Led by Owen Hollobaugh’s two goals, State College boys soccer wins District 6 title
State College and Altoona are bitter rivals in all sports.
Both teams played against one another on Oct. 15 with the Little Lions winning 5-0. The two schools met once again Wednesday — a partly cloudy evening with temperatures in the high 50s. This time, it was for the District 6 Class 4A championship game in Hollidaysburg.
It took the senior leadership and scoring capabilities of Owen Hollobaugh and a little help from his teammates to win the title by a score of 3-1 and improve State College to 14-2-1 on the year.
Finishing with two goals in the match — one in the first half and another in the second — he smiled and breathed a sigh of relief at the conclusion of the match.
“It feels great,” Hollobaugh said. “I love my team and honestly our chemistry is amazing. We’re having a great season and this feels great to top it off with a district victory.”
State College drew first blood with Drew Kogelmann pushing the ball up and finding Hollobaugh for his first goal with 9:28 left in the first half. Hollobaugh rushed to the corner and celebrated with his team with a number of hugs and hi-fives after.
The jubilation wouldn’t last much longer for the Little Lions. Altoona scored soon after with an unassisted goal by Chris Barley with 6:29 remaining in the first half to knot the game at 1-1, where it would stand at the half.
Coach Danny Orton understood that he had to make an adjustment at the half. His center forward was too isolated with the team being unable to make any runs close to him. He altered the plan, giving Hollobaugh additional runners in the middle of the field to provide a different look for the Altoona defense.
“We wanted to make sure we were connected to the center forward,” Orton said. “When Owen got the ball in the first half, we weren’t close enough and we didn’t have anyone running past him. We changed that in the second half and it made a huge difference.”
State College went into the second half with added opportunities. The Little Lions controlled possession for much of the time, sending passes into Altoona’s territory and sending a multitude of shots in the direction of the Mountain Lions goalie.
State College finally capitalized on its offensive pressure with Hollobaugh’s second goal with 19:23 left in the second half to lead 2-1. The Little Lions continued to outwork the Mountain Lions by sprinting to the dribbler and pressing them. Their frenetic play style resulted in a Henry Pinto goal off of a corner cross to take a 3-1 lead with 10:34 left in the game.
“It felt super relaxing to know that after that goal, the game was set,” Pinto said. “It felt really good to know that we could play another game... They (Altoona) got a lot better and they’ve always been a tough team to play. To beat teams like this, I feel like our team gets better every time. It’s always nice to beat a rival of course, but the sportsmanship of these games is out of the ordinary.”
This story was originally published November 2, 2022 at 9:01 PM.
