Expand<\/a><\/p>\nMOSCOW \u2014 As Wes Illian lined up to take a direct kick, injured star forward Joey Pivirotto yelled from the sideline, \u201cVisualize it going in!\u201d<\/p>\n
A few seconds later, Illian didn\u2019t have to visualize it anymore. Neither did the players, coaches and fans.<\/p>\n
The sophomore midfielder rocketed the direct kick into the left corner of the net to seal Abington Heights\u2019 2-0 victory over North Pocono and secure the Comets\u2019 fifth straight Lackawanna League Division I boys soccer title Monday night at Trojan Stadium.<\/p>\n
\u201cI visualized it going in. I did what he told me to do,\u201d Illian said. \u201cIt was my first free kick of the season. I had a little nerves, but I just kind of fired it in. Lucas (Samala) told me to just put it straight at the keeper and hit it as hard as you can and it worked.\u201d<\/p>\n
Illian also added an assist on Lucas Samala\u2019s goal that broke the scoreless tie earlier in the second half.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels great. It\u2019s been a hard season,\u201d Samala said. \u201cEvery game, it\u2019s like a final, so we\u2019re just trying to win one game at a time and we got to the last one and we put it away.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Comets graduated five seniors from last season\u2019s PIAA Class 3A championship team, and lost their star striker Pivirotto, a two-time All-Region selection, to injury before the start of this season. They won their first two games before tying Scranton on Sept. 10. Then, they lost their first game in a year Sept. 17 to North Pocono. The teams were tied at 1 before Rocco Rava ripped a direct kick into the back of the net to give the Trojans the victory.<\/p>\n
After that, Abington Heights won seven straight, including four Division I wins and a victory over undefeated Northwestern Lehigh, to set up Monday\u2019s showdown.<\/p>\n
North Pocono had scoring opportunities in the first half, but Billy Johnson proved ready for the moment. Logan Phillips ripped a shot from the right side, but the Comets senior All-Region goalkeeper dove right for the save. Later, Johnson had a great reaction to a header off a free kick to keep the game scoreless.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt pretty confident,\u201d said Johnson, who finished with four saves. \u201cAfter what we did against them the first time, I really wanted to get this one. It meant a lot. I really hate getting swept by any opponent in the season. It just doesn\u2019t sit well with me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Abington Heights\u2019 back line of Connor Rooney, Connor Hiller, Sam James and Owen Phillips also stepped up for a defense that lost All-Region defenders Enzo Capozzi and James Mitchell and defender Aiden Gardner from last year\u2019s team.<\/p>\n
Rooney shut down several runs when he was the last defender in between the attacker and Johnson. He not only stifled attacks, but also cleared the ball to kickstart the offense. James made some key steals, especially in the second half.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe defense played amazing,\u201d said Johnson, who helped the Comets secure their eighth clean sheet. \u201cI never had any doubts, even after last season. People were like, you\u2019re losing your whole back line. But, we\u2019re reloading, it\u2019s not a rebuild. They\u2019ve played amazing this whole season, and I\u2019ve just had so much confidence in them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Abington Heights had an opportunity to take the lead one minute into the second half off Carter DeSarno\u2019s direct kick, but Alwin Copertino made a diving save, one of his four, to keep the game scoreless.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe did really, really well, and he\u2019s doing much better as the season goes on just on his positioning and everything,\u201d North Pocono coach Graig Arcurie said. \u201cHe\u2019s pretty athletic. He\u2019s able to get to a lot of saves that are going to the corners, and he did make a couple fantastic saves today. They had two nice shots on the goal and that\u2019s why they scored them.\u201d<\/p>\n
A few minutes later, Rava received a nice ball into the box and faced a one-on-one with Johnson, but the Abington Heights keeper turned the shot away. It was one of several opportunities Rava, an All-Region player, created, but couldn\u2019t convert.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had a couple chances when he got in there one v. one,\u201d Arcurie said. \u201cHe put one wide, Billy made a couple good saves on him. He\u2019s a great all-around goalkeeper, but Rocco does that to defenses. He\u2019s able to put pressure on them with his quickness, and he\u2019s a physical player. He\u2019s a big part of what we do as a team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Finally, almost 60 minutes into the game, Illian had a nice touch to Samala, who curved the ball off his right foot and into the left side of the net for a 1-0 lead.<\/p>\n
\u201cWes passed me the ball, it bounced a little bit, outside of the foot and bang, it was a goal,\u201d Samala said.<\/p>\n
Ten minutes later, the sophomore midfield capitalized on a bad touch in North Pocono territory, as he bolted for the ball and forced a foul just outside the box. That set up Illian\u2019s rocket into the left corner of the net that sealed the victory and the Division I title.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt means a lot to us because it\u2019s been a hard season for us,\u201d Illian said. \u201cWe\u2019ve had so much to live up to, and every team is coming out flying even more than before. So, winning this title means a lot to me especially because it definitely was not as easy. It was probably twice as hard, but we came out with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Second: Samala (AH) from Illian, 59:28. Illian (AH), 69:01;\u00a0Shots-corners: AH 6-2, NP 5-2; Saves: Johnson (AH) 4, Copertino (NP) 4; Records: AH (12-1-1, 9-1-1), NP (7-4-4, 5-2-2).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"North Pocono\u2019s Andrew Geck, left, collides with Abington Heights\u2019 Owen Phillips during the match at North Pocono Trojan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":305553,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[305,178,180,179,726],"class_list":["post-305552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-high-school-sports","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305552","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=305552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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