FOUNTAIN SPRINGS — The high school soccer postseason got underway Saturday with the Schuylkill League quarterfinals.
BOYS
Pine Grove 2, Schuylkill Haven 0
The Cardinals and Hurricanes were engaged in a scoreless battle until Pine Grove’s Jackson Lengel broke through with a goal with 6:30 left in the game.
Schuylkill Haven put the pressure on early — outshooting Pine Grove 4-0 in the first half — but could not convert.
“We started out, kind of came out the first 10 minutes quick, but then we just fell off, and we weren’t connecting passes, and (Haven) played well,” Pine Grove Coach Marvin Weber said. “I mean, they came to play. They were putting the ball really well. They have a really good team.”
Weber attributed some of the struggles to some unfamiliar defensive looks.
“They did something a little different with defense that we haven’t seen all year, sweeper-stopper. That’s something different,” he said “So we just got to figure out how to play against that. We might see it again, so it’s something we can talk about, watch that. And be ready to go from there.”
Pine Grove seemed to figure it out in the second half with 12 shots on goal, one of which Lengel converted on a cross head for the game-winner. Ian Brown picked up the assist on the goal.
“We talked at halftime about what we needed to do, connected inside the middle, finding feet, and I thought, did a great job of that,” Weber said.
Terrin Witmer added the second goal, assisted by Karan Brucker, with 1:06 remaining.
Pine Grove goalkeeper Dru Herber stopped all eight shots he faced.
The Cardinals will take on Minersville in the Schuylkill League semifinals on Monday.
“They’ve got a lot of guys that can score. We’re going to have to be able to play D, and make sure we lock that down.” Weber said. “And then when we get our opportunities, we got to capitalize.”
North Schuylkill 2, Tri-Valley 1 (Penalty Kicks)
North Schuylkill defeated Tri-Valley in dramatic fashion by outscoring the Bulldogs 3-2 on penalty kicks to walk away with the 2-1 victory.
Wesley Urban got the scoring started for the Spartans with a goal halfway through the opening half.
They had the early lead, but North Schuylkill coach Jarrid Todd knew it would take more.
“We played them at their place earlier in the season — same situation. We were up 1-0; they tied it 1-1; we ended up drawing that one,” he said. “So we knew that it was going to be tough even if we scored first. So scoring first, while it was important, we knew that the job wasn’t finished even if we got that first goal.”
Todd was correct in his assumption, as Tri-Valley’s Nathan Hillard slipped behind the goalkeeper and knocked the ball in to tie it up in the second half.
“We preach it every day. It’s always a “next play” mindset. It’s not always going to be pretty, it’s not always going to be easy,” Todd said. “But we are going to do our best to respond to any kind of adversity, and I think that just preaching that as the season goes on is very important.”
Eighty minutes of play was not enough as the clock expired with the score tied 1-1.
“You get to the Schuylkill League playoffs, it’s anybody’s game,” Todd said. “You kind of can toss those records out the window once you get to this stage. Coach Phil (Barry) over there, he had his guys ready, so they came in, (had a) great game plan, took away a lot of our key players.”
When it was time to line up for penalty kicks, Todd had confidence in his team.
“We spend more time with these guys than I can even keep track of,” he said. “And I think just knowing them when they’re at their best, knowing them when they’re at their worst, and having that connection with them throughout the course of a long off-season, a long pre-season, a long season allows us to really be in tune with who’s ready to go when we get to those big moments.”
North Schuylkill will take on Blue Mountain in the semifinals on Monday.
GIRLS
North Schuylkill 4, Tri-Valley 0
This is an initial game report and story will be updated with more details and quotes.
Mia McDonald scored a pair of goals to lead North Schuylkill past Tri-Valley 4-0 on Saturday in the first of two girls soccer quarterfinal matchups.
Addie Urban and Abby Smith both tallied first-half goals before McDonald extended the lead early in the second half, scoring on a bending, 28-yard floater just under the crossbar. McDonald struck again later in the half from the middle of the penalty box, giving the game it’s final of 4-0.
Defensively, North Schuylkill was stout throughout the contest, holding Tri-Valley without a shot on goal over the match’s first 65 minutes.
Minersville 1, Tamaqua 0
This is an initial game report and story will be updated with more details and quotes.
Minersville defeated Tamaqua 1-0 thanks to an early second half goal from Danica Gill.
Gill broke a scoreless tie nine minutes into the second half scoring on a goal that narrowly got by Tamaqua goalkeeper Sophia Sitlinger to the far side.
The Lady Raiders had several opportunities in the match to find a goal but was unable to solve Minersville keeper Bella Rizzardi who had 10 saves on the afternoon.