Productive Start
BUTLER TWP — The play seemed innocent enough.
Butler senior forward Chloe Weiland was racing down the left sideline, sending a pass toward the goalmouth Saturday night early in the Golden Tornado's girls soccer season opener Saturday night at Art Bernardi Stadium.
The pass sailed into a sea of players and wound up deflecting into the left corner of the net. The play gave Butler a lead it never lost in a 3-1 victory over Fox Chapel.
The game was part of an eight-game Kickoff Classic involving nine teams Saturday and Sunday.
“Lucky bounce for us, unfortunate bounce for them,” Butler coach Steve Perri said of the first goal. “But Chloe's effort started that play.”
Weiland — who finished with two goals and an assist on the night — ran past a Fox Chapel defender to get to the ball. The goal occurred only 2 minutes and 41 seconds into the contest.
“I was just trying to make a cross pass in front and it winds up going in,” Weiland said. “That kind of thing can happen in soccer. Just get the ball to the net.”
Fox Chapel coach Peter Torres admitted the play put his team on its heels for a bit.
“An 'own' goal like that can be difficult to overcome, especially early,” Torres said. “It took us too long to respond.”
Butler added a second goal less than six minutes later when Weiland executed a no-look, back-foot pass to junior Sam Miller, who drilled it past Foxes goalkeeper Molly McNaughton.
Weiland made that type of pass on a few occasions Saturday night.
“It's a move I played around with in practice when I was 13 or 14,” she said. “I kept working on it and now it's a part of my game.”
Fox Chapel was 11-3 in 2020 and opened this season with a 6-0 shutout of Hampton on Friday. The Foxes netted their only goal Saturday when Makalya Mulholland arched a 23-yard shot over the head of Tornado goalkeeper Mckenna Yaracs in the game's 14th minute.
Yaracs came up with a critical save in the 30th minute of the half. Fox Chapel goalie McNaughton drilled a free kick from 65 yards out, sending teammate Sydney Schutzman in alone on Yaracs.
Yaracs came to the top of the crease and smothered Schutzman's attempted game-tying shot.
“Huge save at that point,” Perri said. “Mckenna is going to do that for us. We need her to be a rock back there.”
Weiland, who scored 13 goals last year, buried a shot from 28 yards out with 27:54 left in the game to restore the Tornado's two-goal lead. Fox Chapel managed only one shot on net in the second half.
“(Late in the game) we were content to keep kicking the ball out, getting it as far away from our net as possible,” Perri said. “That's not the way I like to see us execute, but this was our first game and we had some girls out there for the first time.
“If we score first, get off to quick starts like we did tonight, we'll win a lot of games.”
Butler had five shots on net to Fox Chapel's four. Both teams had three corner kicks in the second half, none in the first.
In other Kickoff Classic games Saturday, Burrell defeated Slippery Rock 4-1, Seneca Valley blanked Villa Maria Academy 7-0 and North Catholic downed Freeport 4-2.
Sydney Shuster and Natalie Mason scored goals for Butler Sunday night in a 2-1 win over Villa Maria Academy. Mckenna and Delaney Yaracs combined for three saves in goal.
In other games Sunday, North Catholic shut out Burrell 2-0, Slippery Rock defeated Freeport 4-2 and Mars and Seneca Valley played to a scoreless tie.
