This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Schools

Seneca Valley Girls Take Home WPIAL Lacrosse Title

Raiders beat Sewickley Academy, 12-11, advance to state playoffs.

It wasn’t the final game for attacker , but she played every second like it was.

Struss scored four goals and added two assists and used all of her senior experience in the closing seconds to help the Raiders possess the ball.

As a result, the Raiders now possess their first WPIAL Division I Girls Lacrosse Championship following a 12-11 victory over  Thursday night at North Hills High School’s Martorelli Stadium.

Find out what's happening in Cranberrywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“At the beginning of the game, we saw a rainbow, and I said there’s a pot of gold at the end of that rainbow,” Struss said after the trophy and medals presentation.

There wasn’t a pot of gold.

Find out what's happening in Cranberrywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

There was a pile of WPIAL gold medals.

“I was just happy we were the ones to find it,” she said. “This is what we started the season to do.”

Struss left it all out on the field, including her voice. She could barely speak after shouting and communicating with her teammates during the 50-minute final.

“Sam (Struss) is the definition of lacrosse passion,” Seneca Valley coach Dina Hughes said. “She loves lacrosse more than anything in the whole world. She practices like it’s the WPIAL championship every day.

“She has so much desire to win, but at the same time she trusts her teammates and wants them to be successful as well,” the coach said. “There were about nine seconds left, and Sam was going crazy, she wanted that trophy so badly.”

After the game, Struss joined senior goalie Lauren Moran and hoisted the WPIAL Championship Trophy while surrounded by the rest of the team.

“We couldn’t have done anything we did this year without Lauren,” Struss said. “It’s great to have her in net.”

Seneca Valley (15-4) moved in front quickly, building a 5-1 lead as five different players scored in the opening five minutes.

“We have a lot of girls that contribute to our goal-scoring, so that helped a lot tonight because we don’t have to rely on one person,” Hughes said. “That makes us tough to defend.”

Also for Seneca Valley, senior midfielder Paige Corathers scored three goals, junior midfielder Morgan Midkiff and senior midfielder Taylor Mayeda each scored twice, and junior attacker Kelly Cundiff added a goal.

Every goal became a key goal as the game played out. Seneca Valley’s 8-4 lead came under severe pressure in the second half as Sewickley Academy (12-7) made a strong comeback attempt.

Sewickley Academy midfielder Olivia scored a game-high six goals, including three goals in an 80-second span of the second half.

“We always had that lead, but it was starting to get a little antsy at the end,” Struss said.

Mayeda scored the winning goal with 7:09 remaining to play, reacting quickly to a pass from Struss into the middle of the defense.

“When we got possession at the end, that was big,” Struss said. “We have a lot of great defenders like Lindsey (Leddon), Maddie (Koontz). We have so many other great defenders. You can’t say enough about them.”

As the winner of the PIAA’s District 7, Seneca Valley advanced to the state playoffs and will open competition June 1 against the third-seeded team from District 3.

The Seneca Valley boys lacrosse team closes out the WPIAL Division I playoffs in the consolation game against North Allegheny at 5:30 p.m. today at Chartiers Valley High School.

Three Raiders team remain in contention for WPIAL titles.

“With all of our teams going for it this week, it’s great that we started it off with the title,” Struss said.

The Seneca Valley boys volleyball team plays North Allegheny for the Class AAA WPIAL Championship at 8 p.m. tonight at Chartiers Valley’s gym.

The Seneca Valley baseball team plays Peters Township for the Class AAAA title at 8 p.m. Tuesday at Consol Energy Park in Washington.

The Raiders softball team competes against Latrobe for the Class AAAA title at 7 p.m. next Thursday at California University.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?