D-11 Girls’ Soccer: Aggressive Hurricanes blank Tri-Valley
Schuylkill Haven's Kylie Siket, left, and Ava Terefencko each scored two goals in the Hurricanes' 4-0 win over Tri-Valley in Thursday's District 11 Class A girls' soccer semifinal at Blue Mountain (Photo by Leroy Boyer).
ORWIGSBURG — When you face a team for the third time in one season, sometimes you have to change things up a little.
Schuylkill Haven girls’ soccer coach Scott Burcik did that Thursday night, and it paid big dividends in a District 11 Class A girls’ semifinal against Tri-Valley.
Burcik switched up his offensive attack to be more aggressive, moving sophomores Kylie Siket and Ava Terefencko to the outside and putting sophomore scorer Taylor Haag in the middle.
Siket and Terefencko made the move look brilliant, each scoring a pair of goals in the Hurricanes’ 4-0 victory at Blue Mountain’s Eagles’ Nest.
The win puts Schuylkill Haven (16-3-1) in the Class A championship match for the first time since 2021. The Hurricanes will face top-seeded and six-time defending champion Moravian Academy, a 2-0 winner over Williams Valley in the other semifinal, on Wednesday at a site and time to be determined.
“For this game, we did sort of a formation change,” Burcik said. “We wanted to do more of an attacking style out wide and the girls came out firing. We really work on our defense as a whole group. Offensively, they just press, press, press. So, we’re a very high intensity team.
“We practiced specifically for that,” Burcik continued. “We had Kylie on the left, Ava on the right and we trained all of (Wednesday) on knocking the ball around in the middle and looking to go wide, going to the corners, because Kylie’s speed and Ava’s speed are unstoppable for most of these players in this league.”
Schuylkill Haven defeated Tri-Valley 4-0 and 4-3 on its way to the Schuylkill League Division II crown, with the last game Oct. 7 being close throughout.
Thursday, the Hurricanes took control early and never let go. Terefencko scored off an assist by Peyton Butz just 4:45 into the game after Haag played the ball up the left side and Butz worked it into the middle.
Siket made it 2-0 roughly six minutes later, after Terefencko advanced the ball up the right side and delivered a perfect pass to Siket in front of the net.
“We knew they played a three-back, so attacking them with three … we were just going to keep going at them, keep crossing it, keep attacking their goalie and it worked out in our favor,” Siket said.
Added Terefencko: “It was definitely the change that we needed. Knowing the three of us, we knew we could get it past them.”
Schuylkill Haven starts six sophomores and three juniors, but despite that youth the Hurricanes have great chemistry. That was on display throughout, with Siket, Haag and Terefencko creating several scoring opportunities and finishing with 12 shots on goal.
Haven put the game out of reach in the second half with a pair of goals in the first 15 minutes. Siket scored off a corner kick by Haag, heading the ball past Tri-Valley keeper Madyson Schwalm. Terefencko made it 4-0 when she converted a long pass from Haag into her second goal of the game.
The Hurricanes defense did the rest, with goalkeeper Nikki Domermuth pitching the shutout with four saves.
“Growing up, playing together since we were incredibly young, it just helps us now in the long run,” Siket said of Haven’s chemistry. “We know how each other plays and we can work off each other.”
That chemistry will be put to the test by Moravian, which has won the last six District 11 Class A titles. The Hurricanes, who lost to Moravian in the 2021 final, will be looking for its first district championship since 2013.
“We’ve been working toward this the whole entire season,” Siket said of reaching the district final. “It was one of our main goals and it feels great to accomplish it as a team.”
Added Terefencko: “It means a lot to our team. We’ve been training really hard for this.”
