Athens takes control of NTL Title chase with 2-0 win over Wellsboro
By: Tim Birney | Valley Sports Report | October 20, 2017 | Photo courtesy Ed Weaver
ATHENS — Sophomore Luke Arnold scored a pair of second-half goals to lift Athens to a 2-0 win over Wellsboro here Thursday evening in a battle for NTL boys soccer supremacy at Alumni Stadium.
The Wildcats not only took control of the NTL title chase, but handed the Green Hornets their first loss of the season.
Athens, now 14-1-2 overall, is 12-0-1 in league play and can clinch its fourth consecutive NTL title with a win at NEB Saturday afternoon. Wellsboro wraps up the regular season at 16-1-1 overall, and 12-1-1 in the NTL.
Lezak tipped his cap to Arnold, and the rest of his team.
"(Luke Arnold) had two great goals," he said. "Lots of credit goes to him, and lots of credit goes to the whole team.
"In the second half, we really stepped it up," said Lezak. "We made a few adjustments at half. We knew what we needed to do at halftime, and the boys got it done.
"We were a lot more organized in the second half, than we were in the first half," added Lezak.
The longtime Wildcat coach also praised the play of his defense.
"We threw a lot of guys at them in the back, and they all played well," said Lezak.
"Wellsboro has a lot of speed, and a lot of skill. They've put a lot goals on the board this season," noted Lezak. "They are a very good team.
"We knew we had to keep them out of the 18," he added.
Wellsboro coach John Shaffer said the loss will be a learning experience for his Hornets, who will be the top seed in the upcoming District 4 playoffs.
"It was great to play another very good team, and have a competitive game. We will take a lot of lessons from it," he said. "Win or lose, we knew we were going to learn from this game.
"It stinks losing the league title, but we have bigger plans," said Shaffer. "We want to win a District title, and we want to make a run in States. We'll grow from this."
The Wildcats had a couple of scoring opportunities in the opening minutes of the game, but Wellsboro controlled the majority of possession for the first 25 to 30 minutes of the game.
About nine minutes into the game, Noah Fitch collected a loose ball in the box in the aftermath of a corner kick, and rifled a shot toward the Athens net, but sophomore defender David Scheftic sacrificed his body and the ball caromed off his shoulder and toward the sideline.
Doug Vosburg and Brad Cardona also came up with plays in the box for the Wildcats to keep Wellsboro off the board.
With 2 minutes left in the first half, Arnold ripped a shot from 30 yards out that just cleared the crossbar in a precursor of things to come.
Lezak said the momentum went back-and-forth in the first half.
"We started out really well, then (Wellsboro) shifted it right back on top of us in the middle," he said. "We started to get the momentum back at the end of the first half."
Arnold scored off a direct kick from just outside the 18, following a Wellsboro foul, about two minutes into the second half.
Arnold scored again — his 11th of the season — with about 6 minutes left in the game to seal the win.
Shaffer said the first goal was the difference in the game.
"In the second half, Athens came out and put us under pressure, and we didn't stay on the ball enough," he said. "We were great when we had the ball, We got hurt when we didn't have the ball.
"They got an early goal in the second half off a free kick … once we were chasing the game, we got stretched and gave up a second," noted Shaffer. "Giving up that early goal hurt us.
"We tried to change some things up in the last 20 minutes to try and get some more attacking pressure, and all that really did was make us stretch, and make us chase in different areas," added Shaffer. "It made us more unorganized, so giving up that goal really put us under pressure."
Athens had a 13-4 advantage in shots-on-goal, while Wellsboro had a 5-2 edge in corner kicks.
Braden Priester had five saves in net for Athens, and Nate Redell had 12 saves for Wellsboro.
Tim Birney is the founder / owner of River Road Media Group. He was born and raised in the Valley, graduating from Waverly High School in 1984.
Birney earned an Associate's Degree in Journalism from SUNY Morrisville in 1986 and a Bachelor's Degree in Journalism / Public Relations from Utica College of Syracuse University in 1988. He began his newspaper career at The Daily Review in Towanda in 1989, before moving on to The Evening Times in 1995. He spent more than 10 years at the Times, the last four as Managing Editor.
River Road Media Group includes five sites in "The Sports Reports" family that cover 24 school districts in five counties: Valley Sports Report (launched Aug. 10, 2009), Tioga County (NY) Sports Report (Aug. 13, 2018), and Northern Tier Sports Report (Aug. 31, 2020); Northern Tier West Sports Report (March 15, 2021) Southern Tier Sports Report (Aug. 16, 2021).
