Shady Side Academy pulls off big upset

Tri-State Sports & News Service

Coming into the season, a No. 1 or 2 seed had been eliminated in the first round of the WPIAL boys soccer playoffs only once since 2008.

Last Saturday, that number grew to two.

Shady Side Academy, the No. 15 seed in Class 2A, pulled a stunner when it went to South Park and knocked off the No. 2-seeded Eagles, 5-2. The only other upset of that magnitude seeding-wise in the last decade came when No. 15 Quaker Valley beat No. 2 Mars in the 2014 Class 2A playoffs.

Shady Side Academy’s win was one of the highlights of the first round. The quarterfinals were played Wednesday and the semifinals are set for Saturday.

The South Park-Shady Side Academy game was interesting in that it wasn’t your typical 2 vs. 15 game. Shady Side Academy reached the WPIAL final last season and even beat South Park, 1-0, in the semifinals. However, South Park won its ninth consecutive section title this fall, while Shady Side Academy, with just three returning starters, finished fourth in its section.

“We thought we were in for a challenging game,” Shady Side Academy coach Ed Ellsworth said. “South Park is a fantastic program. To be quite frank, and I don’t mean any disrespect, but we are not concerned with what number is by anybody’s name. We know the talent we have in the room. We know our strengths and weaknesses. We know the areas where we continue to improve. We’re not motivated by some upset story. We’re focused on playing good soccer and trying to get back to where we got lost year.”

Shady Side Academy won despite blowing a twogoal lead. After South Park knotted the score, 2-2, Kenny Shergill scored the winning goal in the 65th minute. Shergill had missed most of the regular season after suffering a knee injury in the preseason. Max Farner scored twice to give him a team-leading 20 goals, and Wally Navid and Ben Ream also scored for the Indians.

Strong section

Teams from Class 4A Section 1 went 4 for 4 in the first round. North Allegheny, Seneca Valley, Butler and Pine-Richland all won their openers. Pine-Richland was the lowest-seeded team of the bunch, but the No. 13seeded Rams upset No. 4 Central Catholic, 2-1, in overtime.

The success of the Section 1 teams came as no surprise to Pine-Richland coach Jon Conner, who said he considers every section game to be a playoff game.

“We approach the entire season by just telling the players, ‘You have 10 playoff games to prepare you for the end of the season.’ This was just the 11th playoff game and that’s how we approached it,” Conner said.

Riverview

Sewickley Academy was the defending WPIAL Class 1A champion and had reached the PIAA final the past five seasons, but the No. 6-seeded Panthers saw their season end early in a 21 loss to No. 11 Riverview. Mike Komaniak scored the decisive goal with 1:33 left. It wasRiverview’s first playoff win since 2014.

“Well, we knew we had that talent all year,” said Riverview coach Mickey Namey. “We think we’re in a very tough section with North Catholic and Springdale. Competition is hard, even with Avonworth, and every game is a playoff atmosphere.”

Waynesburg

Class 2A Waynesburg tallied the wildest win of the first round when it outlasted Obama Academy, 6-5, in overtime. Obama went ahead, 4-2, with 16 minutes left, but Waynesburg rallied to tie it and both teams scored once more to force overtime. Gavin Benson then scored his fourth goal of the game and 25th of the season 2:30 into overtime to give the Raiders the victory.

“My gracious. It took about 10 years off my life. Definitely not how I would have written it, but people got their money’s worth,” Waynesburg coach Matt Blair said.