MV, FC set to clash in district final; Meteors fall in semi round

Local teams flexed their muscle in the District II Boys soccer playoffs, and the results will see two local teams competing for the District Championship in Class A.
Coming off a first round bye, 1-seeded Forest City defeated Holy Cross 6-1 led by the duo of Jay Lipko and Tyler Clift who each scored two goals and an assist.
After a slow start, Mountain View cruised to victory over Old Forge 13-0. Old Forge packed the box with defenders to disrupt the Mountain View offense, but at Nick Pellew began his hat trick at the 31-minute mark and the floodgates opened for the Eagles.
The two teams will play Trick or Treat at the neutral field of the Western Wayne Complex, as Forest City was unable to meet District II specifications to host the championship game. Aside from no longer playing on Forest City’s home field, Mountain View Coach Joe Scanlon found other advantages to the change of venue.
“We need to take advantage of the nice surface, and use the technical players we have to move the ball quickly on the ground,” said Scanlon.
Western Wayne’s complex has a synthetic surface that is more even and faster than the natural grass surfaces that both Forest City and Mountain View play their home games.
In addition of taking advantage of playing surface, Scanlon noted that playing the ball on the ground is how Mountain View wants to play.
“We need to be aggressive, win the 50-50 balls in the air, and control the ball on the ground,” said Scanlon. “We don’t want to get caught up in a transition long ball playing game.”
“We just have to play our game and do what we do well,” added Pellew.
After knocking out county rival Blue Ridge 4-2 the Montrose Meteors continued their “Cinderlla” run through the District playoffs against the Mohawks of Meyers High School. Unfortunately, the locals fell 2-0 in the semifinal.
The Mohawk defense stifled the Montrose offense and contained Zach Dieck, who came into the game having scored 6 goals in the first two rounds.
“Our issue was finishing in the final third of the field,” said Montrose Coach Mike Fowler. “We did well possessing and creating opportunities (in the midfield), but just didn’t put enough shots to truly test their goalie.”
“Meyers kept good control of their defensive third, so it was hard to work the ball in the 18,” said Dieck. “A lot of our shots came outside the box.”
Despite the loss Fowler and Dieck felt good about their team’s progress throughout the season, especially in areas of possessing the ball at midfield and playing at the speed that Fowler preached during the season.
“We won the majority of 50/50 balls in the midfield and began making good threatening runs up top,” said Fowler.
“We played hard all season, especially in big games, even if that didn’t always translate into a win” said Dieck. “We started making great runs off the ball as the season progressed,…and overall just played faster towards the end of the year.”
Fowler also noted that he got great goal keeping from Ethan Hitchcock and as the year went on the defense became more organized.
“I was blessed to have a great group with outstanding leadership,” added Fowler.