The Coudersport soccer team saw its season come to an end on a chilly Saturday night in Bradford Saturday, as the Falcons struggled to gets it offensive attack going against two-time defending champion Brockway in a 3-0 loss to the Rovers in the District 9 Class A title game at Parkway Field.
Both teams reached the finals with hard-fought semifinal wins last Monday at DuBois, with third-seeded Coudy upsetting second-seeded Clarion-Limestone, 4-2, and top-seeded Brockway edging fifth-seeded Elk County Catholic, 3-2.
The two schools then had to wait two extra days to battle for the championship. The title game was originally scheduled to be played Thursday evening in DuBois.
However, heavy rains as part of a tornado watch forced that postponed of the game, along with the Class A girls contest, when air pockets formed under the turf at DuBois High School as the rains temporarily flooded parts of the field area.
That turf issue forced the game to be moved to Bradford Saturday night as part of a doubleheader with the Class A girls championship, which Brockway won 5-0 against Elk County Catholic.
Brockway ended the night with its second straight boys-girls championship sweep as the Rovers proved to be too much for Coudy to handle despite a top-notch effort from junior keeper Rosalyn Page, who recorded 12 saves to keep the Falcons in the game.
Brockway led just 1-0 at the half before a pair of Marcus Bennett goals in the final 40 minutes, one on a penalty kick, sealed the title for the Rovers.
Brockway seized control of the action in the opening minutes and pressured Coudy keeper Rosalyn Page and her defense all night.
Bennett caught Page of her line in the fifth minute but his shot on goal was cleared away by a Falcon defender.
Bennett had another look on goal near the 8-minute mark on the right side of the box, but Page was able to make the save and knock it towards the other side of the field. Unfortunately for Page and the Falcons, Lin had continued his run in the middle and fired home a rebound shot to make it 1-0 8:07 into the game.
Brockway keeper Lewis Painter, who had little to do on the night, stopped a shot from the left side of the box by Caleb Burdick just before the half. Painter had to make just two saves in recording the championship game shutout.
Both sides had one more good scoring chance in the final 10 minutes of the half.
Page made another diving save on a Bennett shot with 7:40 remaining, while Aristotle Smith fired a shot wide right with 2:30 left.
Brockway took its 1-0 advantage into half. The Rovers then owned the final 40 minutes, as it held Coudy to one shot — an effort in the closing seconds that Painter smothered to the turf as time expired.
In between that save and the start of the second half, Brockway outshot the Falcons 13-0. Page played an impressive half in net, recording seven saves. But, the constant pressure finally got to Page and her defense as Bennett scored twice to seal the Rovers’ victory.
Bennett’s first score came in the 56th minute when he blasted a penalty kick past Page after a Coudy defender was called for a handball in the box.
“We felt a lot better after that goal,” said Brockway coach Andy Daugherty of Bennett’s penalty kick conversion. “Nothing is ever safe about 1-0 (lead), but that second goal was big. Marcus turned it one in the second half and played a great half.”
Prior to the PK in the first 14 minutes of the half, Page had stopped shots by Lin and Eric Young and watched has Nichols and Antonuccio each had shots be just off the mark.
Lin nearly made it 3-0 in the 59th minute but had a shot roll just wide of the far post.
Bennett struck again with 8:54 to play on a shot from the right side of the box to all but ice the game at 3-0.
Page made one final save on a direct kick by Jared Marchiori with 6:16 to play.
“The little bit we got to watch Coudy (in semifinals), we kind of figured out what their game plan was and we worked on that all week,” said Daugherty. I thought we did a really good job (on defense).
“Louie (Painter) was talking before the game about how soft this turf was and he wouldn’t mind diving on it. I told him I don’t care if you don’t touch the ball the whole time, and he really didn’t have do much work. The defenders played really well, as they have all year.”
