Youth injection, Division I keeper leading North Hills girls soccer to strong start

The North Hills girls soccer program left the 2025 season intent on finding a way to improve. And early returns have shown that the drive may be starting to pay off.

Following a season in which the Indians went 4-13-1 and missed the playoffs for a fourth consecutive year, North Hills’ players attacked the offseason with purpose.

“They wanted more of a presence in their tactical awareness,” said Indians assistant coach Taylor Clawson, who serves under fourth-year head coach Jeroen Walstra.

The Indians, a year later, have been fueled by several young players and a senior goalkeeper who is one of the better multi-sport athletes in the WPIAL.

“We knew coming into the season that we would come out strong,” Clawson said. “We have more support from younger players, which we saw throughout the summer in training. We had more of an emphasis on coming together as a team and creating an identity.

“We had groups and accountability. They kept each other accountable and put in the work over the summer. … The seniors made sure that we put in the minutes, the ball work, in the offseason. Our seniors were checking in on the younger players. They knew that would make a big impact on this season.”

Through Sept. 4, North Hills was off to a 2-1 start. After a 2-1 season-opening loss to Armstrong — a playoff team from 2025 — the Indians bounced back with a pair of impressive wins.

North Hills beat Connellsville, 4-0, on Sept. 2 and blanked Springdale, 5-0, two days later.

“We had them in groups in the offseason throughout the summer,” Clawson said. “It gave them the opportunity to get to know each other. They know, when they play together, who meshes well together. It’s put us a leg up compared to last year.”

One of the young players, in particular, has made a major impact in freshman Peyton Devlin.

“She’s a very versatile player, which is really good,” Clawson said. “She defends super well.”

Defensively, sophomore Maddie DiCostanzo has been a rock.

“She really holds the back line,” Clawson said. “Last year, as a freshman, she fit into the role so well. She’s a leader on the back line and we’ve put her at center back. She has a big role in that.”

But the biggest defensive force is between the pipes with goalkeeper Delaney Amato, an Elon commit.

“It’s just her vision,” Clawson said of Amato, who is also a strong basketball player. “It’s apparent that, when she’s talking, our backline is 10 times better than whenever she’s not talking. She understands the game so well.

“She knows the position standpoints and where players need to be. It helps her success rate so much. She has natural ability and is very confident in the net and on the back line, too.”

Other top contributors throughout the pitch have been senior Nora Alexander and Ryan Venus, as well as attacker Kentley McGhee, who netted three goals over the first three games.

North Hills is hopeful that the strong start will continue on. A year ago, the Indians opened the season with a pair of wins, but went 0-10-1 in the month of September while battling a rigorous section slate that includes both 2025 WPIAL Class 4A finalists in Seneca Valley and North Allegheny.

“We go into every game with the mindset that, yes, this is a tough game, but it’s still a winnable game,” said Clawson, acknowledging that North Hills doesn’t currently have the pool of players to choose from that the top teams in the section have. “Every game is going to be winnable if you do all the little things right that we’ve been working on. If we play with each other, with the cohesiveness that we’ve gained, we can be successful.”

Now, there’s optimism that the Indians will be better equipped to handle the test that awaits. And the work done in the offseason is the biggest reason why.

“We definitely are a one-game-at-a-time team,” Clawson said. “We’re continuing to get better each day and are enjoying ourselves out there. There’s been an emphasis on that.

“Early on, we’ve just asked, ‘what is our identity, what are we working for and who are we as a team?’ We want to make sure the girls are getting together off the field more, doing different group activities.

“We don’t look at standings or have goals for a winning percentage or anything like that. We really just want to get better every day.”