Oct 21, 2009 By Adam Brewer for The 4 min read

REDSTONE TWP. – It was the regular season finale for Geibel Catholic and Brownsville’s soccer teams, as the Gators ended the season with another win in a 5-1 road victory Tuesday night. With the win, Geibel Catholic (11-7, 7-7) reaches .500 in section play for the first time since the boys soccer program began at the school.

“It was huge for us to end the season with a win and on a positive note,” Gators coach Mike Grant said. “We have had an up and down season, and it’s nice to end it this way. In the offseason we worked really hard to get where we are at. This is the first .500 record we have had in section play in the school’s history, and we played well tonight.”

The Gators have won eight straight against Brownsville (0-18, 0-14), including this year’s three-game sweep. They won 5-0 and 14-0 in the first two meetings.

“It’s hard to beat a team three times in one season. I told them not to take them for granted,” Grant said. “I felt like, in the beginning of the game, they did take them for granted and we were down early. Give Brownsville a lot of credit, though. They came out with a good game plan to take out our top scorer, and in that first half they controlled things. I give them a lot of props for their effort tonight”

The Falcons started the scoring on a goal from Chelsea Ulery at 21:51 of the first half and held the early momentum.

“We have definitely played a lot better the past couple of games. We have come together,” Falcons coach Kelli Sampson said. “We worked hard as a team, but it was definitely a factor how this was the last game of the season and the last game for our seniors, and we showed that hustle and aggressiveness in the first half.”

The Gators were losing despite outshooting the home team, 8-6, and finally managed to knot things up at 1-1 when Jason Choung scored on a 25-footer with 54 seconds left in the game.

In the second half, Choung scored the game-deciding goal with just over a minute gone as he got behind the defense and put one in the back of the net.

Max Kovalchuk was in the insurance business, as he garnered three insurance goals to add to the Gators’ lead.

“In that second half, our main focus was to come out and score early,” Grant said. “We knew that if we scored early, we could control the tempo the rest of the way. They came out shooting and we had all the momentum in that final 40 minutes.”

Kovalchuk had goals in the second half at 21:52, 14:12 and 1:54 before the buzzer sounded, ending the season for both squads.

“Max is a big leader on our team,” Grant said. “His technical skills are unbelievable for a kid his age. He just works so hard during the games and practices. That is why he is our leader, and he shows his leadership by the way he plays on the field.”

Geibel’s Wolfgang Zobin was in net and recorded six saves, while Falcons’ goalkeeper John DiDominic was credited with seven stops.

For Brownsville it was the last game for several seniors, including Curtis Wells and Matt Whyel, who had solid defensive games.

“Our seniors were keyed to this team this year,” Sampson said. “Our senior goalkeeper didn’t play tonight because he was sick, but the seniors that did play showed a lot of heart.”

Despite losing seven seniors, Sampson is optimistic about the future and thinks the squad can learn from this tough season.

“We have a lot of great seniors, but we also have a whole bunch of good young kids still on our team,” Sampson said. We also have a couple of kids from the middle school coming up next year, and this should be beneficial for us since this is the first year we have had a middle school soccer program. The future looks good and it should be a whole new ball game for us next season.”