Lady Cavs edge Connellsville, 2-1, on Buffone’s goal
Jim Downey | Herald-Standard
The Lady Falcons’ Mary Kate Lape (4) fends off Kiski Area’s Linzey Miller in the first half of Monday’s WPIAL Class AAA first-round soccer playoff match at Connellsville Stadium. Lape scored Connellsville’s only goal in a 2-1 loss to the Lady Cavaliers.
Jim Downey | Herald-Standard
The Lady Falcons’ Jocelyn Gratchic (25) dribbles the ball around Kiski Area’s Maddie Dodek in the first half of Monday’s WPIAL Class AAA first-round soccer playoff match at Connellsville Stadium.
Jim Downey | Herald-Standard
The Lady Falcons’ Mary Kate Lape is surrounded by her teammates after scoring in the second half of Monday’s WPIAL Class AAA first-round soccer playoff match against Kiski Area at Connellsville Stadium.
The Lady Falcons' Emily Burkus (8) marks Kiski Area's Riley Koziatek in the first half of Monday's WPIAL Class AAA first-round soccer playoff match at Connellsville Stadium.
The Lady Falcons' Emma Tikey (12) looks to steal the ball from Kiski Area's Bryanna Finney in the first half of Monday's WPIAL Class AAA first-round soccer playoff match at Connellsville Stadium.
The Lady Falcons' Neveah Hamborsky (23) pushes the ball forward around Kiski Area's Bryanna Finney in the first half of Monday's WPIAL Class AAA first-round soccer playoff match at Connellsville Stadium.
The Lady Falcons' Neveah Hamborsky (23) dribbles the ball past Kiski Area's Sophia Trapani in the first half of Monday's WPIAL Class AAA first-round soccer playoff match at Connellsville Stadium.
The Lady Falcons' Mary Kate Lape attempts to control a high bounce as Kiski Area's Linzey Miller (8) defends in the first half of Monday's WPIAL Class AAA first-round soccer playoff match at Connellsville Stadium.
CONNELLSVILLE — Payton Buffone pounced on a loose ball in front of Connellsville’s net and banged a shot past Madison Kinneer to lift visiting Kiski Area to a 2-1 victory over the fourth-seeded Lady Falcons in the first round of the WPIAL Class AAA girls soccer playoffs at Connellsville Stadium.
“I expected a 2-1 game. I was just hoping to be on the right side of it,” said Connellsville coach Jeff Puskar. “It’s disappointing. They scored their goals.
“They came out to play and they had the edge.”
Riley Koziatek sent the ball from Kinneer’s left into the middle of the box and Buffone was able to find the ball among Connellsville defenders for the game-winning goal with 10:12 left in the match.
“They made a nice cross down there and they finished. We were just too unorganized,” said Puskar. “A late goal does not let you make any changes. We tried to get Neveah (Hamborsky) up front. It was just too late.”
Connellsville goalkeeper Madison Kinneer kept the Lady Cavaliers (10-9-0) at bay in the first half with a couple stellar saves, but was unable to get a hand on Koziatek’s shot from her left that slipped inside the opposite post with 12:10 left in the first half. Koziatek gathered a pass along the right sideline and broke free from the Connellsville backline defenders to get off an unopposed shot.
“We gave them too many gaps in our formations and we knew we could not do that. That was our Achilles heel for most of the season,” said Puskar.
The Lady Falcons had two solid scoring opportunities in the first half.
Jocelyn Gratchic’s direct kick skittered by the goal to the right of Kiski’s Maxine Crosby. Mary Kate Lape had a direct kick from the same spot atop the arc not too long after Gratchic’s attempt, but Lape’s shot clanked off the crossbar above Crosby’s head.
“We knew they’d be very defensive, but, man, individually, 1v1, they were hard to play against. Maybe, as a group, they were a little faster than us,” said Puskar. “They came at us and beat us up pretty good, and they beat us to the ball. They were one step ahead of us.
“They came out and played a fair, physical game. I mean, that’s how you play the game.
Kiski’s aggressiveness was not countered by the Lady Falcons.
“We were back on our heels. We had some spurts where we had some chances, but most of our chances were obviously free kicks,” said Puskar. “Hey, we had some chances. We just didn’t capitalize.
“We were, at times, out of sorts. We weren’t playing together as a group, but we knew they would. Our thing was we had to pressure them to get their heads down and make mistakes.”
The Lady Falcons were able to bring more offensive pressure in the second half, and the work paid off with a match-tying goal.
Kiski was called for a foul and Lape quickly gathered the ball, put it in play and lofted a shot over Crosby for the tying goal with 26:37 remaining in the half. The goal was the 111th of Lape’s record-breaking career.
Connellsville had one last, desperate push to tie the game in the final minute. Hamborsky’s direct kick with under a minute to play was gathered in by Crosby.
Crosby finished with two saves. Kinneer turned aside six shots.
The Lady Falcons, still in search of their first playoff win in program history, close the season with a 13-5-0 record. Connellsville loses Lape, Hamborsky and Kinneer to graduation.
“The three seniors were big contributors. They’ll be irreplaceable. We’ll miss them,” praised Puskar. “It’s disappointing, two years in a row. We thought they were manageable games we could win.”
But, looking to the future, Puskar added, “The good news is we have a lot of girls coming back (including injured Arley Wilson and Grace Bosnic).”