South Fayette stuns Hampton to complete surprise playoff run with WPIAL Class 3A title

By: Adam Lindner
Saturday, November 4, 2023 | 6:33 PM

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A dominant force throughout the regular season, the Hampton boys soccer team entered the WPIAL Class 3A championship game hoping for more of the same.

Undefeated against 3A competition and having outscored its opponents by a combined 72 goals this season, the No. 2 Talbots took to the Highmark Stadium turf on Saturday afternoon as heavy favorites.

Eighth-seeded South Fayette couldn’t have cared less.

Led by a Luke Gillen hat trick and a stifling defensive effort, South Fayette imposed its will on the Talbots for the majority of the game en route to a 4-2 victory. The Lions led 4-0 before a furious late surge from Hampton cut the deficit in half, but it was too little, too late.

“Hats off to South Fayette boys,” Hampton coach Matt McAwley said. “They played a fantastic game. They were able to put balls in the net fairly early on and make us chase the game the entire time.”

James Casillo opened the scoring for South Fayette six minutes into the match, heading a beautiful cross from Adam Thompson past keeper Gavin Guinn. Gillen scored the first of his three goals minutes later, giving the Lions an early cushion they’d never relinquish.

Guinn, in an attempt to smother Gillen’s chance, slipped on the turf and appeared to knock his shin against the goalpost. He was replaced by backup keeper Landen Bierker.

McAwley said the team doesn’t anticipate that Guinn’s injury is significant and will monitor it on a day-by-day basis as the Talbots begin to shift their focus to their PIAA opener on Tuesday.

Gillen netted another goal at the 22-minute mark, rocketing a juicy rebound opportunity past Bierker. The Lions took a 3-0 lead into the halftime break.

“We wanted to build out with five today,” South Fayette coach Rob Eldridge said. “We wanted to bring Thompson deep between our two halfbacks and try to open up the midfield a little bit to help us transition. Hampton came out with a low pressure. They didn’t press us very high, and it gave us a little time to … get our bearings in the field, allowing our guys to get in dangerous positions.

“Tribute to my guys for finishing off their runs in the box and being goal-oriented and finishers.”

The title is the 19th in South Fayette program history — a WPIAL record — but it’s only the Lions’ second since 1958, and their first since 2015.

“We honor the legacy. Those wins were over the World War II period,” Eldridge said. “Those are young men that had different lives than these kids have today. We talked about that at the beginning of the game, that — how are we gonna be able to test our will like those men did in the late ‘30s and the ‘40s, when this country was in a world war? We respected that, and I wouldn’t say we’re very connected to that, but we try to pay tribute to the history and the guys were definitely aware of that.”

Gillen completed his hat trick at the 61-minute mark.

Hampton’s late-game pressure was noticeable, but the four-goal deficit was too steep to overcome for the Talbots.

Tags: Hampton, South Fayette