Andy, Things are shaping up for the State Championship. Today in Erie, McDowell beat Merecyhurst 4-1 so they will represent the Erie area. Actaully, the outcome could have been predicted by simply counting Nicole's Pittsburgh Striker teammates. She has one on Merceyhurst, but two on McDowell. The pairings have also been set.
Fox Chapel will play Perry, the winner of the Pittsburgh city league. It should be a cake-walk for Fox Chapel.
Penn-Trafford will play Westchester-Henderson, the #1 ranked high school team in the country. The game will be in Downington (in Eastern PA). Fortunately, Penn-Trafford will go up Friday night for the Saturday game. Fox Chapel is rooting for Penn-Trafford. If Fox Chapel wins they will play the winner and they would much rather play here in Pittsburgh. Penn-Trafford is stacked with 5 of Nicole's teammates.
Norwin will play the Champion from the Clearfield area. I don't know who the team is, but Norwin should win easily.
Hampton will play McDowell. Since McDowell has two teammates of Nicole's they should beat Hampton (who used to have two teammates, but one announced today that she would not be back on the Strikers).
All four games will be on Saturday, followed by semi's on Tuesday, and the State Championship game the following Saturday.
Nicole's Striker teammates did well. Of the 17 players, 12 are on teams that are still alive.
Today, Emily's Fox Chapel team won 5-2 over Hampton. They were leading 5-0 with a couple of minutes to go, but Hampton finally scored and then made a penalty kick with a few seconds remaining. Fox Chapel sits alone in their U-11 bracket, with a 3-0 record.
Bill Cowher was at today's game (Emily plays with his 10 year old on this team and with his 12 year old on the North Star team) and he also came to the Fox Chapel high school Championship game against Norwin. Like everyone else, he said the Fox Chapel clearly dominated and it was a shame that they lost. He said that the only way for Nicole to have stopped the winning goal was to quickly grow 3 inches. |
