Mars girls soccer storms back into PIAA Class 3A semifinals after drubbing DuBois Area
MANOR TWP, Armstrong County — Mars girls soccer knew the biggest threat to it reaching the state semifinals was DuBois Area’s junior striker Anna Korney.
The Penn State commit had scored 40 goals on the season entering Saturday’s PIAA Class 3A quarterfinal against the Planets.
Mars frustrated Korney and the Beavers’ attack as a whole, shutting out DuBois 6-0 on a cold and wet afternoon at Armstrong Stadium.
The WPIAL-champion Planets (19-1-1) will next face the winner of Saturday’s quarterfinal between Shaler and Gwynedd Mercy in a semifinal Tuesday.
“She’s a special player,” Mars head coach Blair Gerlach said of Korney. “When you’re facing a player that good, you’re just trying to limit her chances — and the ones she does get, make them come from a distance or difficult angles.”
Korney got off just three shot attempts the entire game, none of them making it to Mars goalie Ciara Spaun.
The most anxious moment Korney was part of came late in the first half with Mars leading 1-0. She was in the attacking third and, due to miscommunication between two Mars defenders, she was able to get behind the defense. That left Spaun as the only Planet between Korney and a game-tying goal.
The goalie came off her line, got to the ball just before Korney did, and a collision ensued that knocked Korney to the turf inside the penalty area. But action continued with no call made.
Starring on defense for Mars were center backs Addison Jacoby and Julia Siket, outside backs Brielle Krepin and Carly McKenna and holding midfielder Katie Blake.
“I think the weather helped us today, too,” Gerlach said. “The ball was slick and skipping and taking some weird bounces. A lot of the time, when (Korney) was receiving passes, they were coming in knee-high, tough to handle.”
But the Planets had no trouble finding the net. They broke a scoreless tie in the 20th minute. HB Wolski took a corner kick for the Planets to the right of DuBois (17-5-1) keeper Harper Johnson.
In an attempt to keep the ball from getting to the crowd around her, Johnson jumped and tried to swat the ball out of danger, but she was facing the direction from which the kick was booted. In the process, she knocked the ball inside the top right corner of her own net for a goal.
Mars blew the game open in the second half. Mackenzie Powell scored in the 43rd minute for a 2-0 lead.
Miley Gratton, Jade Breese (twice) and Peyton Thimons followed with scores as the District 9-champion Beavers were routed.
Krepin, a sophomore, said still playing this late into the season has come as a pleasant surprise for a young Mars squad.
“We weren’t supposed to make a long playoff run,” she said. “But now that we’ve come this far, we want it. We want a state championship.”
