligan scored at 12:13 of the first half on an assist from Evan Vare.

Then with just over 13 minutes left in the first half, Vare connected on an unassisted goal to make it 2-0 Patriots at halftime.

Seneca Valley out shot Central Bucks East 8-7 but Prime made some big saves and got some help from his teammates as well. A Raiders shot midway through the second half got pass Prime but Patriots teammate Will Eisold was able to clear if from danger.

The victory was an historic one on several fronts for the District 1 champs. It capped off a perfect 26-0-0 season with the schools first ever boys state soccer championship. It also marked the final game for head coach Mike Gorni who had announced before this season that this would be his last one.

Even though Seneca Valley did not make the WPIAL finals and needed a consolation game win just to earn a spot in the PIAA postseason, the Raiders beat State College, WPIAL champ Canon-McMillan and Springfield-Delco by a combined score of 7-1 to make the title match at Hersheypark Stadium.

The Raiders season ends with a final mark of 20-3-1. The Seneca Valley loss also ends a three year run by WPIAL teams after Upper St. Clair won back-to-back PIAA Class AAA titles in 2012 and 2013 and Pters Township captured the golden crown in 2014.