Oct 25, 2018 By Adam Brewer for The 3 min read

WAYNESBURG — Waynesburg Central’s girls soccer team has faced several challenges this season in defense of its WPIAL Class AA championship.

Several key players graduated from that squad and the Lady Raiders suffered some injuries to an already thin roster this fall.

A long battle with Avonworth wound up being their final challenge of the season.

Eighty minutes of regulation time wasn’t enough to decide a winner between the hosting No. 4 seed Lady Raiders and the No. 5 seed Antelopes in a Class AA quarterfinal match-up Wednesday night.

And neither was two 15-minute overtime periods.

And neither was five rounds of penalty kicks.

Finally, in the sixth round of penalty kicks, Avonworth scored a goal and Waynesburg didn’t as the Antelopes won the shootout 5-4 and took home a 1-0 victory.

“This one stings,” Waynesburg coach Joe Kijowski said. “But, hey, all playoff losses sting. Avonworth’s defense was very good and we just couldn’t maintain possession in their end. They have good movement and kept our scorers in check.”

The Antelopes (13-5-2) avenged last year’s quarterfinal loss (5-0) to Waynesburg.

“Waynesburg is a tough draw for anybody in the playoffs,” Avonworth coach J.C. Mahan said. “They are well-coached and have so much speed up front. Our defense got tested tonight, and it answered the call. It was a great team win and my hat’s off to Waynesburg.”

Jessica Lamperski had the game-winning penalty kick to send Avonworth to the semifinals for the first time since 2011. The Antelopes will play top-seeded South Park Saturday with a site and time to be decided.

Rhea Kijowski, Calli Gibson, Bailey Fudala and Jillian Kijowski each recorded goals in the shootout for Waynesburg. Jillian Kijowski, who missed the whole season with an ACL injury and got cleared two weeks ago for soccer activity, had the tying goal that forced the sixth round.

“Jillian was cleared a couple of weeks ago,” Joe Kijowski said. “She was our best PK shooter last year. She said she was good to go and surprisingly she wasn’t nervous at all. She was cold from being on the bench all game long, but that didn’t affect her shot at all.”

Avonworth controlled the play in the first half but Waynesburg bounced back with a steady performance in the final 40 minutes of regulation. The Raiders (13-6) held a 9-4 advantage in shots during the second half.

“We made some minor adjustments at halftime but it just came down to be aggressive,” Joe Kijowski said. “We got the better of the play in the second half and we took some chances on offense. We just couldn’t get that one shot to go into the net.”

Waynesburg, which will lose four seniors, will try to regroup and start the offseason grind.

“We had our ups and downs this season,” coach Kijowski said. “The injuries mounted and our section was really tough this year with South Park. This is our fourth straight trip to the playoffs. We are going to lose some good seniors. We can’t dwell on this loss, you just have to get back at it and train harder.”