Shady Side Academy girls soccer carries momentum into season’s 2nd half

By: George Guido
Saturday, October 2, 2021 | 11:01 AM

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The Shady Side Academy girls soccer team finished the first half of the Section 2-2A season atop the standings at 4-0.

But the Bulldogs have no intention of stopping there after a hard-fought, 1-0 victory at Burrell on Sept. 27. A goal by Gabby Hill-Junke, her fifth of the season, midway through the first half broke the scoring ice and the Shady Side defense took over from there, not allowing a Bucs shot until there were 21 minutes left in the match.

“I was really proud how the team possessed tonight,” coach Mary Lynch said following the win. “We really controlled the play and we were ready for a faster-paced game with Burrell than some of our recent games that we’ve had.”

Winning is nothing new with the girls soccer program. The team has made the WPIAL playoffs each of the past 12 seasons, winning titles in 2010, ’13, ’16 and ’19, to go with a PIAA title in 2017.

Last season, the Bulldogs were 12-1, losing only to North Catholic in the Class 2A semifinals. Ordinarily, Shady Side would have gone into a PIAA qualifier game with the other semifinal loser, but the pandemic forced the PIAA to take only district champions. That situation also ended a streak of 11 Shady Side PIAA playoff appearances.

“We try to just build off what we’ve done in the past, but every year’s different,” Lynch said. “New players, we try to build that sense of teamwork and take it one game at a time and not look too far ahead.”

Senior goalkeeper Erin Vanetta has averaged eight saves per game.

Said Lynch: “She been great in goal. She’s been great in goal, and she’s extremely vocal.”

Senior tri-captain Amanda Casey is eagerly anticipating the second half and the Bulldogs offense remaining in attack mode.

“Honestly, the more shots we can get, the more goals we can get,” Casey said. “When we play Burrell again, it will be another tough game. Every team’s pretty good this year. Deer Lakes put up a hard fight the other day, even though they had some players out.”

The path to championships is through defense, a fact Casey is aware of.

“We lost a lot of our defense from last year,” Casey said. “But, so far, the freshmen Cam Capel, Lucille McCargo, Ainsley Chu, they’ve all been great. We want to win games one goal at a time.”

One of the highlights of the second half will also be Shady Side’s homecoming on Oct. 9, a larger event than most schools with multiple sporting events taking place around the Fox Chapel campus.

“Homecoming is definitely one of my favorite days of the entire year,” Casey said. “We have field hockey, boys soccer, girls soccer, football, then the dance at the end of the night. The alumni come back, along with former girls soccer players. It’s just a blast.”

Shady Side will play section foe Highlands at 11 a.m.

Lynch grew up in Connecticut, where she was an all-state soccer player and attended Connecticut College.

She met her husband, former Shady Side student-athlete Mac Lynch, while both were teaching at a Connecticut boarding school and moved to Pittsburgh in 2010. She took over head coaching duties in 2013 and took a year off to have twins.

Tags: Shady Side Academy