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Lady Lions soccer learning from losing openers

By Michael Boytim 5 min read

The last three seasons, a very talented group of now-senior Altoona Area High School girls soccer players have traveled to Pittsburgh to open their varsity season against Seneca Valley and North Allegheny.

The results haven't been great as far as wins and losses.

Altoona is 0-5-1 in those six games, including a 9-2 loss to Seneca Valley and 3-0 setback to North Allegheny this season.

Though it doesn't help the Lady Lions in the win-loss column, it certainly makes them better.

"They are very important," Altoona coach Marc Frye said. "I told the girls that all our flaws would be exposed in those first two games. What they expose is our speed of play. It's a rough start to start that way against some of the higher-end competition, but it lets us know exactly where we need to be, so it's a blessing in disguise."

Wednesday night, Altoona was struggling with some of those same issues in the first half of its game against Central Mountain at Mansion Park, and the Lady Wildcats led by a goal midway through.

But the Lady Lions took what they learned in taking a couple losses early in the season to make sure the result was different and dominated the second half in a 5-1 victory.

"Speed of play and playing simple," Coach Frye said. "In the first half, we played very narrow and didn't use the width of the field. We let them play a very simple game where it was just kicking forward. In the second half, we came out and found square balls and got wide. That was the difference. It opened up the field for everybody."

Since losing those first two games, Altoona has beaten Somerset and Central Mountain to even its record at 2-2.

"They are both really good teams," said Altoona senior Ava Frye. "We use those as a base to see what we need to work on for the rest of the year so that we're ready to play those types of teams in the playoffs. They humble us and make us ready to see the competition that we're going to face the rest of the season. We have a really tough schedule, and it helps us to start off strong so that we know what we have to work on to get even better."

Frye couldn't have been much better in the second half of Wednesday's game.

She had a hat trick and also assisted on a goal by Morgan Irwin.

"She's a hard working girl that never stops," Coach Frye said. "You can see the motor that she has. She leads the team in many ways, not just in goals and assists. I'm very proud of her."

Ajaycia Alexander, along with Frye and Haylee Rodriguez, is a returning first-team Altoona Mirror all-star from last season, and she also added a goal on Wednesday.

"It helps a lot, returning so many players from last year, because we're all super close," Alexander said. "We all get along great. We play better, because we're all so close. We have to work on first touch, ball work and connecting passes together, but I think we'll be fine."

Central Mountain got a goal from Adriana Serafini less than four minutes into the game, and Altoona could not convert on several scoring looks the rest of the first half.

The second half was a different story.

"We were fired up," Ava Frye said. "We were so ready to come out in that second half. We showed up. We took it to them and won this game."

Frye scored her first goal just 2:45 into the second half and assisted on Irwin's go-ahead goal about 45 seconds later.

Alexander put Altoona ahead 3-1, and Frye converted a penalty kick and knocked in a free kick to set the final score.

"Our four captains are very skilled and help the other four girls along," Coach Frye said. "Returning what we returned from last year -- we're very thrilled to have that kind of depth in the senior class."

If Altoona reaches its goal of winning another District 6 Class 6A championship, it knows that it may see another of those Pittsburgh teams at the end of the season, and the goal is to keep working on those flaws until they become equals with any type of competition.

"It's where we want to be," Coach Frye said. "They are very deep and very skilled teams. That's where we need to get to, and that's where we need to strive to be."

SCORE BY HALVES

Central Mountain 1 0 — 1

Altoona 0 5 — 5

First Half: CM--Serafini (unassisted), 36:47.

Second Half: A--Frye (unassisted), 38:15; A--Irwin (Frye), 37:24; A--Alexander (unassisted), 26:42; A--Frye (penalty kick), 26:14; A--Frye (free kick), 24:03.

Records: Central Mountain (1-1-1); Altoona (2-2-0).

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