CUMBERLAND — Calvary’s ability to score off of second chances proved to be the difference in a 5-3 win at Bishop Walsh’s Brother Stephen F. Paul Stadium on Monday.
“I thought we didn’t play our best soccer game, it was a little bit sluggish,” Calvary head coach Dave Ziler said. “But the kids grinded it out, they came out with a win. We’ll take a W, even if it was a little sloppy for us.”
The Eagles (4-0) scored four unanswered goals in the second half, three were off second chance shots.
While Calvary controlled the second half, the Spartans (0-1) were the better team through the first 40 minutes.
“I thought we played well for the most part,” Bishop Walsh head coach Ryan Dunn said. “We did not match Calvary’s physicality, but for having zero scrimmages and this being Calvary’s fourth game, I thought we did a very good job. A lot of young players stepped up and played really well for their first high school varsity game.”
At the 26-minute mark, Jackson Miller set up Carson Hamelin, who fired a bending shot over the keeper’s hands to put Bishop Walsh on the board.
About 11 minutes later at the 15:55 mark, Sammy Scritchfield answered for the Eagles.
Scritchfield set up a free kick before the defense could get set, and fired a shot under the goalie’s legs to tie the score.
“At times, we can over play and wanna set up the perfect opportunity when it’s just not gonna be like that all the time in soccer,” Dunn said. “We tried to tell them that, you gotta shoot to score.”
With just under six minutes left in the half, the Spartans set up for a free kick.
Hamelin found David DiNola who fired from the left side and scored in the bottom right corner, putting Bishop Walsh up 2-1 at halftime.
The story of the first half for Calvary was the inability to take advantage of opportunities near the goal.
The Eagles missed three tap-in chances and a header.
Calvary had two opportunities in a one-on-one matchup near the goal, but failed to get off a shot.
“We weren’t mentally playing the game today,” Ziler said. “We weren’t mentally in the game, so it caused us to have to work harder than we’d normally have to. But the boys had a lot of heart, they grinded through a lot of adversity.”
JJ Pascuta saved four shots in the first half for the Spartans, but was replaced by Minh Lee after halftime.
“We have three good goalies, they’ve all been working hard and I thought it was only fair to give Minh a shot in the second half,” Dunn said.
Of Calvary’s four goals in the second half, three came off second chance shots.
At the 10:15 mark of the second half, the Eagles set up a corner kick.
After the first shot was blocked, Eli Ziler scored on a tap-in that tied it at 2-2.
Less than four minutes later, Jake Zewatsky set up Blake Dwire on the left side of the net.
Dwire fired into the bottom right corner, putting Calvary ahead 3-2.
“We were not defending as 11,” Dunn said. “We try to stress that a lot, everyone doing everything together. I think our back line just got isolated at times. They were sprinting back to our goal and were out of breath. I think that was the difference, we gotta close the gaps between the lines a little better.”
At the 22-minute mark, Sammy Scritchfield went coast to coast and missed the breakaway shot.
However, he recovered the ball and found Luke Kamauf for a tap-in.
Kamauf scored about five minutes later on another second-chance shot.
After Calvary missed a header, Zewatsky set up Kamauf, who’s header found the net, pushing the Eagles’ lead to 5-2.
“It was just that type of game,” Ziler said of the second-chance goals. “Most of the time, that’s not the case. Most of the time, we got good shooters. But today, we were just relying off the rebounds.”
Bishop Walsh added a late goal at the 32:34 mark when Miller scored on a header.
Calvary finished with a 22-18 edge in shots and an 18-12 advantage in shots on goal.
The Spartans had a 7-4 lead in corner kicks.
Peyton Poland finished with eight saves for the Eagles.
“Peyton did good,” Ziler said. “Peyton had a lot of pressure today. Peyton’s had a really good couple games for us. Today, he held it down.”
Lee saved a game-best nine shots for the Spartans.
Calvary plays at New Life on Tuesday and Shalom on Friday, both at 4:30 p.m.
Bishop Walsh heads to Cumberland Valley on Thursday at 5 p.m.
“I feel very good about the future,” Dunn said. “I think everyone in the locker room thinks that we can do some good things this year. We’re young, but it still feels like they have experience.”