September 18, 2012 7:00 a.m. SAEGERTOWN —
Corry goalkeeper Ryan Walsh put on a show. Yet, he couldn’t stand up to the offensive onslaught put forth by Saegertown during the Panthers’ 3-0 victory over the Beavers in a Region 4 boys soccer matchup held Monday at French Creek Valley Christian School.
“My keeper had 29 saves, and I told him, ‘What, you couldn’t get 30?’” laughed Corry head coach Mike Schrecengost. “I don’t know what the school record is but, man, he’s got to be close. He had a lot of activity. He did a terrific job.”
Yet it was Saegertown getting the win, which ends a two-match losing streak and puts the Panthers at 5-2 overall and 1-0 in Region 4. Corry, which had won three of its last four coming into the match, drops to 3-4 overall and 0-1 in the region.
Not all of the 29 saves that Schrecengost credits to Walsh were direct keep-aways. Yet, the ones that were, those were impressive indeed.
“In my opinion, (Walsh) was pretty good,” said Panthers senior Jeff Mattocks. “He made some good saves. But we had to put some in and finish the game. And we worked hard on that and finally got going.”
In the first half, the Panthers took 18 shots at Corry’s net. Walsh had to turn away eight. Conversely, Corry recorded just one shot on goal in the half, which was easily scooped up by goalkeeper Ross Ferguson. Ferguson would need just three saves to notch a shutout victory.
Finally, in the last five minutes of the half, Saegertown was granted a golden opportunity. Freshman forward Peter Mattocks worked his way inside the penalty area and was headed toward goal when he was taken out by one of Corry’s defenders.
That set the Cats up with a penalty kick. Jeff Mattocks took it. He shot low to the right-hand post. Walsh guessed correctly, but couldn’t get to the ball in time. Saegertown finally got on the board.
“For it to be 1-0 in the first half because of that one PK, that’s commendable,” Schrecengost said. “Because they had their ball on our side of the field and just dominated from the midfield on.”
In the second half, Walsh continued to make some big saves for his team. In fact, in just the first minute, he manage to deflect a point-blank shot from the Panthers, then quickly picked himself up and punched away a second attempt off the rebound.
“(Walsh) did a very good job of keeping that ball out of the net,” said Panthers head coach Ryan Schenck. “He made some pretty impressive saves.
“But we can do better at finishing. My forwards are good at playing the game of soccer. But putting the ball in the net, they’re still figuring that out. So hopefully I can get them to relax and finish chances. We have to finish chances when we have only a few. That will be important in the future.”
About halfway through the second half, Saegertown got another good opportunity on a corner kick. Senior Eric Brocious served it into the pack in front of the goal. And Greg Bras leaped up out of the tangle and slammed a nice header into the net, putting the Panthers in front 2-0.
“If (Bras) would put his head through it more often he would probably score more goals because there doesn’t seem to be too many teams that really have anybody that can mark him up,” Schenck said. “He’s a big and athletic guy.”
Then with around five minutes to go, Saegertown’s Matt Schenberg made it 3-0, getting a nice forward feed from Jeff Mattocks and ripping it from the top of the 18-yard box and off the crossbar and into the twine.
The forward then let out a big growl, letting go of 55 minutes worth of frustration of dealing with Corry’s tough-to-beat keeper.
“(Saegertown) is skilled, no question about it,” said Schrecengost. “They have a lot of skill, a lot of quickness. That’s a good soccer team and we give them a lot of credit.”
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