Oct 15, 2009 4 min read

WAYNESBURG – On a cold, bitter Wednesday night, Belle Vernon battled the weather and Waynesburg Central en route to a 3-0 Section 6-AAA girls soccer victory. With the win, Belle Vernon (13-2-2, 11-0-2) keeps its 13-match unbeaten streak alive and continues to dominate section foes, allowing only three goals in those 13 contests.

“Waynesburg always plays us tough, especially when they are at home,” Belle Vernon coach Paul Sasko said. “They have a good, young team, and we knew they were going to give us a game down here. We were ready to play and came out with a lot of fire tonight.”

Waynesburg Central (8-9, 6-7) couldn’t avenge an earlier 4-0 road loss to the Lady Leopards.

“I’m very proud of our girls and we could of very easily laid down tonight after that 1-0 loss to Connellsville on Monday,” Waynesburg Central coach Herb Thompson said. “They decided yesterday at practice that they wanted to come out and play a complete game against such a solid team in Belle Vernon.”

“We made a couple of mistakes in the second half, and they scored on both of them, but at the end of the day, we played a very hard game against a hard team.”

The Lady Raiders wrap up the 2009 campaign Monday at Albert Gallatin.

It will not only be their last game of the season, but it will also be the last time coach Thompson will roam the Waynesburg sidelines, as he is retiring following the game.

“We want to finished strong and we can’t take AG lightly,” Thompson said. “We don’t want to go through the motions. We want to play the game as hard as we can and dare them to keep up with us.”

Lady Leopards senior midfielder Marla Sasko rifled a shot from 25 feet out at 29:30 of the opening period to start the scoring.

In the second half, they added to their lead when senior midfielder Michelle Miele scored at 30:13.

Three minutes later, Belle Vernon pulled away with a goal by freshmen midfielder Lauren Kovalchuk for a 3-0 lead with 27 minutes left to play.

The Lady Leopards could have scored a lot more goals, but freshmen goalkeeper Julia Camps had another strong performance in net making several, sensational stops for 10 saves.

“We are very young and Julia is one of those freshmen that have made a huge impact this season,” Thompson said. “At the start of the season we were concern with her height and size in net, but she told us at the beginning of the year that she was hungry and eager to play. She’s not afraid out there and willing to risk her body to stop any shot. She lays it on the line every game, and you got to love that in a player.”

Senior Jessalyn Timko was in the Lady Leopards’ net in place of regular starter Lindsey Lash who sat out with a knee injury. Timko preserved the shutout – Belle Vernon’s 11th of the season, and was credited with two saves.

Stasko said, “Lindsey’s knee has been bothering her and she can’t play until next week. “Jessalyn is a senior, and she usually starts at a midfielder position, but we had her in net tonight and she did a wonderful job for us. She has gotten a couple of starts that last couple of games, and it’s a pretty good option to have a senior with that calm, experience as your back-up goalie.”

Before the Lady Leopards head into the playoffs, they finish regular season play at home against Yough on Monday at home.

“Heading into the playoffs, we just need to get healthy,” Sasko said. “We had a couple of girls who missed tonight’s game, and a couple of them played hurt. The speed of play is a lot faster in the playoffs, and we just need to prepare for that. Playing a good opponent in Waynesburg tonight will hopefully help us with that.”