Bohn, ‘Cats rally past Northern

September 21, 2008

By Jeffrey Kauffman, Sentinel Reporter

Less than 12 hours after traveling to Dillsburg to see its unbeaten classmates in football, the Wildcat soccer team returned to Dillsburg to dismantle the Polar Bears 5-1 in a Mid-Penn nondivisional contest.

Mechanicsburg (5-2 Keystone, 7-3 overall) fell behind early but rallied behind four consecutive goals from forward Andrew Bohn to decide the contest by the halftime whistle.

The Wildcats and Polar Bears went after each other over the first fifteen minutes as the ball went end to end but very few shots took place as both defenses met the challenge.

Northern (3-2-1 Colonial, 5-6-1 overall) stepped out of the division to play its northern neighbor and took advantage of the first break in the game. On a whistle which appeared to be going the other way, the official signaled the ball as a restart in the Bears’ direction, Danny DiPrima stepped up and curled a perfect shot into the upper 90 on the near post. Wildcat keeper Shane Cowoski got his fingertips on the shot but it was perfectly placed to give the Bears a one-goal advantage.

“That would have been a great save by Shane but the ball was hit well and it was a great shot,” said Wildcat coach Tony Lougee.

Mechanicsburg struck back and took advantage of an always-hustling Bohn.

Northern keeper Sean Kleckner was busy as he had several saves in traffic off of Wildcat corners. John Arnold and Garrett Murphy ran to the corners and forced the Bear defense to clear balls over the line to slow the attack down.

Bohn led the way as he was able to beat Kleckner to a feed from Matt Steele and knocked it into the net for the equalizer.

It didn’t take long for Bohn to give his team the lead as he pounced on a loose ball from a Kleckner stop on Arnold to dent the back of the net.

Less than a minute later, Bohn tallied a natural hat trick as he again jumped on a Northern misplay to knock it home and the lead was 3-1.

Murphy led Bohn with a through ball and Bohn didn’t miss as the Wildcats increased the lead to three goals just before the half.

One of the keys at this point was the Wildcats’ ability to one-touch the ball around and send the ball across the field and also down the sidelines. The runners were able to beat the Bear defenders and send crosses into the box.

Cleckner had numerous saves, six to be exact over a fifteen-minute stretch that Bohn utilized to tally all four of his goals.

The Wildcat midfield led by Steele, Cort Hutchison, Craig Foer, and Murphy as well as Matt Dunn and David Strausbaugh among others really controlled the midfield and set the pace for the attack.

Leading 4-1 at the half, Strausbaugh got a goal early in the second half as he ran to a loose ball created by a save on an Arnold blast and found the open net for the final goal.

Northern started to create some chances in the second half and actually forced back-up keeper Ryan Green to make five saves — two of the diving kind. He also had to knock a blast over the top from Kyle Hejmanowski.

“I don’t ever remember scoring four goals, maybe JV but not on the varsity level, and definitely not four in a row,” said Bohn. “We broke down the sides well and our outside mids were able to get to the corners and cross the ball.I was able to knock them in today. Arnold can beat anybody to the corner and off the dribble. He draws defenders with his speed. Matt Steele and our defenders played well as a team.”

“It didn’t have to be that tough today,” said Northern coach Troy Sauers. “We started out well in the first fifteen minutes and fought with them and played smart. I think we were fortunate to get the goal, but it was a great goal on a free kick. Then it seemed like we were shocked or surprised we were in the game and we kind of stopped playing. Credit to Mechanicsburg, they are a good team and they took advantage. Physically they were faster to the ball and when they won the ball they made very good decisions. They took advantage of all of the mistakes we made today.”

“I thought we were a bit out of sorts for a few moments early but the kids responded well to the goal, said Lougee. “Andrew is a terrific athlete and he is fearless in the box and I think we are starting to realize our roles and we can give him the opportunities. He will make something happen. John Arnold has had a tough year with injuries but he has a couple of games back and he’s starting to create chances. Defensively, we struggled early but we got it together and Dunn, Scott Inderbitzen and Alex Holbert played well as a unit to keep their dangerous forwards under control. We’ll just put forth our best effort every night and see how things happen. Tuesday will be a good test to see how far we have come this year.”

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