Cumberland Valley blanks State College in boys’ soccer

In a tight battle in the Mid Penn Conference Commonwealth Division, the State College boys’ soccer team needed this one.

Despite their best efforts, the Little Lions could not put the ball in the net, and the lost more ground in the standings.

State College has lost five games this season, four of them by 1-0 scores including Tuesday night at Memorial Field against Cumberland Valley.

Gerry Garcia scored the lone goal — barely — while Matt Zambetti made eight saves for the shutout as the Eagles (11-4, 8-2 Mid Penn) stayed in second place in the division, just behind leader Central Dauphin, while the Little Lions (9-5, 5-4) fell deeper into fourth place.

“In terms of winning the Mid Penn, you need to catch the breaks,” State College coach Danny Orton said. “I don’t know that we can catch anybody at this point.”

Orton’s team peppered Zambetti with plenty of shots late in the first half and especially after intermission, after Cumberland Valley had dominated possession for the game’s first 20 minutes.

“I told the boys to be a bit braver on the ball, not to rush it,” Orton said of the second-half pressure. “If we could combine in the middle of the field, we outnumbered them with the way we play and that would give us a chance to get fullbacks forward. It looked that way, it looked, at times, like we were brilliant going forward, the best we’ve seen this year.”

All of that pressure nearly culminated in a score.

With just over five minutes left, Eli Bokunewicz appeared to have the equalizer set up, spinning around an Eagle defender in the box, taking a couple steps to his right and rocketing the ball just barely over the crossbar.

“I went down with the ambition that I would get something on frame,” Bokunewicz said. “Just nicked over the bar — really unfortunate. It was tough throughout the game. We had a lot of really good chances.”

Bokunewicz had been on a roll, with four goals over two games late last week.

“Eli’s been great this year, a real find,” Orton said. “A great leader up front.”

After struggling to find a way through the Cumberland Valley defense, State College was finding success and getting plenty of shots off, holding a 21-20 advantage in attempts.

“We did a good job penetrating their defense through the wings,” Bokunewicz said. “Just getting the head on the ball and getting some chances on frame.”

Solving the Eagles’ defense has been a problem, with Cumberland Valley winning 2-0 when the teams met earlier this season in Mechanicsburg.

“We had chances to score, certainly in the second half,” Orton said. “We played very brave. They played well, just a little bit unfortunate.”

It was the Eagles’ pressure that paid off in the only score of the game, a mere 5:03 into the action.

Garcia fired a shot from close range that was initially blocked by keeper Jason Keller, but the ball spun behind him and rolled toward the line. A Little Lion defender raced back but cleared the ball just a little too late.

“I thought I (had it),” Keller said. “It took a weird spin. It just happened.”

“A lucky bounce,” Orton said. “It squeaked through and that was the difference.”

Keller finished with nine saves, but he wanted that 10 th stop.

“We kept fighting and nothing came of it,” Keller said.

This story was originally published October 4, 2016 at 11:13 PM with the headline "Cumberland Valley blanks State College in boys’ soccer."