Springdale almost got its revenge against South Park, but the young Dynamos came up short again in the PIAA Class AA girls' soccer semifinals, losing to the Eagles in a shootout, 5-4, Tuesday night at West Allegheny.

The game was tied 1-1 after 110 minutes of regulation and overtime play before the outcome was decided by penalty kicks.

Springdale took its turn first in the shootout with Brittany Loveland, Ally Overly and Sabrina Adams each hitting their shots. Unfortunately, freshman midfielder Julie Bentley's shot was wide right which opened the door for South Park.

The Eagles were a perfect 5 for 5 in the shootout.

"All penalty kicks [shootouts] are is a way to figure out who is going to play in the next game. I thought this was an even game on the field," Springdale coach Jerry Concannon said. "[A Shootout] is not a determination as to who's better or deserves to win, but we can't sit here all night and play.

"I had every confidence in our players who took the PKs. I'm proud of these girls and I don't judge them based on the results of this game. Our composure in this situation was pretty good. Julie had the keeper beat, she just shot a little wide. I'm unbelievably proud of this team. This was an amazing performance against a very good team."

Springdale took a lead early in the first half on a goal by Loveland. Leading 1-0 to start the second half, the Dynamos seemed to control play for the first five minutes after the intermission only to give up a goal to South Park's Jess Morgan with 33:38 left in regulation play. Morgan helped set up South Park's winning goal late in the second half of the WPIAL final against Springdale with a header off a corner kick.

South Park had 15 corner kicks in the rematch, but did not score on any of them.

"Quite frankly, I felt [South Park] deserved to win that [WPIAL final] game, but tonight we were able to shut down some of their key players and deny them as many opportunities as we could," Concannon said. "The coaching staff and players sat down and discussed [how Springdale could adjust] and we implemented a plan to counter what they were doing and it worked.

"We knew South Park would get a lot of corner kicks. We studied their plan. That's what they try to do by nicking the ball off a defender so they can get those free services off the corners. This time, we were more prepared for that. We practiced quite extensively on defending against them the other day."

To get a rematch with South Park, Springdale (22-4-1) defeated Elk County Catholic, 4-0, and Fairview, 3-0, in the PIAA playoffs.

Springdale usually started nine sophomore and freshmen with the only senior starters being goalie Kim Bentley and defender Leah Weimerskirch.

Springdale's remarkable season came as a surprise since it had not been to the WPIAL playoffs in five years. The Dynamos had not had a season like this one since 1997 when they won the WPIAL and reached the PIAA final..

That team 10 years ago was senior-oriented. This year's should be a top WPIAL/PIAA contender again. Loveland, only a sophomore, led Springdale with more than 30 goals.

"Our youth has been talked about and the future looks very bright, but quite honestly, I've looked at these young players as varsity-level players since the first day of the season and I've had the same expectations of them," Concannon said.

"What's great about our situation is that we have a young team that experienced so many different things with high school soccer that they'll be mentally prepared [for next year]. Nobody will be able to say that they have not been here before."