HS Boys’ Soccer: Cards, Eagles to meet again in Schuylkill League final
Pine Grove's Quentin Umbenhauer, second from right, is congratulated by his teammates after scoring a goal in Tuesday's Schuylkill League boys' soccer semifinal win over Minersville (Photo by Will Hall).
SCHUYLKILL HAVEN — Thursday’s Schuylkill League boys’ soccer championship game will have a familiar ring to it.
Pine Grove and Blue Mountain will meet for the league crown for the third straight year after both squads notched convincing semifinal victories Tuesday night at Rotary Field.
Pine Grove advanced to the league final for the sixth time in eight years with a 4-1 victory over Division II champion Minersville in the opener. In the nightcap, Dylan Knittle scored two goals and had an assist as Blue Mountain blanked Lourdes 5-0.
The Cards (16-4) and Eagles (16-3) will square off in the second game of the championship doubleheader at 7 p.m. Thursday at Rotary Field. The girls’ championship game between Schuylkill Haven and Blue Mountain will kick things off at 5 p.m.
“We’re looking forward to the game,” Blue Mountain coach Chris Brauer. “They’re a well-coached team; they have a lot of energy. Tanner Kolb is their featured player. We’ll have to come up with a way to kind of negate that.
“They’re good, we respect them and we’re looking forward to a great game.”
Pine Grove 4, Minersville 1
Tanner Kolb got the Cardinals started with his 34th goal of the season at the 18:09 mark and the rest of his Pine Grove teammates stepped up after that as the Cards cruised past the Miners in Game 1 of the semifinal doubleheader.
Quentin Umbenhauer gave Pine Grove a 2-0 halftime lead by converting a cross from Kolb with 14.9 seconds left in the first half. The Cards added second-half goals from Ian Brown and Kyran Brucker to go up 4-0 before Minersville tallied its lone goal on a shot by Shane Fessler 11 seconds after Brucker’s goal at 64:41.
“The fact that a couple of other guys stepped up tonight and buried it in the back of the net is amazing for us,” Pine Grove coach Marv Weber said. “We needed that. We didn’t get that in (the league quarterfinal) on Saturday, missed some opportunities. Today the other guys stepped up. It was nice.”
The key for Pine Grove was its play defensively.
After shutting out Shenandoah Valley in Saturday’s quarterfinals, the Cardinals clamped down on Minersville’s attack, holding the Miners to eight shots on goal.
Pine Grove was able to contain the Miners’ Chase Zimerofsky and Jordan Bowers, who entered the game fourth and fifth in the league in scoring with 53 and 46 points, respectively.
“Our defense has done really well,” said senior goalkeeper Peyton Renninger, who made seven saves. “Over the past three years we’ve had pretty solid defenders in the back. This year it was a little uncertain how everyone was going to play together but I’m pretty pleased with how our chemistry has worked.”
Weber praised the play of Brown, a junior midfielder, for controlling the middle of the field both offensively and defensively. His goal on a long shot from the middle made it 3-0 and put Pine Grove in total control.
Pine Grove lost nine starters off last year’s squad that won the Division I title and lost 3-1 to Blue Mountain in the league final. To get back there again was a great accomplishment, Weber said.
Pine Grove will be playing in the Schuylkill League boys’ final for the eighth time, searching for its first league crown since 1996.
“It’s awesome. It’s great to be here,” Weber said. “It’s exciting to get there. At the start of the year, we had to replace nine players that started last year. We were senior-dominated last year and I think everybody stepped up.
“It’s amazing what they’ve been able to accomplish. But when they started working together, they really came together and started playing well.”
Blue Mountain 5, Lourdes 0
Knittle missed nine games during the regular season due to playing on the Schuylkill League champion Blue Mountain golf team and a concussion suffered in the Eagles’ win over Pine Grove on Sept. 17.
The junior looked like he hadn’t missed a beat Tuesday, scoring 9:32 into the game, assisting on a goal by Hayden Freed at 41:52 and tallying his second goal at 52:22.
“Dylan was awesome,” Brauer said. “Dylan has missed nine games with an injury. He’s an electric scorer. He can turn on a dime and he can rocket the ball. He had some really well-placed shots tonight.
“We need him healthy and have him healthy for the postseason. He was awesome.”
Knittle, who had 12 goals in the regular season, was excited to get back out on the pitch. He was even more excited to score early since Lourdes’ objective was to pack the box defensively.
“It feels great to get back into things,” Knittle said. “I’m coming off an injury and only have one game coming into this. It feels great to score two and assist my good friend Hayden on his goal as well.
“It meant a lot to get that goal early and first because we knew they were going to sit back, play defense on us. We scored early, opened it up for us and that created a bunch of more chances later on in the game.”
Blue Mountain dominated the game from the outset, amassing seven shots on goal and eight corner kicks in the first half, yet only led 1-0.
Brauer talked with his squad at halftime and made some adjustments.
“I wanted patience and to look more near post because we were trying to go through too many bodies to get to the far post,” Brauer said. “Lourdes did a good job defending … they dropped back with five, six, sometimes seven, eight. You have to look for different angles when that happens.”
That plan worked as Freed scored on a shot from the middle of the field just 1:52 into the second half. Drew Waschko made it 3-0 at 50:58 and Knittle tallied his second at 52:22.
Brauer substituted freely for the final 20-plus minutes, with sophomore Carter Jones scoring the final goal with 1:22 remaining. The Eagles held Lourdes without a shot, finishing with a 16-0 advantage in shots on goal and 12-0 in corner kicks. Keeper Caden Wargo notched his 10th shutout.
It was a much different game than the two Schuylkill League Division I regular-season games between the squads, which Blue Mountain won 3-2 in overtime Sept. 15 and 3-0 on Oct. 2.
“They were close games,” Brauer said. “Lourdes is a quality team, they’re well-coached and they’re very good defensively.
“It’s hard to play them. It’s not going to be a clean, beautiful-looking game. Tonight in the second half we found a way to get a few in. Things just went our way.”
Blue Mountain will be looking for its sixth consecutive title Thursday and 22nd overall.
Knittle is excited about the opportunity to add to the Eagles’ dynasty.
“We have the confidence going into it,” Knittle said. “I know we have the talent with all of our club players and our coaches. I have a lot of confidence in us winning again and getting six in a row.”
