BEA tops Tyrone on senior night
WINGATE – It was a senior night delight Tuesday when Bald Eagle went into its senior night festivities needing a win over Tyrone to stay ½ game ahead of Philipsburg-Osceola for the top of the Mountain League Division.
After a slow start, the Bald Eagles started to get their A-game going near the end of the first half, posting a late goal with 10:28 left in the first half en route to a 4-0 victory.
On a night that saw Bald Eagle Area honor seniors; Jon Dupler, Mitchell Taylor, Gage Smocer-Hilderbrand, Brandon Gettig, Nathan Styles, Jordan Valora, Justin Dunklebarger, Zachary Lucas, Nicholas Pytel, Cody Huyett, Cody Hackett and Coty Newman, the team brought home the victory and a showdown today against Bellefonte.
Providing the spark in the scoring department was Gettig who plastered three goals on the evening giving him a hat trick.
Bald Eagle goalie Alex Boyer captured three saves and was aggressive diving after ball and foiling numerous break-away attempts.
“ They kept the momentum up. We’ve had a couple of rough games and tonight I was talking to them about no let downs,” Bald Eagle coach Jason Bair said. “So they finally came out and worked the ball well. It took awhile. Tyrone was tough there at the beginning. But once we were able to get the first one in things started to roll for us.
In the first half, it took a while for either team to find its momentum. Both were trying to take the tempo as they took turns in the transition game.”
Gettig was a strong force on the offensive end, posting numerous shots.
However, goalkeeper Anthony Politza sent the Bald Eagles away empty handed for most of the first half.
Likewise, the back-third of the Bald Eagle defense was pretty tough as well, especially the play of Boyer.
As the half reached its 10-minute mark, Gettig found the ball in a crowd of teammates and sent it home, giving the home team an early 1-0 lead.
Stat-wise going into the intermission, Bald Eagle led in shots on goal by a 10-3 mark to go along with the lead.
Coming out of the second half, the Bald Eagles came out with more passion and energy and they took it right to the heart of the Golden Eagles defense.
It took only three and half minutes for Gettig to help his team extend the lead to 2-0.
“I always tell the guys when you are up 1-0 the pressure is on us. Once you put that second goal in it relaxes everybody,” Bair said. “As soon as you relax, you play better soccer. And that’s what happened. As soon as we put in the second one you just saw the team relax and move the ball.”
It came on the first shot of the second half.
Boyer continued to be tenacious protecting his goal, allowing only four shots at his goal.
As the game went on its defense was running like a well oil machine – completing passes at will.
With the game flowing smoothly, Coty Newman got into the scoring act, blasting a shot past Politza, increasing the lead to three.
It was a perfect ending to a strong game for Bald Eagle when Gettig picked up a pass from Newman on a direct kick attempt, ending the game as a 4-0 shut out.