Trunzo's sudden-death overtime goal lifts Little Lions over Hollidaysburg

Gordon Brunskill

- gbrunski@centredaily.com

WINGATE — David Trunzo certainly knows how to pull off a dramatic finish.

CDT/Michelle Bixby

State College's David Trunzo (23) takes control of the ball after Hollidaysburg's Ben Miller gets tripped up during the State College boys vs. Hollidaysburg District 6 Class AAA soccer title game Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2009. CDT/Michelle Bixby

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One strong swing of his right leg gave the State College boys’ soccer team a victory — and ended Hollidaysburg’s season.

One swing of that right leg put the Little Lions into the PIAA tournament.

The senior captain’s goal gave State College a 2-1 overtime victory over Hollidaysburg in the District 6 Class AAA championship game Wednesday night at Bald Eagle Area’s Alumni Stadium.

“I was just in the right place at the right time,” Trunzo said. “I was able to put one away and take home the victory.”

The Little Lions (13-4-1), who are riding a nine-game win streak, will face either Mechanicsburg or Warwick, who will battle to be the third-place team out of District 3, in the first round of the state tournament next Tuesday.

Robbie Edwards scored State College’s regulation goal while Alex Prosser netted the goal for Hollidaysburg (18-2) to force overtime.

The Little Lions had possessed the ball for much of the second half and overtime, but it took until 2:42 was left in the first 15-minute extra frame for the winning goal to find the net.

The ball bounced around the Tigers’ penalty box when it bounded to Trunzo at the top of the box, and he ripped a

thigh-high volley to the upper-left corner of the net, giving Hollidaysburg keeper Jarrod Wassell no chance.

“It was just a cross in the box that bobbled around,” Trunzo said of his fifth goal of the season. “I was standing at the 18 when it came to me, I took a volley and hit it hard home.”

To that point, Wassell had made nine saves, with many more blocked by his fellow defenders as they withstood the State College pressure.

“If you lose, it might as well be on a good goal as opposed to a lousy goal,” Hollidaysburg coach Craig Shale said. “We played a great game with them tonight and we showed that we deserve to be up there with them.”

The game had been growing increasingly rough, with five yellow cards handed out, and one of the top Tigers, Dane Azeles, garnering two yellow cards and an ejection.

Meanwhile, the offensive onslaught included a 23-12 shot advantage for the Little Lions in the second half and overtime as well as a 4-0 edge in corner kicks and several throw-ins and free kicks ion Hollidaysburg’s end of the field.

“It was getting frustrating,” Trunzo said. “We had a bunch of good balls in the box, but Hollidaysburg has a good team and they cleared some off the line.”

“I’ve been doing this so many years,” State College coach John Marsden said, “if I let the frustration get to me, I would have had 10 heart attacks by now. It’s incredible how frustrating that probably could be. But we felt if we kept the pressure on and we got the ball in the box and had some shots on target ... something could bounce around and give someone a chance to poke one home.”

Still, the game was scoreless for nearly 72 minutes, until Edwards broke the ice with an aerial assault. Cory Schroeder started the sequence with a throw-in, with the ball bouncing off the heads of Andy Blunk and Edwards before reaching the back of the net and never touching the turf.

“We designed that play for big, tall Andy to skim it,” Marsden said. “We told Robbie (Edwards) and Kelton (Cheney) to be looking to cut in behind him, try to cut off Jarrod ... We can’t let him take it out of the air like that. We needed to skim something behind him or over the top of him to the far post. Robbie was right there to put it away.”

Prosser found the equalizer less than three minutes later, ripping a shot from about 20 yards away past Clay Barkman, who made seven saves, then celebrated by running the length of the field to hug his goalie, Wassell.

“We haven’t been down too much this season, especially late in games,” said Shale, whose team suffered its only other loss to State College last month. “To come back like that and give us some life, I couldn’t be prouder of them. It’s easy at that point to put your heads down.”

That set the stage for Trunzo’s heroics for a team that has lost just once in its last 13 contests.

“We’ve been on a good roll,” Marsden said. “That’s where you want to be at the end of the season — rolling.”