Lady Raiders advance to WPIAL title match
Darnell Graham
Waynesburg Central’s Rhea Kijowski (22) gains control of the ball after Freeport’s Kaitlyn Ritter (20) loses her footing during Monday’s WPIAL Class AA girls semifinal match at Moon Area High School.
Darnell Graham
Waynesburg Central’s Jillian Kijowski (21) maintains possession of the ball as she is marked by Freeport’s Sidney Shemanski (22) during Monday’s WPIAL Class AA girls semifinal playoff match at Moon Area High School. The Lady Raiders play Freedom on Saturday at Highmark Stadium in the final at 11 a.m.
MOON — The Waynesburg Central girls soccer team made history Monday night, as the Lady Raiders avenged last year’s semifinal loss to Freeport and advanced to the WPIAL Class AA finals after a dominating 7-0 victory at Moon High School.
Waynesburg (18-1-0) earned its first-ever trip to the WPIAL finals and will face top-seeded Freedom, which defeated Yough, 3-0, on either Thursday, Friday or Saturday at Highmark Stadium.
The Lady Raiders also qualified for the PIAA playoffs for the first time with the WPIAL sending two teams to the state tournament.
“I did not anticipate us getting seven goals tonight,” Waynesburg coach Joe Kijowski said. “This was an unbelievable effort by our girls and I’m so, so proud of our team. I was expecting this to be maybe a 3-2 or 4-2 game. Freeport got the best of us last year, and I feel our girls were hungry for redemption. But, I didn’t think that redemption would translate to seven goals.”
The Lady Yellow Jackets (16-3-1) defeated Waynesburg last year in the semis, 3-1, but the Lady Raiders gained redemption with the rout on a rainy night.
Freshman Rhea Kijowski had a monster night on offense with four goals and two assists.
“We came out with a lot of intensity,” Rhea Kijowski said. “We were really pumped and ready for this one tonight. We came out with a lot of pressure and it was great to get those early goals. We are a much different team from last year and this was an awesome effort by our team.”
Senior Madison Clayton, who leads the WPIAL in goals with 54, dished out three assists.
“We were surprised as anybody that we got seven goals tonight,” Clayton said. “We all expected a close game, but we just clicked with our passes and our possession. They are a really good team. We watched the film from last year’s semifinals, but honestly this was a new year and we tried to focus on the things we could do to change in order to win.”
Rounding out the scoring for Waynesburg were sophomores Kaley Pell (two goals), Jillian Kijowski (two assists) and Kylie Sinn (a goal).
Pell gave the No. 3 seed an early 1-0 lead at the 34:50 mark, with the assist going to Rhea Kijowski.
Freeport rallied with a furious attack on offense after the opening goal and had several scoring chances, but the veteran Waynesburg defense was up to the task and held the No. 2 seed off the scoreboard.
Clayton assisted on the next two goals by Waynesburg, both off the foot of Rhea Kijowski. She scored at 18:11 and 6:21 for a 3-0 halftime lead.
Sinn extended the lead at 29:34 of the second half. The breakaway goal was assisted from Rhea Kijowski to make it 4-0.
“We have a lot of chemistry on this team,” Sinn said. “We feed off of that and that really carried us tonight against a good defense. We knew where we were going to be on offense and we didn’t even have to look up. We are not 11 individuals out there. We are one team with one mind. We work so well together and I thought our defense was very strong tonight.”
In a span of 30 seconds, the Lady Raiders extended their lead to 6-0 after goals by Pell and Rhea Kijowski. Rhea Kijowski, who now has 36 goals on the season, ended the scoring onslaught with a marker at the 2:07.
“Everyone had a hand in this win,” Rhea Kijowski said. “Our defense did a tremendous job of getting the ball to our mids and they did a good job of feeding the forwards. It was a total team effort. The weather didn’t even bother us and we were solely focused on the game.”
Freshman goaltender McKenzie Booth secured the win for the Lady Raiders with three saves to register her 12th shutout of the year.
“Freeport is a good team, and this is a huge confidence booster,” coach Kijowski said. “I still feel like we will play with the underdog role in the finals and we are going to be ready. I thought McKenzie and the defense were solid tonight. They didn’t allow anything to get through in the second half. She was in the right place at the right time. Communication was key on defense.”
Freeport’s senior keeper Jenna Manke took the loss, making two saves.
“I can’t even describe the feeling of making it to the finals,” Clayton said. “It’s not just my goal, it was the team’s goal to make it to the championships. Joe (Kijowski) told me in seventh grade that we would win a title my senior year. Since then, that is what drives me. I knew we could do it because this is a special group.”