Yaracs, Miller help Butler girls notch 1-0 WPIAL girls soccer playoff win
BUTLER TWP — Mckenna Yaracs made the big save. Samantha Miller got the big bounce.
And Butler got a big win.
Eight minutes after goalkeeper Yaracs made a sprawling save to keep the game scoreless, Miller received a deflected ball in front of the Mt. Lebanon net.
Miller made no mistake, flicking a shot into the right corner and handing the Golden Tornado a 1-0 victory over the Blue Devils in a WPIAL Class 4A girls soccer playoff game Monday night at Art Bernardi Stadium.
“I was definitely in the right place at the right time,” Miller said. “But when you play this game long enough, you seem to know the right places to be.”Miller's goal occurred in the 67th minute. Chloe Weiland lofted an arching pass from the right corner of the attacking zone. The ball came down in front of the left side of the Blue Devil net.Maddie Rose got her foot on it, deflecting it over to the wide-open Miller. The tally was Miller's 10th of the season.“Sam's missed some games because of club commitments,” Butler coach Steve Perri said. “But she's an experienced player and she finished the play.“This was definitely a 1-0 type of game. Both teams had their chances, but a 1-0 score either way would have been fair. I'm just glad it went our way.”Seventh-seeded Butler (13-3-2) lost three of its final four regular season games. The Tornado will travel to No. 2 seed Moon (13-1-1) Thursday night.Both teams had six shots on net. Butler had four corner kicks to Mt. Lebanon's two.Yaracs had the save of the night.Junior forward Melia Peer broke in clear on Yaracs in the 59th minute. The goalkeeper aggressively charged out at her just when Peer was letting loose with her shot.Yaracs smothered the ball and rolled over, possession safely secured.“Those plays come natural for me,” Yaracs said. “I'm used to coming out like that because I know our defense will sink in behind me.“When I saw she was going to get off her shot, I got down, felt the ball go under my shoulder and just cradled it there on the ground.”Peer, the Blue Devils' leading scorer with 13 goals this season, had two other scoring chances in the first half. She rifled a shot wide left on a breakaway during the 12th minute and had a shot blocked in front by Butler's defense in the 26th minute.But the shot in tight against Yaracs was the best scoring opportunity of the night for the Blue Devils (9-7-2), who ended their season on a three-game losing streak.“Melia has probably buried shots like that 10 times this season,” Mt. Lebanon coach Seth Young said. “That time, it didn't happen for her. Their keeper made a great save.“Butler has a talented group. We knew who their great players were and we identified them. I thought we played well, but they executed, too. It's playoff soccer.”The Tornado had scoring chances of their own. In the 28th minute, Leah Weiland lofted a shot toward the net that Blue Devil goalkeeper Ashleigh Connor made a leaping save on.Miller's cross pass was headed just wide in the 51st minute and Jessica Mohney just missed deflecting in a cross in the 60th minute.The 1-0 score didn't bother Miller.“I have a lot of confidence in our team,” she said. “No matter how long this one went (scoreless), I figured we'd find away to get the goal.”Perri wasn't surprised by the slim margin for error.“This was the type of game we figured it was gonna be,” Perri said. “Both teams had to earn their chances.“Moon is going to throw a defense at us similar to what Seneca Valley does. I don't know much else about (Moon) yet, but we'll look at film and prepare ourselves for that one.”
