Trojans top Mifflin County, 3-1 in thriller

By rscaife
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Updated: October 1, 2014

LEWISTOWN – Fresh off their victory over Belleville Mennonite, the Mifflin County boys soccer team carried over that momentum into Tuesday’s game against Chambersburg.

Despite falling late 3-1, the Huskies overall play did not go unnoticed as they caught the attention of Trojans head coach Guy Furfaro.

“They played well. They were taking it to us in the first half,” said Furfaro. “Luckily we held on for just 1-1. We came up big in the second but boy they’ve come a long way.”

The two teams mirrored each other in first half statistics as Mifflin County and Chambersburg both shot 10 shots at the goal. The Trojans held the advantage in corner opportunities by a slim 4-3 margin.

Jonathon Suydam, filling in for Noah Fisher at goalie, was strong between the posts collecting 11 in the contest.

After two goals by Chambersburg’s Erik Espinoza and one by Drew Betz, Mifflin County coach Robert Lepley was proud of the effort the kids gave throughout the game.

“We had a game plan and we stuck to it. We knew they were going to give us a lot of time and space in the midfield and we knew who their key players were and we wanted to man-mark them and we wanted to score. They noticed and the home team starts to press and it just helps our game,” Lepley. “We were tenacious in the first half and Chambersburg came out strong in the second half and we knew they were going to press us and they did. Espinoza is absolutely an incredible player. Its one of those things you can slow him down but he’s going to do what he does best and he got us.”

After a back and forth exchange to start the first half off, the Huskies came out with intensity and put the first shot on goal, that coming from the header by Andrew Larson.

Mifflin County came out and established the tempo they were looking for pushing the ball into the 18 of the Trojans.

For the first 10 minutes, the Huskies refused to allow even a shot to go at their goal area.

Like it has for most of the season the Mifflin County back-line stood tough and did not allow a clean look at the goal.

Most of the Trojans shots came from just inside the Huskies mid-line.

As the game went on, the Huskies confidence started to show on the field.

Midway through the first, Nathan Maynard got the Trojans first shot on goal.

As the game grew older, Chambersburg started to take control of the tempo.

With 18:34 left in the half, Chambersburg got on the scoreboard first thanks to some fancy foot work by Espinoza and a shot that sailed to the back of the goal, making it 1-0.

However, the Huskies did not hang their heads but instead came out and took the ball directly down into the Chambersburg back-third.

After returning the favor of being pressured, Mifflin County’s Evan Zewe found an open Weston Shugarts and he took it from there. Shugarts weaved his way through the Chambersburg defense and sent one home, tying the game at one with 10:47 left until the intermission.

The Trojans came out in the second half on a mission.

Defensively, the Mifflin County Huskies opened a little flat and with only four minutes into the second, Espinoza tickled the twine for the second time in the ball game.

With the tempo and the lead, Chambersburg shot at the Mifflin County goal 15 times while the Huskies only tallied 10.

However, for most of the game, Mifflin County was just one shot away from tying the game up.

But the Trojans also supplied a stingy defense and kept the momentum in check.

As the clock wound down to one minute, the Trojans put the game away when Espinoza found an open Drew Betz for the insurance goal, 3-1.

“They’re doing what we asking them to do. They are playing 80 full minutes and we’re proud of them,” Lepley said.

Mifflin County will be back at it Thursday when it travels to Red Land.