Larger text Larger text Smaller text Smaller text Print E-mail

Peters Township beats odds, Fox Chapel for championship

YourFoxChapel.com


More local news, discussion, events and more at YourFoxChapel.com


About the writer

JoAnne Klimovich Harrop can be reached via e-mail or at 412-320-7889.

Ways to get us

Subscribe to our publications

The Fox Chapel boys soccer team had a lofty national ranking, a perfect record and a lengthy shutout streak.

Peters Township has the gold.

The Peters Township Indians upset the Fox Chapel Foxes, 2-1, in a shootout. After the scored was tied 1-1 after four overtimes, Peters Township won the penalty-kick battle, 3-1. Senior Nick Cattaneo made the winning penalty kick to give Peters Township the WPIAL Class AAA championship match Wednesday at a packed Shaler Stadium.

Chris Wilcox and Rob Milani also made their penalty kicks. E.J. McCormick made Fox Chapel's sole penalty shot.

"I made sure it was a hard shot," said Cattaneo, the Indian's leading scorer. "I wanted to be in the position to win it for my team. I was picked to go fourth in penalty kicks, because I missed one the other night."

Cattaneo was dead on last night. After he watched his shot sail past Fox Chapel goalkeeper Ted Sheedy, Cattaneo realized what he and his teammates had just done. He smiled.

"Fox Chapel had everything to lose," Cattaneo said. "We weren't supposed to win, but we gave it everything we had."

Going into last night, Fox Chapel was ranked No. 2 in the nation by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America, had eight consecutive shutouts and was undefeated on the season.

But that didn't matter to Peters Township which was not as fluid as Fox Chapel in passing, but matched the Foxes in heart.

Fox Chapel (20-1) controlled the ball for most of the first half and a good part of the second half, but the Foxes did not get a solid shot on goal in the first half until right before the break when they got a goal by Steve Warden in the 39th minute, 47 seconds before the half .

Warden took a perfect pass from E.J. McCormick and drilled it past Peters Township goalkeeper Jordan Marks.

Peters Township (20-2-0) had several scoring opportunities in the 80 minutes of regulation. The player with the most scoring chances for the Indians was Cattaneo.

Peters Township was able to score its first goal on a Fox Chapel defense which had only allowed four goals in 20 games. Peters Township sophomore striker Chris Wilcox took a cross from Eric Floyd in the 61st minute to put the Indians on the board.

Fox Chapel was 3-2-1 in championship games going into last night.

Peters Township had a great chance in the 73rd minute when Cattaneo was in front of the net and ripped a shot which was cradled by a diving Fox Chapel goalkeeper Ted Sheedy.

Fox Chapel wanted a penalty kick when Warden was pulled down in the box with three minutes to play, but there was no call. With 45 seconds to play McCormick had a shot stopped by Brian Silfee sending the game into overtime.

Neither team could get much offense going in the first, 10-minute overtime. The next three extra sessions were even without much of an offensive surge sending the match into a shootout.

Fox Chapel coach Mark Perry said he wished the WPIAL would have named the teams co-champions and then had a shootout to determine the squads' positions for the upcoming PIAA playoffs.

"We did not get beat," Perry said. "They were just better than us in penalty kicks. Also, the PIAA championship medals are bigger than the WPIAL medals so that is what we are shooting for."

On Fox Chapel's third penalty shot by Ryan McDonald, Peters Township senior goalkeeper Jordan Marks moved early, giving McDonald another shot.

He missed.

"Every goalkeeper cheats," Marks said. "I just got called for it. This was such a great game. Fox Chapel is good. They had everything to lose. We knew we had to beat them."