Longwell’s 2 goals send Moon to final
In a rematch of WPIAL 3A final, Mars falls short
Hailey Longwell has scored her fair share of goals in her career.
But rarely has she found herself that wide open in the box with that much net to shoot at in a match with so much at stake.
And she knew exactly what to do.
Longwell dribbled a shot into the lower-right corner of the net past Planets goalkeeper Kate McEnroe 33:26 into the first half for the first of her two goals as Moon (230-0) pulled out a 2-0 victory over Mars (19-2-0) in the PIAA Class 3A semifinals at North Allegheny.
“It means a lot and I wouldn’t be out here and that wouldn’t have happened without my teammates,” Longwell said. “I’m just happy to play with them rather than be on the other end of it.”
Moon will now play Upper Perkiomen in the state championship match on Friday at 4 p.m. at Cumberland Valley’s Eagle View Middle School in Mechanicsburg. The Tigers are the reigning Class 4A champion and dropped down in classification this year.
“You have two really good teams and it could have gone either way,” Moon coach Bill Pfeiffer said. “It could have been 2-0 their way or 2-0 ours. We ended up finding the back of the net.”
Mars, which had an 80game unbeaten streak (78-02) snapped by Moon in the WPIAL Class 3A championship at Highmark Stadium on Nov. 5, had won the last three state championships and was seeking a fourth consecutive finals berth.
Mars played a large chunk of the first half without its top offensive threat, senior and Indiana recruit Piper Coffield, who was hampered by a right leg problem.
“She’s a trooper and probably had no business trying to push through that,” Mars coach Blair Gerlach said. “She’s been doing everything she can to get herself out there and it was good to see her out there.”
Both times the two teams played Mars was without one of its best players. In the WPIAL championship match, the Planets took the pitch without top defender Gwen Howell, a Richmond recruit, which moved Coffield into more of a defensive role in the midfield.
Even with both its top players on the field, Mars couldn’t contain Longwell.
On her first goal, Lillian Snyder flipped a pass that got her all alone in the box right in front of the Planets net from about seven yards out. She had all day to pick a corner and deposited it into the lower right of the net for the only goal the Tigers needed.
“The whole play kind of just stopped,” Longwell said. “I think a lot of people thought, I don’t know, the play was offsides. But we held the line well, got in behind, took advantage of the mistake and put it in the back of the net.”
McEnroe certainly reacted as though she thought the play was offsides. After the ball went into the net, she looked in askance at the referee, but they signaled the score counted and the Tigers had the only goal they needed.
Longwell added some insurance with 12:31 remaining when she took a crossing pass from the right side from freshman midfielder Kendall Dydek and popped it home to send the Tigers back to a state final.