Waynesburg rallies past Uniontown, wins 2-1
Waynesburg Central’s Nathan Blair and Uniontown’s Jack Killinger (right) battle for control of the ball during their Section 6-AA match on Oct. 7 at Bill Power Stadium in Uniontown. (Photo by Christine Pocratsky)
Christine Pocratsky
Waynesburg Central’s Will Behmn (right) and Uniontown’s David Eitner battle for control of the ball in the pouring rain during Tuesday’s Section 6-AA match at Uniontown High School.
Christine Pocratsky
Christine Pocratsky Uniontown’s Alec Sharp controls the ball as Waynesburg Central’s Andrew Elsenheimer applies pressure during Tuesday’s Section 6-AA match at Uniontown High School.
Christine Pocratsky
Uniontown’s Dez Harris and Waynesburg Central’s Bo Ricci battle for control of the ball during Tuesday’s Section 6-AA match at Uniontown High School.
UNIONTOWN — Waynesburg Central boys soccer squad rallied from a one-goal deficit Tuesday night with two second-half goals, en route to a 2-1 victory over Uniontown in Section 6-AA action.
In a battle of heated section rivals, the visitors spoiled Uniontown’s Senior Night and swept the season-series on a cold and rainy evening.
“There’s always going to be a rivalry with Uniontown,” Waynesburg Central coach Brian Knapp said. “Tonight, I think they started better than we did and controlled the early stages of the game. We have been playing pretty well the last couple of weeks and it took us awhile to get into this game. Both teams played well and it was tough for both teams battling the rain and the weather.”
Waynesburg improves to 5-11-1 overall and 3-7-1 in section play, while Uniontown drops to 4-13 and 1-10 in Section 6-AA.
In a game that had strong defense and plenty of physicality, two goals were scored in a span of 34 seconds in the late stages of the second half.
After the visitors held much of the offensive punch to start the second half, Uniontown’s Austin Wivell was able to get behind the defense and put one in the back of the net for a 1-0 lead. David Eitner assisted on the marker.
Just 34 seconds later at 12:17, Waynesburg was awarded a penalty kick after a collision in the box and Nathan Blair capitalized on the scoring advantage with a sharp kick to the left of the goalie to knot the contest at 1-1.
With 9:02 left in the match, Waynesburg’s John Walter tallied what proved to be the game-winner off of a deflected rebound that got past the goalkeeper.
“We had to do a better job of trapping and passing in space,” Knapp said. “We all knew we had to start the second half better than the first. We had our chances, but we just got some bad bounces off of the field due to the weather. We had to keep attacking.”
After Uniontown had some early scoring opportunities to start the game, Waynesburg rallied back with some quality chances of its own. The defenses were stingy in the opening 40 minutes of play, as the game was deadlocked 0-0 at halftime.
Both keepers had solid nights with Uniontown’s Brandon Bell recording eight saves and Waynesburg Central’s Nick Fox stopping four.
“Nick has been great for us,” Knapp said. “At the beginning of the season our goalie position was a question mark. Nick has made several key stops for us this year and is one of our MVPs. He is very consistent and very reliable in net. He has sure hands and excellent foot skills.”
Before the game, the Red Raiders honored their five seniors on Senior Night that included Wivell, Colton Layhue, David Kriebel, Hunter Kovacs, Alec Sharp and Leroy Brown.
Both teams ended the section regular season on Thursday, as Waynesburg hosted Brownsville and Uniontown traveled to Laurel Highlands.