Quakers close, but can’t lock up title
BLOOMSBURG — With 23 minutes remaining, the District 4 Class A boys soccer championship game was up for grabs.
Millville was given a breath of fresh air thanks to Aydin Boyunegmez's game-tying goal and the Quakers looked as if they had tipped the field in their favor.
Instead, the Quakers could not match Northumberland Christian's physicality, and the Warriors broke the game open with three goals in 15 minutes, and 5 seconds for the 4-1 victory.
The loss ended Millville's eight-game winning streak and hopes of its first district title since 2020. The Quakers finish the season 15-6.
The championship was the Warriors (20-0-1) first in program history.
Millville was fortunate to only be facing a one-goal deficit after the first half -- thanks to Nicholas Bisaccia hitting a Thomas Kraintz rebound save back where it came from -- after the Warriors were on the attack for 38 of the first 40 minutes.
The Quakers' first offensive threat came eight minutes into the second half when Grayson Betz booted a free kick just over goal. They kept the pressure squarely on the Warriors from that point until Boyunegmez took Betz's corner kick and tucked it into the left corner.
"I think when we scored that goal, that changed our style of play. We were starting to get a little more pep in our step," Millville coach Peter Morisco said. "... At the end of the day we did what we had to do, and we were knocking on the door but we had to be a little more consistent with our play."
The Quakers only got one more shot off at goal, finishing with three for the contest.
The Warriors, who up to that point seemingly kept waiting for a better shot opportunity to open up, turned up the physical play. Things got chippy with three combined yellow cards going out in the final 23 minutes, including to Millville's Betz and Caden Oliver-Glidewell.
The Quakers simply couldn't keep up with the Warriors' aggressive play or Bisaccia.
No longer waiting to create better passing or shooting lanes, the junior finished his night with a hat trick by scoring consecutive goals. His first was from long range on the ground past a diving Kraintz to his left. He capped his night by taking a cross pass from Noah Conner directly in front of goal and burying the Quakers' hopes.
Kraintz finished with five saves -- four in the first half.
"I really thought the game turned when it got more physical and we didn't match that," Morisco said. "I felt we definitely could have stepped up to that."
"If we played like we did in our last game [a 3-2 win over Benton], we would have been fine. We weren't marking tight enough. We left the midfield wide open, we didn't capitalize on the opportunities we had inside their 18," Morisco continued. "When you don't take care of those three things, you don't play disciplined."
The Warriors drew up the same play a few minutes later, this time having Liam Zwatty burying Christopher Eroh's pass with 2:59 left.
Despite coming up on the short end, Millville has plenty to remain optimistic about. It only loses three seniors and the bulk of its underclassmen now have postseason experience under their belt. It also comes at the expense of taking down their biggest rival in a come-from-behind victory to make it to the team's first championship game in four years.
"We came a long way in our second year of building a team," Morisco said. "Getting to this point usually takes four or five years and I think everybody contributed. They really came together when districts started and that's what I liked -- that they started to gel.
"Losing three seniors, including our goalie, will hurt a lot. I think we will be able to accommodate that because our younger group is very talented."
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