Vaccaro goal seals win

BY HEIDI ZENEFSKI
Sports Correspondent

It had been three years and one day since the Mountain View Eagles had lost a league game. They showed up at Montrose to take on the Meteors on Tuesday, Oct. 7 with a 33 game winning streak in the league.

Mountain View was undefeated coming into the game with a 4-0-2 record this season with games with Lakeland and Holy Cross ending in ties. The 6-1 Montrose team’s only loss came from Lakeland, the top ranked team in the Lackawanna League’s Division III.

The Eagles and Meteors match was a battle for sole possession of second place. From the first kick, both teams played a physically rough, sometimes brutal game.

One fan said that he was “disappointed that the refs didn’t control the game better and look out for the safety of the players a bit more, but overall it was an excellent and exciting game.”

Montrose was first on the board as sophomore Chris Spence headed a ball off a corner kick from Troy Ely into the net for the first goal of the game at 27:08.

Ten minutes later Eagle Chris White returned the favor with a header into the goal off a corner kick from James Goodenough bringing the game to a tie at the half.

Play remained even through much of the second half and it looked like the match might be headed to overtime.

But at 66:52, Meteor freshman Tom Vaccaro was in the right place at the right time. The ball bounced around near the Mountain View goal; came off several players from both teams, including Mt. View goalie, Jesse Gerfin; when it rolled towards Vaccaro, who hit a one-timer and scored unassisted for Montrose.

Vaccaro had just subbed into the game to give a Montrose starter a short rest with only three-minutes of play-time in the game, Vaccaro notched what would be the game-winning goal as Montrose claimed the win over the stunned Eagles.

“It was a rush, just like every other game when I score, but every part of it felt better knowing that I was playing for my school.” Vaccaro said.

Montrose captain Kyle Watkins said, “It was a good hard fight win as a team. It’s a great way to start the end of the regular season leading into the playoffs.”

Meteor Joe Rodino had nothing but praise for Montrose goalie, Brendan Buck. “Bucky was great during our game. He’s better than any other first year goalie. He’s caught on to soccer so well and is great at getting a read on the ball and knowing where it’s going. He made some great saves.”

Buck and Mountain View goalie Jesse Gerfin each had nine saves.

Mt. View Coach Roger Thomas also had praise for the Meteors. “It was a good game, overall. They (Montrose) did a great job of pressing us. In sports, I honor the people who are most prepared. Today it was them, so I honor them.”

The Meteors went on to increase their record to 8-1 on Thursday by defeating Carbondale.

Against Carbondale Area, Troy Ely had two goals and Kyle Watkins had a goal and an assist to lead Montrose.

Todd Lattimore added a goal for the Meteors.

Mt. View defeated Old Forge the same day to increase their record to 6-1-2.

In other soccer action last week:

At Elk Lake, Blake Chew had two goals and two assists and Bailey Newhart had two goals and an assist to lead the Warriors to a 6-1 victory over Carbondale.

Ben Woolcock and Chris Cook also scored for Elk Lake. Goalie Zack Groover had three saves.

At Forest City, Jared Paulin scored two goals to lead the Foresters, 3-1, over Mid Valley.

Alex O’Neill also scored for the Foresters. Dakota Knehr-Cook had three saves.

Blue Ridge fell to Dunmore, 3-0. Goalie Shawn Woodruff had 17 saves.

And on Thursday, the Raiders fell 2-0 to the unbeaten Lakeland team.

Woodruff had 13 saves for Blue Ridge.

The Foresters took a 3-2 win over Elk Lake. Dave Pollak scored in the 97th minute to lift Forest City to a double-overtime victory.

Chris Karwan and Alex O’Neill also scored for the winners.

Blake Chew had two goals for Elk Lake.

Forester Goalie Jordan Hicks had 10 saves; Elk Lake Goalie Zack Groover had nine saves.