It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. Notwithstanding cliche, it was a tale of two halves as the P-O soccer Mounties narrowly dropped their second game of the season Wednesday, falling 2-1 to Mifflin County in Lewistown.
In the first half Mifflin County dominated possession but could not score. The ironic twist of the second half was that the Mounties took over the game only to see the Huskies score twice even while P-O peppered MC keeper Derek Heimbach with quality chances.
“The first half was reminiscent of our loss to Central Mountain,” said Mountie coach Tom Petro. “We completely ceded possession to a decent opponent. The difference in this game was we tried some things to change that.”
In the second half, the Mounties came out in a different shape, employing five midfielders and it had the effect of blunting the Huskies’ attack. In the first ten minutes of the second period, suddenly the Mifflin County rear guard could find no passing lanes in the midfield and resorted to passing the ball repeatedly out of touch.
The deadlock, however, was broken on a 54th minute penalty kick by Husky defender James Wilburne. The penalty was called on Mountie center back Taylor Golemboski on a high ball in where the official appeared to call the Mountie for leaning in.
“Look. There is no such thing as a good PK when it is called against you,” said Petro. “We respect the officials and know they have a difficult job to do. The fact of the matter is we could have played better and eliminated room for error. You can’t go around blaming someone else for your own condition.”
The next Mifflin County goal came about four minutes later and if the first one wasn’t officially aided the second was; and again it involved the big Mountie center back.
The Huskies were inexplicably awarded a throw-in at the edge of the P-O third after a Husky defender knocked the ball straight out of bounds over a distance of 25 yards. The ensuing throw-in was tackled hard by Golemboski and the ball bounded toward the corner of the penalty area where Husky midfielder Justin Lewis cracked an unstoppable knuckling volley into the near post upper ninety.
“Credit to their #8,” said Petro. “That goal was as pretty as they come.”
Down 2 goals, the Mounties reverted to their standard 4-4-2 to try and gain some attack and it worked well this time as the visitors played more direct and caught the high MC back line out of sorts numerous times.
In the 64th minute, the pressure finally paid dividends as senior midfielder Alex Boumerhi beat the Husky back line with a clever through ball that striker Gerg Kojadinovich burst onto from 45 yards out, sailed into the penalty box and solidly slotted the ball home.
The goal seemed to rattle the home side as the Huskies dropped a center back deeper into their own end. P-O, meanwhile, calmly created chance after chance. Junior center back Alex Gray got on the end of a number of air balls in, narrowly missing high on one occasion. On another, Gray caught the keeper out on the back post and beat him with a header back across that had the crowd spellbound in a moment of almost, but the ball rolled inches wide.
Despite good late pressure, including numerous headers that could not find twine, the Mounties could not equalize. Coach Petro was ambivalent at the final whistle.
“We just have no luck so far with these triple-A teams. But, you know, we played good enough today to win. And, you know, we could have played better still,” said Petro. “These are the games we have to learn to win and we can’t go about that business by letting teams dictate their style of play to us for half the game.”
The Mounties did appear to find some answers in the second half. Whether or not they apply Monday when Juniata visits Curtis Park for a 4 p.m. kickoff remains to be seen.
GAME NOTES: The Mounties were out-shot 11-8 but the two halves were negative images of each other. Mifflin County had nine shots to the Mounties’ one at the half. In the second half, P-O had a 7-2 shot advantage.
Mountie keeper Jay Prentice made six saves to Husky keeper Derek Heimbach’s three. The Huskies also edged P-O in the corner kick department 4-3.
The Husky junior varsity downed P-O 2-0 to make the Mountie unhappiness complete.
It is the Mountie Tradition to name a “Man of the Match” in each game. Wednesday’s honor goes to senior striker Greg Kojadinovich, who tallied the lone P-O goal.
