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By JOHN ERZAR; Times Leader Sports Writer
Wednesday, May 26, 1999 Page: 1B
Coughlin and Wyoming Valley West didn’t get to tonight’s District 2 girls
soccer championship game by deception. They made it by playing soccer the best
way they know how.
So don’t expect any surprises or unlikely heroes tonight when Coughlin
(18-0) puts its unbeaten record on the line against Valley West (16-2), which
suffered its only losses to the Crusaders, at 7 p.m. at Spartan Stadium in
Kingston.
Only the winner advances to the PIAA Spring Soccer Tournament.
“We’ve been just concentrating on our game, the way we want to play
soccer,” Coughlin coach Joe Spagnuolo said after Monday’s 6-1 victory over
Wyoming Area in the semifinals. “That’s what we’re going to go in there to
do.”
Coughlin used the same philosophy to twice defeat Valley West by a 3-2
score during the Wyoming Valley Conference regular season. But the Spartans
believe those games, the first of which was decided in overtime, won’t affect
tonight’s outcome.
“We certainly think we should and could (win),” Valley West coach Chris
Lacy said.
Spagnuolo, whose team won the Division I championship, agreed.
“We’ve played them twice, and I think we both match up with each other
pretty evenly,” he said. “I think it’s going to be a heck of a game.”
Valley West has been rolling lately, defeating Berwick, 7-0, and Division
II champion Meyers, 6-1, in the district playoffs.
“Against Berwick and particularly against Meyers, I think we’ve played very
well,” Lacy said. “We’re very pleased. We did almost everything right that we
can do.”
What Valley West does best is get the ball to Renee Williams, April
Fronzoni and Stacey Horn. Williams finished tied for first in scoring in
Division I with 24 goals and had a division-high 22 assists. Fronzoni and Horn
tied for fourth. Fronzoni had 21 goals and five assists, and Horn scored 18
goals and assisted on 11.
The trio scored 63 of the team’s 78 regular-season goals. Williams and
Fronzoni have accounted for 11 of the Spartans’ 13 post-season goals.
Coughlin’s offense poses a different problem. Watch one game and Sara
Suchoski may look like the player to stop. Watch another and it’s Stephanie
Uhas or Jamie Uhas.
“It’s not going to be a shutdown-one-player type arrangement,” Lacy said.
“We’re all going to have to step up. They don’t have the one key player like
we keyed on (Meyers’) Lindsay (Pappas), but they got three or four key
players. But they have to step up on us as well.”
Both teams have strong central defenders. Coughlin is led by Colleen
Gallagher and Nicole Ference, and Valley West has Rhonda Williams and Caroline
O’Brien.
The deciding factor may be how the outside fullbacks contain runs down the
wing. Coughlin starts Melissa Myers and Carrie Jenkins. Valley West starts
Stephanie Iveson and Jill Soroka.
DISTRICT 2
Girls Soccer