Franklin Regional, DiFalco eye title
Anthony DiFalco has petty much checked every box as a high school soccer player.
He has already won a pair of WPIAL Class 3A titles at Franklin Regional, he’s been an all-WPIAL and all-state selection and he’s being courted by a bevy of colleges.
“I’m going on visits right now and comparing some schools to one another,” DiFalco said. “But I’m not to the point yet where ready to commit.”
As the colleges are circling, DiFalco added another bullet point to his prep resume when he netted the 100th goal of his career on Sept. 29 in an 8-0 victory against Obama Academy.
He is the second player this season to reach 100 career goals, joining fellow 2020 all-state selection Eben McIntyre of Charleroi.
“I think it’s a great accomplishment and it’s a really tough thing to do when you’ve only got four years to play and you only have a certain number of games,” DiFalco said. “I think it’s up there with one of the best things I ever achieved in high school.”
DiFalco still has one more accomplishment he wants to get before he moves on to the next level ... he wants to win a state championship.
Franklin Regional has been to the state tournament twice previously during DiFalco’s tenure and, both times, lost in the semifinals to the eventual state champion. In 2018, the Panthers lost, 2-1, in a WPIAL finals rematch against West Allegheny and, in 2019, lost, 2-0, to District 3 champion Lower Dauphin.
“That’s probably the last thing I want to earn. It’s going to be hard, but it’s the one thing I want to get,” DiFalco said. “It would be incredible and I would love it, but it’s going to take a lot of work to get there this year.”
Bentworth
It didn’t look like Bentworth was going anywhere this season after it lost to Laurel Highlands early in the season.
Then again, the Mustangs turned out to have one of the better teams in Class 3A this year, so the Bearcats’ 5–0 loss in the Fayette County tournament wasn’t as detrimental as it initially appeared.
“They were actually really good. We used to play them every year in that tournament and I think this is one of their better teams,” Bentworth coach Gary Amos said. “They were a lot better than we were, but we pulled our goaltender and put some of the young kids in.”
It shouldn’t be all that surprising that Bentworth (11-11 coming into the week) would be one of the teams to watch as the season reaches its midpoint. The Bearcats only lost one starter from a team that gave fifth-seeded Springdale all it could handle in a 3-0 loss in the first round of the WPIAL Class 1A playoffs last year.
“I figured we’d be pretty decent, we have a few freshman that have come up that are starting for us, “Amos said. “That made a difference also.”
It wasn’t like the team needed a lot of help.
Bentworth returned an all-WPIAL goalkeeper in junior Landon Urcho, along with a pair of all-section junior forwards in Jerzy Timlin and Julian Hays.
But the strength of the team remains its defense as Urcho has done an outstanding job of keeping the net clear. He has already posted six shutouts, including a 0-0 tie against rival Seton LaSalle.
Still, the one thing the Bearcats haven’t done is beat the Rebels. Seton LaSalle has been a thorn in the team’s side for years and the two teams will meet Thursday, likely with the Section 4 title on the line.
Because of the earlier tie, the winner would likely get the higher seed in the playoffs. And getting Seton
LaSalle out of the team’s head will be a priority.
“I’ve been at Bentworth for 16 years and we have three section titles before they moved in. I’ve had some of my best teams and we always finish second to them,” Amos said. “We’ve never been able to get over that hump of beating them and it comes down to a mental thing.”
Title-deciding matchups
Mars was the defending WPIAL and PIAA Class 3A champion coming into the season, but there is a very real possibility the Planets, who came into the week 8-3-2 overall and 7-3-0 in Section 1, won’t even win their section this year.
Instead, it will likely be the winner of Thursday’s battle when Kiski Area (10-20, 9-1-0) visits Hampton (9-0-0, 9-0-0) in the second of their two meetings this season.
Hampton took the first meeting between the two, 30, on Sept, 18.
Sewickley Academy (9-10, 7-0-0) took one on the chin last week in a 2-0 loss against a Seton LaSalle team that came into this week riding a nine-game unbeaten streak and a six-match shutout string.
But the Panthers sights are set for Wednesday when they travel to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart (7-2-0, 6-1-0) for what could decide the Class 1A Section 1 title.
Sewickley Academy defeated OLSH, 3-2, in their first meeting on Sept. 23.