Marathon goes to Eagles
KINGSLEY — The problems popped up early for Millville, and never stopped appearing in a game that was decided by penalty kicks.
It started with having to battle with natural elements, followed by losing a starter mid-game after entering the game without Zach Poust. It continued when the Quakers had to dive further into its bench after a pair of yellow cards were called three minutes apart. In the meantime, the Quakers were in the hunt for that elusive goal that would have advanced them to the PIAA Class A boys soccer quarterfinals.
That goal never happened despite playing like the better team down the stretch of a 110-minute marathon. Instead, it was Mountain View that came out with the 2-1 win by winning the PK shootout, 5-3 after double overtime.
Millville finished the season 10-3-1.
It’s not uncommon for a low-scoring contest to come down to goalie play. However, the conclusion of Wednesday’s game was anything but typical.
Quakers goalkeeper Landon Evans had allowed 12 goals in 14 games, including Wednesday. He was not only tasked with being the exceptional stopper he’s been all season in the penalty kicks, but also asked to perform a penalty kick.
Unfortunately for the senior, his shot was just high, hitting off the crossbar. The goalie was the difference in the game, just not in usual aspects.
Millville coach Shannon Ludwig chose him as one of the five Quakers based on what he’s seen all season.
“He kicks around with us at practice and he’s really good at it,” Ludwig said. “Being a goalie, you think mentally, he knows what’s going through the other goalkeeper’s head. It should give us an edge is what we were thinking.
“It didn’t work. It maybe might have been because Landon already had so much pressure on him from having to stop goals. Adding that extra pressure on him to make a goal could have been a mistake on my part.”
Mountain View (12-1) went 5-for-5 on PKs with Mike Dewolf, Zach Plovich, Josh Tyborowski, Nathan Ofalt and Ben Demark being called upon for the Eagles.
Blake Evans, Mason Huff and Cameron Laubach were successful for the Quakers.
The situation was nearly avoided on numerous occasions, but neither offense could finish off drives.
The Eagles’ go-to all afternoon was to have Ofalt and his powerful flip throw get the ball near goal and hope it’s strong enough to get past the Quakers.
It worked early, as Tyborowski finished it off with a toe tap to give the Eagles a 1-0 lead less than 10 minutes into the game. In the waning minutes of the first half, it looked as if the duo had done it again, but refs stopped the celebration, saying the ball went directly into the net from the throw-in.
The Quakers made the defensive adjustments to not let that plan hurt them for the rest of the game.
“We were pretty solid defensively the whole game,” Ludwig said. “They scored that goal early, but we went into PKs tied at one. That shows how strong our defense was holding up. That goal in the first half was kind of a luck shot — had (Tyborowski) not had it glance off of him, that ball would not have counted.”
The Quakers quickly responded, tying the game five minutes later on Laubach’s indirect kick.
“He had a brilliant kick,” Mountain View coach Joe Scanlon said. “That’s unstoppable when it’s that good. Then both teams kind of mirrored each other.”
Neither team was great at accounting for the wind as the Eagles often put too much behind kicks and throw-ins while the Quakers attempted to get off high passes that went well off target. They also had to take turns battling a sunset.
The Quakers showed they were the more durable team when it came to playing a long, drawn-out game, but simply couldn’t execute what Ludwig wanted to be done.
“Ofalt was going up to do those massive throw-ins and walking back to his position,” Ludwig said. “I was trying to get the defense to get the ball out as soon as we got it because we had two guys up top that can beat the couple defenders they had.”
It also had to dive into its depth with Dyllan Klinger leaving the game with an apparent leg injury late in the first half. In the second half, Aaron Hack and Patrick Stefan were yellow carded and forced to sit out five minutes each.
“Zach, our normal striker, sprained his ankle (Monday) and we had to put Matthew Owens, a pretty green player give it his all,” Ludwig said. “When Klinger was taken out, we needed to keep our middle strong to stop them from pounding us and I placed Ian Ludwig there and thought he did a great job with Cameron Laubach.”
All told, the Quakers outshot the Eagles, 12-6. Millville also had eight corners to Mountain View’s five.
Millville 1 0 0 0 — 1
Mountain View 1 0 0 0 — 1
First half: 1. Mountain View, Josh Tyborowski (Nathan Ofalt), 31:59; 2. Millville, Cam Laubach, 26:56. Penalty kicks: Mountain View 5, Millville 3. Millville — Blake Evans, Mason Huff, Labauch; missed — Landon Evans. Mountain View — Mike Dewolf, Zach Polovich, Tyborowski, Ofalt, Ben Demark.
Shots: Millville 12, Mountain View 6. Corner kicks: Millville 8, Mountain View 5. Saves: Millville 2 (L. Evans), Mountain View 11 (Connor Richmond).
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