KINGSLEY \u2014 After having to rally to win its quarterfinal match, Mountain View looked to get out to a much better start in its District 2 Class 1A boys soccer semifinal Tuesday afternoon.<\/p>\n
Three first-half goals enabled the Eagles to do that, and they went on to notch a 3-1 victory over Old Forge at the Robert W. Klenk Athletic Complex.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we got down, we were nervous last game,\u201d said senior Josh Tigue, who scored the Eagles\u2019 third goal. \u201cIt was good to get a little cushion so we could play our game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sophomores Blake Norton and Ben Millard also scored for top-seeded Mountain View (16-2-1), which advances to the district final against No. 2 Wyoming Seminary, which defeated No. 3 Holy Cross, 4-1, in the other semifinal. The championship game is scheduled for Friday at 3:30 p.m. at Mountain View.<\/p>\n
Against Gregory the Great in the quarterfinals, Mountain View found itself locked in a scoreless duel at halftime and trailed, 2-1, five minutes into the second half before Norton scored three goals in the final 27 minutes for a 4-2 victory.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s much, much harder to get ahead when you\u2019re falling behind,\u201d Mountain View coach Travis MacDonald said. \u201cThat (a better start) was the primary goal. We had a couple things different in play. We worked on a lot of different set pieces and finishing in our last practice to really, really understand what we had to do in the next game and they did well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Norton made sure Mountain View struck first this time when he scored at 14:05.<\/p>\n
Some nifty passing helped the Eagles extend the lead. Joel Tigue fed his brother Josh Tigue, who centered the ball in front. It deflected off a couple of Old Forge players and went to Millard, who beat goalkeeper Arthur Askew at 26:17.<\/p>\n
Less than three minutes later, at 29:12, Josh Tigue fired a low shot into the bottom-left corner of the net to make it 3-0.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was just there. It was a whole team effort and I was the one who just happened to put it in,\u201d Josh Tigue said. \u201cI don\u2019t think he (Askew) saw it with all the defenders in the way.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to MacDonald, crashing the goal in the first half was the difference for his team.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was something we\u2019ve lacked on in the past,\u201d he said. \u201cTwo out of three goals were generated by crashing the goal. Blake\u2019s first goal was with the left foot on a corner coming up. Joshua\u2019s third goal, same thing. Crashed at the top of the 18 and drove it in. That played a key role in today\u2019s success, just making sure we were crashing the goal.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also gave credit to his defense.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur defense, honestly, is what locked us in in that first half,\u201d MacDonald said. \u201cThey didn\u2019t let anything in behind, couldn\u2019t play direct. Keeping our composure has always been a key for us and getting those quick goals.\u201d<\/p>\n
Old Forge coach John Mucciolo knew his team faced a daunting task in trying to rally in the second half.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re good in the midfield and they\u2019re good up top with their possession. Not necessarily having to attack, but they hold onto the ball,\u201d Mucciolo said. \u201cWhen you\u2019re trying to make a comeback against that team, you have to defend and build up from the back. It\u2019s difficult.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought we played an excellent second half. We came out flat, the ball bounced the wrong way a few times. But credit to them. They outplayed us for a large portion of the game and deserve to go on.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Blue Devils (12-7-1) did get one goal back in the second half. William Garcia was taken down in the box and scored on a penalty kick at 55:55. However, they didn\u2019t mount much of a threat after that.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got a little too relaxed,\u201d Josh Tigue said. \u201cThat was kind of a wakeup call to start defending and playing harder.\u201d<\/p>\n
Added Mucciolo: \u201cThree against a good team in this sport is pretty insurmountable. I told them at half I didn\u2019t mind the way they were playing. We had to be a little cleaner with our passing and had to get one back in the first 10 minutes. The kids didn\u2019t quit, which I\u2019m really happy about. They came out much more aggressive in the second half. I didn\u2019t know if they were going to go into a shell and put up the white flag, but they didn\u2019t. They\u2019re great competitors.\u201d<\/p>\n
MacDonald is confident the Eagles will be ready for the district final against Wyoming Seminary.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve said this since Day 1. We play every game as if it\u2019s the championship game,\u201d MacDonald said. \u201cWe don\u2019t take anybody lightly, we don\u2019t underestimate anybody. I don\u2019t care who shows up at this field, we\u2019re going to take them on and do it to the best of our ability. We\u2019re not afraid of anybody.\u201d<\/p>\n
First: Norton (MTV), 14:05. Millard (MTV), 26:17. Josh Tigue (MTV), 29:12; Second: Garcia (OF), penalty kick, 55:55; Shots-corners: OF 5-3, MTV 14-7; Saves: Askew (OF) 5, Beach (MTV) 5; Records: OF 12-7-1, MTV 16-2-1.<\/p>\n
Wyoming Seminary 4, Holy Cross 1:\u00a0At Wyoming Seminary, Owen Stretanski and Artur Zelenko each scored two goals, while Zelenko had two assists to lead the Blue Knights to the win in the District 2 Class 1A semifinals.<\/p>\n
Wyoming Seminary will play at top seed Mountain View on Friday at 3:30 p.m. for the district title.<\/p>\n
Adam Badyrka scored for Holy Cross.<\/p>\n
First:\u00a0Badyrka (HC) from Prislupski, 32:33. Stretanski (WS) from Zelenko, 17:34;\u00a0Second:\u00a0Stretanski (WS) from Zelenko, 33:02. Zelenko (WS) from Jolin, 11:22. Zelenko (WS) from Rolland, 7:47;\u00a0Shots-corners:\u00a0WS 26-6, HC 3-1;\u00a0Saves: Richart (WS) 1, McCoy (HC) 18; Records: HC 14-6, WS 14-5.<\/p>\n
Class 2A<\/p>\n
At Lake-Lehman, Aiden Gallagher, Hunter Palka and Andrew Morris each scored two goals in Lake-Lehman\u2019s 8-0 win over Dunmore in the District 2 Class 2A semifinals.<\/p>\n
The top-seeded Black Knights will host Tunkhannock on Thursday at 6 p.m. for the district title. The No. 3 Tigers advanced with a 4-3 overtime victory over No. 2 Riverside.<\/p>\n
Kolby Shook and Landon James also scored for the Black Knights. Palka had two assists, while Morris and Gallagher each had one.<\/p>\n
First:\u00a0Shook (LL) from Palka, 38:57. Palka (LL) from Morris, 32:11. Gallagher (LL) unassisted, 27:38. Gallagher (LL) unassisted, 9:18. Morris (LL) unassisted, 5:47;\u00a0Second:\u00a0James (LL) from Palka, 11:12. Palka (LL) from Gallagher, 6:50. Morris (LL) unassisted, 4:00;\u00a0Shots-corners:\u00a0DUN 8-2, LL 22-10;\u00a0Saves: O\u2019Malley (DUN) 6, Chapple (LL) 3; Records: DUN 15-5, L 19-1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KINGSLEY \u2014 After having to rally to win its quarterfinal match, Mountain View looked to get out to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18425,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[305,178,180,179,726],"class_list":{"0":"post-18424","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scranton","8":"tag-high-school-sports","9":"tag-scranton","10":"tag-scranton-headlines","11":"tag-scranton-news","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}