Oct 12, 2018 By The 2 min read

Callie Cunningham recorded a hat trick to lead Connellsville to a 9-2 Section 3-AAAA victory over Penn Hills on Thursday at Connellsville Stadium in girls’ soccer play.

Cunningham’s three tallies give her 29 for the season with two matches and the playoffs remaining. The Lady Falcons improved to 8-4 in section play and 11-4 overall, and after non-section matches on Tuesday at Gateway (4-7-2, 6-8-2) at 7:15 p.m. and Wednesday against Pine-Richland (8-3, 12-3) at home,

Connellsville will enter the WPIAL Class AAAA playoffs as the third-place team out of its section behind Norwin (11-0, 13-1) and Penn-Trafford (10-1, 12-3).

Cunningham started the scoring with an unassisted tally at 37:15 of the first half. She scored the second goal for the Lady Falcons at 29:10 of the first off an assist from Madison Shoemaker for a 2-0 lead.

Mary Kate Lape recorded an unassisted tally at 26:29 and Cunningham set up Nevaeh Hamborsky for her first of two goals at 23:39 of the first for a 4-0 Connellsville advantage.

Shoemaker set up Cunningham again at 21:50 of the first before Cayde Koballa scored on an unassisted tally at 15:16. Koballa netted her second at 9:57 remaining in the first half for a 7-0 lead. Shoemaker added the assist, her third. Haborsky closed the first-half scoring with an unassisted goal at 5:42.

The Lady Indians’ Maya Wolford scored both of her team’s goals in the second half to cut the deficit to 8-2. She connected on a free kick at 14:45 of the second and buried a penalty kick at 12:07.

Garrity Bungard set up Shoemaker for a goal with one second left in the match.

The Lady Falcons had a 22-2 edge in shots on goal. Penn Hills keeper Faith Petronio made 13 saves. Connellsville used Allison Zavatchan and Erin Przybylinski in net.

Lady Falcons head coach Jeff Puskar was able to get all of his players into the match in the second half.