Sewickley sports roundup: Quaker Valley boys soccer advances

By: HSSN Staff
Friday, October 26, 2018 | 7:51 PM

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The WPIAL soccer playoffs got underway last week for teams from Quaker Valley and Sewickley Academy.

In the boys playoffs, Class AA No. 1 Quaker Valley earned a pair of victories.

After defeating Freeport in the opening round, 6-1, the Quakers earned a 4-1 victory over Mt. Pleasant.

Franky Fernandez scored twice, and Toma David and Dom Reiter added goals to lift the Quakers (17-3) to a WPIAL Class 2A quarterfinal win.

They were scheduled to play No. 4 Charleroi in the semifinals Monday, after deadline for this edition.

Sewickley Academy boys

Springdale junior Ephrain Duku picked a good time to score his first overtime goal.

With 6 minutes, 44 seconds left in the second overtime, Duku blasted a shot past Sewickley Academy goalkeeper Nick Wilson to give the Dynamos a 1-0 victory in a WPIAL Class A quarterfinals Thursday at Mars Athletic Complex.

No. 5 Sewickley Academy, which defeated Monessen, 5-2, in the first round, concluded its season at 13-5.

“I knew it was going to be a close game,” Panthers coach Nate Richter said. “Their goalie is phenomenal. He’s all-state, he’s all-world for a reason. Credit to them; they plugged away and got the winner in overtime.”

The Panthers got the better of play in second half as Richter made some adjustments at halftime.

“We just tweaked things a little bit with our chances,” Richter said. “We had a lot of chances, but that goalie’s amazing. Two of those saves he made were some of the best saves I’ve ever seen in my life.”

Quaker Valley girls

Ten years had elapsed since the Deer Lakes girls soccer team advanced to the WPIAL semifinals.

That decade-long drought ended last Wednesday night as the Lancers, the third seed in the Class AA tournament, topped Quaker Valley, 2-1, in a quarterfinal matchup at Lancers Stadium.

Grace Wirth scored for Quaker Valley (9-9) with 45 seconds left, but the Lancers defense held off a last-second push.

“We have a good group of girls who worked very hard all season,” Quaker Valley coach Jamie Birmingham said. “Deer Lakes is a very skilled team. That was probably one of the more physical matches I’ve seen this year, and I thought the refs did a good job letting it go.

“We were down several starters tonight, but a lot of the other girls stepped up and went toe-to-toe with a very good team.”

The missing starters included Quaker Valley’s leading scorer, senior Katherine Blaugrund, who was injured in last Saturday’s game with Brownsville, a 1-0 overtime win.

“But no excuses,” Birmingham said. “We had chances to tie it or win it, but it just didn’t go our way.”

Cross country

Quaker Valley junior Annie Wicker defended her Class AA title with a winning time of 19:18 at the WPIAL championships Thursday at Cal (Pa.).

Wicker was sixth overall as a freshman.

Field hockey

Sewickley Academy dropped a 6-0 decision to Ellis School in the first round of the WPIAL Class A playoffs last week.

Tags: Quaker Valley, Sewickley Academy