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By John Hartsock
jhartsock@altoonamirror.com
PATTON -- The Cambria Heights High School girls soccer team enjoyed a landmark season this year, becoming the first soccer squad in its school's history to win a district championship
Heights posted a 15-3-2 record and won the District 6 Class 2A title as the tournament's second seed, shutting out fifth-seeded Huntingdon, 1-0 in the championship match last week.
The PIAA State tournament field most often brings with it a higher level of difficulty, as Heights found out in its first-ever foray there Tuesday night.
District 3 runner-up Trinity played a near flawless defensive game, and Heights managed only two shots that Trinity junior keeper Ashley Berkheimer actually was required to save, as the Lady Highlanders' brilliant season ended on their own field with a 3-0 loss in a first-round Class 2A state playoff matchup.
"They made it tough on us for sure tonight,'' Heights coach Nikki Spanik said of Trinity (16-5), which will advance to Saturday's quarterfinal round at a site and time to be determined against District 7 champion Quaker Valley, which was a 2-0 winner over Fort LeBoeuf Tuesday.
"I thought a couple of times that we were going to have an opportunity to score, but it was cut short,'' Spanik added.
Trinity played an excellent positional game all night long, as Heights didn't get off a shot that required a save by Berkheimer until Spanik's daughter, Emma, unleashed a free kick from the center of the field with less than six minutes left in the game.
Trinity had an excellent game plan for Tuesday's contest.
"We were focused on our defense, and I thought that we played a good, strong game,'' Trinity coach Terry Mull said. "Our girls came ready to play, and we knew what we had to do from watching film of their team. We saw that they didn't make a lot of connecting passes -- instead they like to kick the ball and run, and that's what we prepared for in this game.''
Trinity got the only goal that it needed at the 11:25 mark of the first half, when sophomore Bella Dupes got free on the left flank of the field and booted a short kick behind Heights senior keeper Maria Wendekier, who registered another strong effort in the cage with 12 saves.
Ahead 1-0 at halftime, Trinity got a big second goal when sophomore Maria Scherr booted home a cross assist from Dupes from in front of the cage just 1:46 into the second half to make it a 2-0 game.
"We need to finish those crosses, and we talked about that at halftime,'' Mull said. "We came out in the second half and put the shot in there.''
The way that Trinity was controlling the territory for 80 minutes, a two-goal lead seemed like 20.
Even so, Trinity tacked on a consolation goal when freshman Avery Walker scored with 4:51 left to set the 3-0 final.
The end of a season is never fun unless a team is celebrating a state championship, but Nikki Spanik and her squad had plenty to be proud of as this season came to a close.
Spanik started off as the school's junior high coach six years ago, and wrapped up her fifth season as varsity coach this fall. Five seniors - Spanik's daughter Emma, along with Wendekier, Hannah Hite, Haley Karlheim and Marrah Hilyer - wrapped up their scholastic soccer careers at Heights on Tuesday, and Nikki Spanik saluted them for a job well done.
"We started out with 18 girls on the junior high team six years ago, and these senior girls are the ones who stuck it out the whole way through,'' Spanik said. "It's been six wonderful years with them.
"Something that will always stick in my mind about the players we've had here is how well all of them treated each other as members of the team and the respect that they all showed toward their opponents,'' Spanik said. "It wasn't easy over all these years for these players to get to where they got this season, but we've all enjoyed the process.''
SCORE BY HALVES
Trinity 1 2--3
Cambria Heights 0 0--0
FIRST HALF
1, T--Dupes (unassisted), 11:25.
SECOND HALF
2, T--Scherr (Dupes), 1:46. 3, T--Walker (unassisted), 35:09.
Shots on goal: Trinity 26, Cambria Heights 8.
Saves: Berkheimer, T, 2; Wendekier, CH, 12.
Records: Trinity (16-5); Cambria Heights (15-3-2).