Published: November 05, 2009 11:26 pm      

District 6 Soccer: Penns Valley downs Richland boys in OT

HOLLIDAYSBURG — Richland coach Dan Sichak knew exactly what it would take to score in overtime of the District 6 Class A boys soccer game on Thursday night.

Unfortunately for Richland, it was Penns Valley that followed his advice, striking with stunning quickness in the first minute of overtime for a 1-0 victory.

“The team that could push the ball quickly down (was going to win),” Sichak said.

“That's what we told the guys at the end of regulation was ‘Keep the ball down there. You’ve got to keep popping the ball, popping the ball, popping the ball. Guys are getting tired, it’s cold, look for pinball action.’ It was going to be tough for the goalkeeper to hold onto the ball. Unfortunately, it was our goalkeeper – who played a great game – but he had a tough time holding onto it, and the Penns Valley guys followed it right in.”

After playing 80 minutes of scoreless soccer, Penns Valley (17-2-1) needed just 53 seconds of overtime to win it. Tyler Silks made a nice run down the left side and blasted a shot that Richland keeper Greg Sichak deflected, but the rebound came right to John Downie, who buried it for the victory.

“We’ve gone into overtime one other time this season and finished it a minute into overtime,” Penns Valley coach Scott Case said. “That’s what we were discussing, we wanted to get it done just like that one.”

It was a bit of redemption for Penns Valley, which lost to Richland in the title game a year ago.

“We’ve been coming here year after year after year and going home disappointed,” Case said. “It’s nice to get the victory.”

Richland (17-3) dominated the first 10 minutes of the second half, outshooting Penns Valley 5-0 over that span.

Ryan Richey missed an empty net in the 43rd minute.

Play evened out over the next 20 minutes, but Richland put on a late push, forcing Penns Valley keeper Nathan Sweeley to come out of the net twice to thwart scoring chances.

“I thought perhaps we didn't have enough stamina to make this happen,” Case said.

“We seemed to get quite sloppy with the ball.”

Penns Valley's best chance of the second half came in the 73rd minute, as Evan Gover overcame what looked like a handball, then made a long pass to Downie, but Sichak stopped Downie’s shot.

Both teams had some excellent scoring opportunities in the first half but

couldn’t convert. Richland had three consecutive corner kicks midway through the period and Dylan Horne had a free kick from 33 yards out that went just over the goal.

“We had opportunities and didn’t capitalize. Penns Valley played a heck of a nice game, offensively, defensively, had some big-time players,” Coach Sichak said.

“Our ability to score is really suspect. I think we scored 120 goals last year to half that this year. It’s not as if we haven't worked on it, we just haven’t been able to put it in there.”

Penns Valley’s Silks had an empty net to shoot at after Greg Sichak came out of the net in the 31st minute, but Kyle Lonsinger poked the ball away from Silks. Gover had a free kick from just outside the 18, but the Richland keeper made a diving save to punch it out.

Greg Sichak made six saves for Richland.

Coach Sichak was impressed with how well his young team fared this season, but was still disappointed to fall short of the district title.

“We had three senior starters, so obviously we'll have some guys coming back,” he said. “Unfortunately, we didn't have as many guys as you'd like step up off the bench. We were very limited in substitutions all year.”