JEFFERSON TWP— Two years ago, Amanda Sharbaugh admitted to feeling a little jealous.

Then a sophomore on the Knoch High girls soccer team, she watched Sarah Romasco of Ambridge score her 100th career goal in a 5-0 victory over the Knights.

"They stopped the game, had a little presentation ceremony and gave her the game ball,"Sharbaugh recalled. "I thought it was pretty cool and, yeah, I was jealous.

"I wanted that to be me."

Last Saturday at Riverside, it was.

The 5-foot-3 senior scored two goals — the 100th and 101st of her career — in Knoch's 7-3 victory.

And she was presented with the game ball.

"They're going to put my name on it, then '100 goals.' It feels pretty special,"Sharbaugh said.

That's because it is.

No other Knoch soccer player had ever scored 100 goals. No other WPIALplayer in Butler County has done so in years.

Mallory Bugel of Mars, now a senior women's soccer player at Westminster College, scored 96 goals in a four-year career with the Planets that ended in 2003.

Louise Woodroofe scored 112 goals for Butler from 1987-90. Annie Lowry scored 84 and Meghan Schnur 55 for the Golden Tornado. Both moved on to Division I collegiate programs at James Madison and Connecticut, respectively.

"When you look at what it takes, it's awfully hard to do,"Knoch coach Amy Travis said. "That's averaging 25 goals a year. Approaching that kind of production as a freshman is tough. You have to stay healthy all that time, too."

Sharbaugh scored 16 goals as a freshman and tallied 33 goals last year. She's got 23 goals so far this year with seven games left in the regular season.

After Sharbaugh's 23 goals, Amanda Bartell is second with nine goals for the Knights. Alex Gordon has five.

"She is usually double-marked every game,"Travis said of Sharbaugh. "But Amanda handles that pretty well and uses it to her advantage to help the team.

"Since she's a little smaller than a lot of goal scorers, she'll get the call most of the time if opposing players try to push her around."

Sharbaugh knows how to get the calls, too.

"I'll keep the ball between my feet if I see them coming at me,"she said. "Usually, they just lunge into me and we get the corner kick."

Sharbaugh has been playing soccer since she was 5. Knoch's other co-captain, senior and center-midfielder Gordon, has known her since she was 10.

"She has great awareness of the field and every player around her,"Gordon said. "Sometimes she'll pass the ball to an open teammate. Other times she'll just maneuver right through every defender that's on her.

"Amanda has incredible ball-handling skills. She's always had that."

Travis said Sharbaugh's goal-scoring skills come from her ability to finish plays around the net.

"She has a great touch on the ball and she's a natural finisher,"the coach said. "That's hard to find in this sport.

"Also, her speed with the ball is impressive. She seems to run faster with the ball than without it. She's an elusive player, and that makes her hard to mark."

Sharbaugh has enjoyed three-goal games this season against Mars, Hampton and Blackhawk — three teams Knoch is battling for a WPIALplayoff spot.

"Amanda's had big games against the big teams,"Travis said. "She hasn't compiled all these goals against the weaker competition."

The Knights (5-7-1 overall, 4-4 in section) have been to the playoffs in each of Sharbaugh's first three seasons.

"Getting 100 goals was a definite goal of mine,"Sharbaugh said. "Getting to the playoffs for a fourth straight year is a bigger one."

Sharbaugh is weighing collegiate offers from Gannon and Edinboro. Gordon is considering offers from Edinboro and Allegheny College.

"It would be awesome to be able to keep playing soccer with her," Gordon said. "Then again, Gannon and Edinboro will be in the same league next year. ... It'd be kinda fun to play against her, too."

Here is a year-by-year breakdown of Knoch senior Amanda Sharbaugh's high school soccer career:<B>Year G A</B>2004 16 82005 29 92006 33 102007 23 9<B>Totals 101 37</B>