For the fourth straight year, Wyomissing will play for a district title.
The second-seeded Spartans defeated third-seeded Schuylkill Valley 3-2 in a District 3 Class 2A girls soccer semifinal on Tuesday night at Berks Catholic’s Forino Sports Complex.
“It means a lot,” Wyomissing sophomore Dulce Lytle said. “We all worked really hard for this.”
The three-time defending district champion Spartans (21-1-1) will face top-seeded Trinity (16-3) in the final at Cumberland Valley’s Eagle View Middle School in Mechanicsburg on Saturday at 11 a.m. The Shamrocks beat fourth-seeded Hamburg 3-0 in the other semifinal Tuesday.
“Our heads just have to be held high,” Lytle said about the title match. “We can’t think that we’re the best. We have to be underdogs.”
Wyomissing defeated Trinity 2-0 in last year’s final. The Shamrocks beat the Spartans 1-0 in double overtime to conclude the 2023 regular season.
“They are a good team,” Lytle said. “It’s going to be a really good game.”
On Tuesday night, senior captain Annie McCaffrey scored off an assist from Lytle early in the first half to give Wyomissing a 1-0 lead.
The Panthers (17-3-1) responded just over 10 minutes later when junior Addie Becht scored on a free kick from 35 yards to make it 1-1. Becht leads the county with 38 goals this season.
The Spartans regained the lead with just over two minutes to go in the half on a goal by Lytle off an assist from junior captain Sophia Zeppos.
“They always keep our heads up,” Lytle said about her teammates and coaches. “Once that one goal was scored (by Schuylkill Valley), everyone dropped their mentality, and it was just picked back up by our captains and our coach.”
Lytle extended Wyomissing’s lead to 3-1 midway through the second half, blasting a shot from 32 yards into the net. Lytle’s 22 goals this season rank fifth in Berks.
“I put my head up and I just ripped it,” Lytle said. “It went in.”
The Panthers, down 3-1, did not go away quietly. Freshman Bailey Pekuri scored on a shot from more than 30 yards to make it 3-2 with 10 minutes remaining. However, Schuylkill Valley was unable to find an equalizer.
“They never gave up,” Panthers coach Jason Bagenstose said. “We kept plugging away. We just couldn’t piece together quite enough to get an attack going, but part of that has to do with (the Spartans). They’re very sound defensively and in the midfield.”
Much like the regular season meeting in which the two teams played to a 2-2 tie, Tuesday night’s game was tightly contested. Wyomissing outshot the Panthers 10-9 and Spartans goalie Ellie Pat Benedict and Schuylkill Valley goalie Ava Kichline each made seven saves.
The Panthers will host Hamburg (15-5-1) in the District 3 Class 2A third-place game on Saturday at 3 p.m. The winner will advance to the state playoffs.
“The fact that we are duking it out with (the Spartans) after a couple years of not making playoffs, we’re getting close to where we need to be,” Bagenstose said. “I’m proud of my team’s effort.”
While the Spartans are headed back to the district final, they also clinched a berth in the PIAA playoffs Tuesday night. After not qualifying for the state playoffs from 2013-19, Wyomissing has advanced to the state playoffs in each of the last four years.
“Everyone knows we’ve been very fortunate to make it this far,” Lytle said. “The freshman coming up, they had shoes to fill. They filled them, and we’re going back at it.”
Source: Berkshire mont
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