MINERSVILLE — The Minersville girls’ soccer team has turned in its share of dominating performances this season.
Wednesday was another. This one gave them a championship.
Abby Schoffstall recorded a hat trick and Rachel Sterner added two goals to lead the Miners to a 6-1 victory over Williams Valley in a Schuylkill League Division II contest.
Becca Daukaus also had a goal, while Marlena Purcell added two assists as the Miners (16-2, 14-0 D-II) put the game away early, jumping out to a 5-0 halftime lead and 6-0 advantage early in the second half.
The victory wrapped up an undefeated division regular-season for Minersville, but more importantly earned the Miners their first division title since 2011 when they beat Schuylkill Haven in a tiebreaker game.
“We talked in the beginning of the season and a lot of teams didn’t know what we had,” said Sterner, who was honored with fellow senior Janelle Kramer before the game. “We lost a bunch of seniors from last year and our main thing was to just come out strong in these games. I just think this carries us over into the playoffs.”
Both Minersville and Williams Valley (13-5, 12-2) had already wrapped up spots in next week’s Schuylkill League playoffs prior to Wednesday’s showdown. The Miners’ win avoided a potential tiebreaker contest Monday after Minersville won the first meeting between the two 4-1 on Sept. 24.
The Division I champion is still unsettled as Blue Mountain (17-1, 11-1 D-I) and Pine Grove (15-2-1, 11-1) finished tied atop the division standings and split their two regular-season meetings.
The Eagles and Cardi-
nals will square off for the division title at 7 p.m. Monday at Pottsville’s Alumni Field. The loser faces Minersville in the first league semifinal game at 5 p.m. Tuesday at Tamaqua. The winner takes on Williams Valley at 7 p.m.
“No one expected us to do anything, so it is great to finish it off and go strong into the postseason,” Schoffstall said.
Schoffstall, a junior, is a big reason why the Miners are headed back to the league playoffs. Her hat trick Wednesday gave her a league-leading 40 goals on the year in her first season of high school soccer.
One area that makes Schoffstall so good is her speed. That was clearly evident on her first goal during the 16th minute.
Caitlin Sternick sent a pass up to Schoffstall, who then dribbled up field past two Vikings’ defenders and buried her shot into the far corner of the net.
The game was tightly contested before Schoffstall’s first goal. After that, the Miners took over, outshooting Williams Valley 10-2 the rest of the first half.
“No matter what game it is once you get the first goal, everybody settles in and I think we needed that,” Schoffstall said. “Once that happened, our passes seemed to gel together and we got some good 1-2s, made some good runs and finished it.”
Purcell set up Schoffstall’s second goal with a perfectly-placed corner kick during the 27th minute. Purcell sent the ball to the far post and Schoffstall went up high and headed the ball in.
Schoffstall’s third goal with 5 minutes left in the first half was also a run-up to the goal as she scored again from close range. That made it 5-0 at the half.
Sterner got into the scoring act, too.
She put one in from close range during the 29th minute. Jade Herb then set up Sterner early in the second half as Herb worked on the goal line and crossed in front to Sterner, who finished it.
Daukaus’ goal during the 31st minute was set up by Purcell. Daukaus then took a run at the goal and scored.
“Teamwork,” Schoffstall said on the key to Wednesday’s win. “We really played well these past couple of games. Everything has been working out fine because we are really close on and off the field and I think that helps everything.”
Erica Wessner got Williams Valley on the board with a goal from 25 yards out during the 46th minute, but the outcome had all but been decided by that point.
The Vikings were without two defenders due to concussions Wednesday, while Cassandra Schorr was battling the flu but played.
“Schoffstall had a spectacular game,” Williams Valley coach Gary Fetterhoff said. “They are fast. We were short a couple defenders. You really can’t match up with a quality team like that. I am not making any excuses, they just had a spectacular night. They came out all fired up and played well. With the backups, we just couldn’t match their speed up front.”
Despite the loss, Williams Valley is headed to the league playoffs for the second consecutive year. The Vikings qualified for the league postseason in 2014 for the first time in program history.
Game Summary
WV (13-5,12-2) 0 1 — 1
Min. (16-2, 14-0) 5 1 — 6
Min — Schoffstall (Sternick), 15:07
Min — Schoffstall (Purcell), 26:59
Min — Sterner (unassisted), 28:18
Min — Daukaus (Purcell), 30:17
Min — Schoffstall (unassisted), 35:00
Min — Sterner (Herb), 41:33
WV — Wessner (unassisted), 45:05
Shots on goal: Williams Valley 8, Minersville 13. Corner kicks: Williams Valley 3, Minersville 4. Saves: Williams Valley (A. Schadle) 7, Minersville (Wigoda) 7.
JV score: Minersville 3-2.