Coach Dan Brower sat on the sideline in the chilly late-evening air at Chartiers Valley High School's stadium moments after finishing a postgame speech to his Pine-Richland boys' soccer team Tuesday night.

The Rams had held Peters Township scoreless through 54 minutes of play, but eventually succumbed, 3-0, in a PIAA Class AAA semifinal. Instead of playing for a PIAA title Saturday in Hershey Pine-Richland's season abruptly ended.

The defeat was frustrating -- officials handed out a red card to forward Bryan Nicklas and a yellow card to Brower and one of his assistants in the closing minutes -- but instead of dwelling on the negatives, Brower decided to be sentimental. The fifth-year coach preferred to pay tribute to a senior class that had been through a great deal the past four years.

"Of course it's bittersweet," Brower said. "You'd like to finish it off in Hershey and the guys feel that way too. But the seniors have been great, man. They've really elevated this program to a new level, and I hope that our underclassmen can appreciate the seniors' work and all they've done in their careers here at Pine-Richland and keep it going in the future. It was an exciting senior group and it's been such a joy to work with them over the years."

Pine-Richland had 11 seniors on its roster, six of which started. They entered the program when it was a perennial playoff contender and went 12-4-3 as freshmen. Two years ago, Pine-Richland endured a 6-10-1 hiccup, but after going 12-4-2 last season and 15-5-2 this season, it's clear the program has returned to a place near the top of the WPIAL.

The Rams had their season end at the hands of Peters Township for the second consecutive year. Although the final margin of defeat was three goals, the game was tight throughout and Brower said the Rams deserved a better fate.

"I thought we were the better team in the first half, and the boys were excited," Brower said. "We talked about it at halftime -- we just needed to keep competing, playing for lose balls, and I thought we won a lot of 50-50 chances for balls. We had some scoring chances. Give credit to Peters Township. They scored on a set piece to begin the scoring in the second half ... At this level, it's the set pieces that can hurt you and, unfortunately for us, Peters did a great job converting theirs into the back of net."

It was the first time since the second game of the season Sept. 6 that Pine-Richland had given up three goals in a match. During the team's WPIAL and PIAA playoff run, the Rams had outscored opponents, 14-6, in the five games before Tuesday. That included perhaps the highlight of the season -- a 2-1 win against WPIAL champion Bethel Park, whicvh was 23-1 at the time, Saturday in the PIAA quarterfinals. The Black Hawks defeated Pine-Richland, 2-1, in double overtime 11 days prior in the WPIAL semifinals.

Seniors on the Pine-Richland roster include forwards Andrew Trolanos, Jeremy Ross, Joe Maranowski, Taylor Kennedy and Michael Keuch; midfielders Matt Hickey and Ben Whiting; and defenders Ryan Roth, Robbie Mahoney and Yahia El Kadi and defender/forward Keith Sinclair.

Even though there are holes to fill in the lineup, Brower feels good about the talent he has returning next season.

"We have a nice group of underclassmen that have been starting and contributing," he said.

"Competing in our section -- it's a very tough section -- we're looking to these underclassmen to have another great year next year. We'll set high goals and work hard to achieve them. This year, what this team did, we expect nothing less in the years to come. This was a great team [for the returning players and ensuing teams] to model themselves after."