Moon caps off perfect season with state title
Upper Perkiomen had Moon shaking its head for most of the match.
There wasn’t much more the Tigers could do.
For more than 35 minutes, they had thrown everything they could at Indians goalkeeper Ava Long, yet they still trailed by a goal in the waning minutes of the PIAA Class 3A girls soccer final.
But after countless opportunities, so many balls that went off a post or the crossbar, Moon finally found way to get even. And after all that effort to tie it, the Tigers weren’t about to let a state championship get away.
Junior Sydney Felton slammed home a rebound past goalkeeper Ava Long with 9:31 remaining in regulation as Moon ( 24- 0- 0) capped off a perfect season with a 2-1 come-from-behind victory against District 1 champion Upper Perkiomen (23-1-1) at Eagle View Middle School in Mechanicsburg.
“I don’t think they wanted it to end like that,” Moon coach Bill Pfeiffer said. “We had never played from behind all year, but the pressure we put on them was something we talked about all year.”
It was the fifth state championship in school history and second in a row for Moon, following winning the Class 4A crown in 2021.
And, boy, did they work for it.
Upper Perkiomen junior midfielder Megan Cairns pulled off an amazing feat when she chipped a shot over the head of Moon goalkeeper Seraya Leech 5:28 into the match and gave the Indians a 1-0 lead.
It was only the third goal Moon allowed all season and the team had neither given up the opening goal nor trailed the entire season. The Tigers only other goals against came in a 3-1 win against Butler on Sept. 10 and a 4-1 victory against Plum in the state quarterfinals.
“I think we came out a little flat,” Pfeiffer said. “We came out here (in the) morning, it was quick turnaround and I thought the first goal woke us up.”
With the one-goal lead, Upper Perkiomen slammed the door defensively. Moon spent almost the entire final 15 minutes of the first half and the first 20 minutes of the second in the attacking third but could not get one past Long.
“We talked about the flanks. I think it was the best game we played all year and the difference was the outside flank players,” Pfeiffer said. “I ride those kids hard, but Skylar Leseck, Tessa Rohma and Kendall Dydek played their best game of the year.”
Undaunted, Moon increased the pressure, sending 10 of its all players into the attacking half of the field to keep the ball on the Upper Perkiomen side of the field.
Their persistence finally paid off with 7:05 remaining in regulation when Duquesne recruit Hailey Longwell, who scored both goals in a 2-0 victory against Mars in the semifinals, took a pass from Marina Mollica on a direct free kick and redirected it past Long to tie the match.
Moon kept up the pressure and got the match-winner when Longwell flipped a pass to her left for Kayla
Lescek, who got a lot on a header that handcuffed Long. But the ball popped loose for Felton, who put it home from point- blank range.
Class 1A girls
Loren Gehret has made a living out of breaking the hearts of WPIAL teams in the state finals.
Gehret, the Southern Columbia senior and Monmouth recruit, scored her second of the match with 5:18 remaining in the first half to give the Tigers a 2-1 lead they didn’t relinquish and helped lock up the school’s third consecutive state championship. Southern Columbia also defeated Freedom in the 2018 final.
Gehret, who had a natural hat trick as part of her fourgoal outing, either scored or assisted on each of the 11 goals Southern Columbia scored in its three title matches, with eight goals and three assists.
Freedom junior Shaye Bailey, who has been lightsout throughout the postseason, notched her 50th goal of the season and 21st of the playoffs with 19 minutes remaining in the first half to give the Bulldogs a 2-1 lead that lasted 9:41.
Southern Columbia tied the match on a somewhat controversial play. Gehret drilled a direct free kick off the bottom of the crossbar. The ball bounced straight down and came back out into the field of play and appeared to be covered at the side of the net by Freedom goalkeeper Trinity Votjko. But the official ruled the ball had crossed the line when it initially came off the crossbar and counted the goal with 9:19 left in the first half.
Gehret scored her sixth career state championship goal 4:01 later as she ripped a shot that beat Votjko to the right post from 30 yards. Gehret tacked on her third 26 seconds into the second half, but Bailey cut it back to one with her second of the match with 18:15 remaining. Gehret, however, answered with her fourth of the match on a breakaway with 7:46 left to put it away.
Class 1A boys
Senior forward Trey Sheeler scored his second goal of the match 1:24 into the second overtime to give the Moravian Academy the 2-1 win against Winchester Thurston and the Lions their third state title and their second at the expense of the defending champion Bears.
Moravian Academy, the District 11 champion, also defeated Winchester Thurston (19-3-1) in the 2019 state championship match. The Lions went to overtime or penalty kicks in three of their four state playoff matches.
Sheeler opened the scoring at 7:52 of the first half when he went on a run from midfield, cut to the left and snapped a left-footed shot past Winchester Thurston junior goalkeeper Adrian Musekamp, just inside the far-right post.
That was how it stayed until Winchester Thurston senior Alex Hauskrecht — who had an assist on the Bears only goal in their 4-1 loss to the Lions in 2019— took a pass from Oliver Daboo and, in almost a carbon copy of Sheeler’s opening tally, snuck it inside the right post to tie it at 7:13 of the second half.