It is often said that it is hard to beat a team three times in a single season.
Fox Chapel boys soccer attempted to meet that challenge against Seneca Valley on Friday evening as the section rivals battled for WPIAL Class 4A gold at Highmark Stadium.
The No. 2 Foxes, with one-goal wins in both regular-season meetings against the Raiders, hoped to complete a sweep and claim their second straight title.
Mission accomplished.
But it was far from easy.
The teams played through 80 minutes of regulation and two 15-minute overtime periods before heading to penalty kicks.
Senior Sean Regan’s successful attempt in the fifth and final round clinched a 4-2 shootout win, and the Foxes (16-2) again ascended to the WPIAL throne as champions.
“That is something you dream about as a kid, being able to step up in that big of a moment,” Regan said. “I had faith in myself. I said a little prayer, and I knew I had my teammates behind me. They gave me strength to make the shot. I am so grateful I did that for my team.
“Seneca Valley is such a great team and a great program. They are well-coached. Each of our games have been one goal or less. It’s a testament to how good the competition has been between us. Ever since I stepped on the field as a freshman, it’s been our mission to beat Seneca Valley, and we were lucky enough to beat them three times this year. We just want to keep that momentum going into states.”
Regan was mobbed by his teammates when the ball found the back of the net. Fellow seniors Calyx Kimbrough, Rocco Didomenico and Nicolas Squeglia also were successful in the shootout against Seneca Valley junior keeper Chase Good.
Juniors Chase Lively and Zach White scored for Seneca Valley in the shootout, but Foxes senior Brady Matthews stopped shots from Raiders senior Owen Eastgate and junior Jacob Prex.
“He’s the only goalie that I know who is just stoic when we go into a PK shootout,” Fox Chapel coach Erik Ingram said of Matthews.
“He loves to go into a PK shootout. You can see why. He stands on his head. He lives for it. He’s aggressive, and he’s athletic. He is just a polished, strong goalkeeper.”
The WPIAL title was the seventh for the Foxes in their storied history.
“That (game) was fun,” Ingram said. “We were happy that Seneca got through knowing that they would be the toughest team that we would play. I feel the top two teams got to the finals. The games with Seneca are physical and fast, and they are just so good. They are such a well-coached team with great players, so we knew we had our hands full coming in.
“No one wants to lose in penalty kicks, but the fact that we went 110 good minutes of amazing, fast soccer was really nice.”
Fox Chapel joins Seneca Valley (2020 and 2021) and North Allegheny (2016 and 2017) as teams to win back-to-back WPIAL Class 4A titles since the WPIAL expanded to four classifications in 2016.
“This was a goal from Day 1,” said Ingram of his team defending its title.
“Getting it was a little bit more difficult (this year) because there was a target on our backs at every step of the way. We’ll see if we can make it three in a row next year.”
It’s been quite a stretch for Fox Chapel teams. The Foxes girls soccer team won the Class 3A title Wednesday in overtime against South Fayette. The same night, the Fox Chapel field hockey team upended No. 1 Peters Township in the WPIAL Class 2A title game to claim the program’s first championship.
“We knew we had to go 3 for 3, and I am glad we did,” Regan said.
Seneca Valley (17-3) was going after its fourth WPIAL title.
“I told the guys to not put their heads down,” Raiders coach George Williams said. “They have nothing to be ashamed of. It was a great effort against a great team. It was very back and forth, and I think the stats were pretty even. It was actually a little tight at the beginning of the game. Both teams looked like they were tentative. You could see some nerves out there with both teams not wanting to make some mistakes.
“In the second half, it opened up a little more. We couldn’t crack their defense, and their keeper made some spectacular saves. Their center back was killing everything we were trying to do, as were their other defenders. We just weren’t able to put it together enough to get a goal. But they weren’t able to get a goal against us, either.”
Matthews and Good matched each other throughout the 110 minutes of back-and-forth play against powerful offenses who developed several dangerous chances.
Legs were getting heavy as the teams went through the overtime periods.
Squeglia made a run with 7:49 left in the first overtime. He was held up by a SV defender as he entered the box. Squeglia pleaded for a foul, but none was called, and the teams played on.
DiDomenico put one on net for Fox Chapel with a minute left on the first OT clock, but Good hauled it in to preserve the scoreless tie and send the game to a second extra session.
Each team had a couple of close calls in the second OT, but the game remained scoreless.
“Chase really kept us in this game,” Williams said.
“For as great as the Fox Chapel keeper played, Chase had a spectacular game. Especially in the first half, he made some saves on shots where Fox Chapel could’ve been up a couple goals.”
Fox Chapel now will move into the PIAA playoffs and face the No. 4 team from District 3, either Central York or Manheim Township, in the first round Tuesday at a site and time to be determined.
“Their big goals for themselves this year were well beyond just tonight,” Ingram said. “We’ll see what happens.”
Seneca Valley will take on the winner of Saturday’s PIAA subregional contest between McDowell and State College.
“They have some healing to do, but we have a game on Tuesday, and we can keep it rolling,” Williams said.
“We could see (Fox Chapel) again relatively quickly.”