Westmoreland County girls soccer notebook: Mt. Pleasant sharpens up with tough schedule

By: Bill Beckner Jr.
Tuesday, September 23, 2025 | 11:01 AM

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Mt. Pleasant is hoping this is the year it breaks through and wins a WPIAL championship.

The talent is in place for another playoff run, and another sharp-toothed schedule is preparing the Vikings (8-2-1) to play the best teams.

They will be nothing short of battle-tested come the postseason.

“It gets us ready for down the line,” Mt. Pleasant senior forward Morgan Gesinski said. “We know we need to play tougher teams to help us in the playoffs.”

Consider: Mt. Pleasant has played or will play five teams that have appeared in the Trib HSSN rankings.

Among their opponents are Burrell, South Park and Freeport in 2A and Penn-Trafford and Peters Township in 4A.

They also have Deer Lakes (2A) and Latrobe (4A) on the schedule.

The Vikings’ losses are to South Park (1-0) and Penn-Trafford (5-2). They tied Burrell (0-0).

FR ranked

Franklin Regional is the newest Westmoreland team to find its way into the Trib HSSN rankings.

The Panthers (8-2), who took a five-game winning streak into the week, were a game back of Plum in the Section 4-3A standings.

Plum (8-0), however, blanked the Panthers on Monday, 2-0, for a section sweep.

Norwin (7-2) remained No. 5 in Class 4A, while Mt. Pleasant (8-2-1) moved to No. 3 and Burrell (6-2-1) dropped to No. 5 in 2A.

State finals

The PIAA soccer championships moved from Hersheypark Stadium to Eagle View Middle School at Cumberland Valley in 2022.

But there will be a different site for the state finals this year. That is because Eagle View Middle School is undergoing renovations.

Mark Byers, the PIAA chief operating officer and director of soccer, said the league is looking for an alternative location.

A recommendation will be made at next month’s PIAA meeting.

A WPIAL official said the finals could be played somewhere near Mechanicsburg.

50 for Patterson

Hempfield senior Jiana Patterson reached a career milestone on her 17th birthday.

Patterson netted her team’s only goal in a 3-1 loss to Baldwin. It was the 50th goal of her career.

Patterson played her first two years at Greensburg Central Catholic.

Top games

Penn-Trafford at Latrobe is the top county game to watch Wednesday. Penn-Trafford is in second place, and Latrobe is third in Section 1-4A.

Penn-Trafford held off the Wildcats, 4-3, in the first meeting.

Other games in the area include Franklin Regional at Kiski Area and Greensburg Salem at Indiana in Section 4-3A, Belle Vernon at South Park in Section 1-2A and Yough at Deer Lakes in Section 4-2A.

Free kicks

There are only two undefeated, untied girls soccer teams in the WPIAL: South Park (11-0) and Plum (8-0). … Mt. Pleasant leads Westmoreland County teams with 52 goals. Latrobe is next with 40, followed by Yough (39), Penn-Trafford (36) and Norwin (35). … Burrell has allowed the fewest goals among county teams with five. Norwin has allowed six, Mt. Pleasant seven and Franklin Regional and Belle Vernon nine apiece.

Bill Beckner Jr. is a TribLive reporter covering local sports in Westmoreland County. He can be reached at bbeckner@triblive.com.

Tags: Franklin Regional, Hempfield, Latrobe, Mt. Pleasant, Norwin, Penn-Trafford