11 Butler County soccer and volleyball games and matchups to watch this season
The leaves will soon start to turn and the weather will become a little crisper. Fall invokes thoughts of the gridiron, but there’s so much more going on high school athletics-wise over the next few months.
Here’s an itinerary for what contests promise to impress on the girls and boys soccer fields and girls volleyball courts in the Butler County area.
The Lancers had the Trojans’ number a season ago.
“(Five) losses on the year, with three of those coming against Deer Lakes,” Trojans coach Scott Schlegel said. “I think when somebody gets the best of you, the only way to make it a rivalry is to even that out a little bit.”
The programs begin WPIAL Section 1-2A play against one another.
The Gremlins are coming off of one of their worst seasons in recent memory. Time to remind everyone how scrappy they are.
“We always have good games against Redbank,” Karns City coach RJ Carson said. “I really respect their coach, Ty (Scott). ... It’s a physical, tough game. I always love those games.
“We’re known for football and basketball as (being) physical — and it’s the same way with soccer.”
This is about as good of a non-section volleyball match as you can find this season. The Planets won last year’s WPIAL Class 3A title and reached the PIAA title match, while the Trojanettes powered to a WPIAL Class 4A championship match appearance.
Not to mention, there’s a geographic rivalry in play.
The Golden Tornado finished without a section win a campaign ago. Longtime Butler coach Troy Mohney said it might’ve been his roughest season in charge.
A win over the Raiders, a district playoff team a campaign ago, to begin their WPIAL Section 3-4A slate would give a lot of confidence to the Tornado.
Halee McCance’s Golden Tornado and Brett Poirier’s Raiders reside in one of the toughest sections in the state. Neither can quite afford to drop matches against one another, especially with only three teams from WPIAL Section 2-4A reaching the playoffs.
These ones will be of the knock-down, drag-out variety. Seneca Valley swept the series last season.
The Yellowjackets finished atop WPIAL Section 1-2A last season, while the Trojanettes trailed them. The two squads combined for just seven losses the entire year, splitting their home-and-home series.
North Catholic has a staunch defense and reigning Butler Eagle Girls Soccer Player of the Year Simone Sharpless, a senior. Freeport has a strong talent in junior Camryn Woods. The section crown could come down to these two clashes.
One match between these programs lasted five sets last year. The other went four.
Karns City coach Taylor Callihan said it was the same level of competition during the summer league the teams played in. Look for hard-fought games between these two conference opponents.
The Knights were blanked in 11 of their 17 contests last season, but hung 15 combined goals on the Vikings in their pair of matchups.
Anticipate scoring outbursts when Knoch takes Valley on again this time around.
Last year, the Planets had to get past the ’Jackets in order to boast about an undefeated section run. Full of youth, Tom Phillips’ Freeport team will be out to restore itself as the grouping’s power while aiming for its 25 straight postseason.
By this point in the schedule, Tami Caraway’s Mars crew should have an identity, especially with Cecilia Christy and Gabi Weidemann leading the charge.
The Trojanettes are relative newcomers to WPIAL Class 4A, having joined the grouping a season ago. Meanwhile, the Tigers have won six of the past eight titles in the classification, including one earned by beating Amanda Fetter’s squad in 2024.
Expect these two run-ins to be a precursor to a postseason meeting.
The Rockets have won only one of their past four meetings against their arch rivals, being outscored 11-3 in those outings. Rivalries are what make sports great, and two neighboring communities will have pride on the line for these games.
