Pennridge Soccer Going for the Gold

Pennridge will face Peters Township in the PIAA Class AAA state championship game on Saturday, 3 p.m., at HersheyPark Stadium.

Just because this is her first year on the Pennridge girls soccer team doesn't mean that junior defender Caitlyn Sheva is looking at the PIAA Class AAA State Final any differently than those who have worked their entire high school careers to get to this point.
"It means a lot to be here," Sheva said following the Rams' 2-1 overtime victory over Owen J. Roberts in Tuesday's state semifinal. "I can't even explain it, it's just really exciting.
"Everyone fills you in along the way, lets you know what's going on. I'm approaching the game the same way as everyone else -- I definitely wanted to make it this far and I don't want to lose."
Sheva has been a large part of the Rams' success this season and has quickly developed into an integral part of the defense that has allowed just two goals between the district and state playoffs. The Rams stand at 25-1 overall and have claimed the Suburban One Continental Conference title as well as the District One championship.
Sheva has been on the field for a vast majority of those victories,
"Caitlyn is someone who is playing her first year of soccer (for Pennridge)," coach Jorge Rodriguez said. "She's a junior, and she's never played. But this year, she's played just about every minute. She's probably played the most minutes for a field player, along with Stevi (Parker) and Audrey (Butcher)."
Sheva, who has played club soccer for many years, tried out as a freshman but found it too difficult to divide her time between soccer, cross country and her schoolwork. This year, however, she found a little extra incentive to try to add soccer to her workload.
"My sister Marissa is a freshman this year," Sheva said. "She was going to play soccer and run cross country. I thought it would be cool to be on the same teams with her, so I figured I'd try it, too, and it's worked.
"I was definitely trying to be a starter. I didn't want to try and do both sports and then not play a lot."
Now, Peters Township is the only thing that stands between Pennridge and the school's first state title in any girls' sport. Led by six seniors -- including starters Parker, goalkeeper Ashley Schoellkopf and midfielder/defender Maggie Butcher -- the Rams have developed into one of the most well-organized and technically sound teams in the area. Juniors Shannon Chynoweth, Natalia Pinkney and Megan Shenk (who has scored the game-winning goals in the Rams' last two games on stellar corner kicks) provide some offensive punch, as does freshman Marissa Sheva. Sophomores Julia Rufe and Audrey Butcher join the defensive effort, and the Rams can always count on quality contributions from starters and bench players up and down the lineup.
What is at stake when the Rams take the field Saturday for the last time this season is not lost on anyone … even on the first-year players.
"It means so much," Caitlyn Sheva said. "This is the furthest anyone for any team has made it. It's really exciting and I'm happy to be on the first team to do it.
"We're just going focus on what we need to work on and play the game and see how it goes."

***

One person who will not be there when the Rams play for their first state championship will be the man who helped engineer this season and playoff run. Rodriguez is getting married on Friday, and he will be boarding a plane for his Fiji honeymoon at 3 p.m. Saturday ... the precise moment that the state final is scheduled to kick off.
"It's devastating not to be able to be there," Rodriguez said. "I'm hoping that by the time the plane gets to California, I'll get a good text message."
Pennridge assistant coach Audrey Anderson will take over the coaching duties, aided by Deep Run Soccer Club coach Dave Cardie.
"Audrey is going to be just fine and we've added (Cardie), who probably knows these girls way more than I do," Rodriguez said. "I'm confident they're going to do just as good a job as I'm going to do, if not better.
"It's ultimately the players. When you play as many games as we have, and I think we've played more games than anyone in Pennsylvania, the players coach themselves and you can see the impact that each player has on each other."
Pennridge will square off against defending state champion Peters Township at 3 p.m. Saturday at HersheyPark Stadium. The Indians (19-3-1 overall) were the top seed in the District 7 tournament, falling to Upper St. Clair in the championship game. Undaunted, the Indians rolled through the western side of the state bracket, routing District 8 champion Barack Obama Academy of International Studies 9-0 in the state opener, topping District 6 champion State College 3-0 in the quarterfinals and avenging their district loss by defeating Upper St. Clair 1-0 in Tuesday's other semifinal game.
Among the players the Indians bring to the table are two of the most dangerous offensive weapons in the state. Peters sophomore Veronica Latsko is a 40-plus goal scorer this season, and Olivia Roberson has surpassed the 20-goal mark.
But the Rams are most concerned with taking care of their own game.
"I'm sure we'll look at the other team a little bit," Parker said. "But I think we're going to mostly focus on ourselves, what we need to improve on, what our strengths are, and go from there."