BVA’s Sassak, ’Cats Timlin take honors

When Markello Apodiakos played his last game at Belle Vernon Area last fall, head coach Rob Miele knew he had a big void to fill in the goal-scoring department.

Apodiakos, BVA’s all-time leading goal scorer with 89 goals and 212 points, is now at Duquesne and Miele has been tasked with relying on a new crop of goal scorers.

Sophomore Daniel Sassak has answered the bell.

Through seven games this season, Sassak has scored a team-high 14 goals. He’s posted five multi-goal games, including a pair of hat tricks, and has scored at least one goal in all but one game.

He only scored eight goals all of last season.

“It certainly has been a welcomed sight. He’s been the main guy scoring but the guys around him have been playing great and getting him the ball in the right situations,” Miele said.

Belle Vernon Area’s 7-0 start is the best in program history and a big reason behind its success has been Sassak.

“I never doubted his ability to find the back of the net. He is a natural scorer,” Miele said. “But with a new offensive system, new position for him and certainly a new role within our team, I wasn’t sure how soon all of those components would sort themselves out.”

For his ability to put the ball in the back of the net early this season, Sassak has been named the Mon Valley Independent-BeeGraphix Male Athlete of the Week.

“I think his vision and scoring touch are about as good as you can ask for from a sophomore. He’s made a smooth transition from a forward into the midfield,” Miele said. “I think this offseason he really spent a lot of time fine-tuning his speed, strength and overall game. We identified a few areas we really wanted him to work on, and he exceeded our expectations for that growth in the offseason.”

Sassak has benefitted from having a nice supporting cast around him.

He’s one of four sophomores in the Leopards’ front six, joining Hunter Meade, Tyler Kovatch and Daniel Gordon. Seniors Niko Apodiakos and Maverick Selvoski join the quartet.

While the group is still learning a lot about one another and enduring a bit of a learning curve playing with each other, they have been able to develop chemistry rather quickly.

“We have a nice mixture of different types of players who all complement each other very well,” Miele said. Miele knows it’s unfair to expect Sassak to average two goals a game throughout a long season.

But considering the work ethic, compete level and consistency Sassak brings night in and night out, Miele believes he will be able to sustain his high level of play.

“He’s a big part of our team and a guy we count on,” Miele said. “I’m excited to see what he and the rest of the group does this season and moving forward, I think he has the opportunity to have a very successful high school career.”

Jocelyn Timlin

Jocelyn Timlin’s method to scoring goals is easy to comprehend.

According to Bentworth girls soccer coach Tyler Hamstra, it’s all about the chaos she’s able to create with her ability to pepper opposing goalkeepers with shots.

“The math is simple, the more shots you put on frame the more you will score,” Hamstra said. “She’s very good at creating chaos and putting keepers under pressure. When she starts scoring she only gets better.”

Regardless of how difficult it is to navigate around an opposing defense and make things happen offensively, Timlin certainly makes putting the ball in the back of the net look easy.

She’s the all-time leading goal scorer in the program history and has started the 2019 season scoring 16 goals in Bentworth’s first six games.

Timlin has scored two or more goals in all but one game this season and has four hat tricks.

Timlin, who has been selected as our

Mon Valley Independent-BeeGraphix Female Athlete of the Week, is undoutedbly one of the best Hamstra has been around. “As a goal scorer she has always had a natural nose for scoring goals, mostly dirty gritty goals in the box. She’s scrappy,” Hamstra said. “She’s really improved on finesse shooting. It’s an area she knew she needed to improve on. She’s always had a quick hard shot, but now she’s better with placement.”

Hamstra said Timlin is one of the faces of the program, holding a place on the Mt. Rushmore of Bentworth girls soccer with the likes of Erin Ritzer and a pair of teammates in Paige Marshalek and Rori Schreiber.

“Jocelyn is the most physically gifted female soccer player in school history,” Hamstra said. “You can count on one hand how many times she wasn’t the best athlete on the field in her career. You can’t teach that.”

Timlin is complemented by offensive standouts such as Marshalek, Rori Schreiber, Reagan Schreiber and Tessa Charpentier.

“I think it’s a special attack and they are all so different from each other,” Hamstra said. “Jocelyn has really evolved as a player and become much more than a deep threat with speed. She’s much better with the ball and her assist numbers have gone up significantly every year. It’s a scary group.”

Hamstra said he expects Timlin to put up bigger numbers than she did as a junior. She scored 51 goals and added 18 assists last season.

“She’s very hungry and very goal driven,” Hamstra said. “She has told me her goals this year and I think she’ll reach them.”