WPIAL girls soccer has been dominated by the south in the largest classification in recent memory. For example, of the schools who have won state titles in the last 20 years, outside of Norwin in 2017 and Pine Richland in 2005 when Klingenberg was there, they’ve all been in today’s AAAA south. Peters has won it 4 times, Moon 3 times, USC 1 time, and Canon Mac 1 time (with an additional state silver). This is the first time in the largest classification that a team from the north has got to Hershey since PR.
That said, there was been a power shift the last two years, as the south has been a bit down. The power has been in the north and NA has been dominant. Mars plays in the lower AAA division, and since all the powers moved up to AAAA in 2016 when the state went from 3 classes to 4, Mars are frankly on a different planet (no pun intended). If they were a AAAA team, they’d likely still be a top 4 team. That’s how good they are right now. But their road is much easier than NA and anyone from AAAA, and their players can rack up stats much easier as well. In WPIAL, the top scorers come from the lower classes because of the schedules and opponents. Mars has players at the top of the list. But you might find 1 player from AAAA that cracks the top 40 goal scorers. That’s how competitive it is. And how much of a disparity there are with high school stats.
