Sep 6, 2005 By Jim Downey 3 min read

CONNELLSVILLE – Connellsville’s Jeff Puskar and Geibel Catholic’s George Dzavan saw some things they liked in their season-opening non-section match at Connellsville Stadium Monday morning, but both admitted their squads have room for improvement after the Lady Falcons defeated the Lady Gators, 3-0. “We’re going through learning pains,” said Dzavan. “At times, we look good, but we had breakdowns where our girls were positioned.”

“We worked the ball around offensively like we wanted to do, but we need to work on our finishing,” said Puskar.

Connellsville had the better of the play in the first half as evidenced by the Lady Falcons’ 2-0 lead at halftime. Connellsville peppered the Lady Gators’ starting goalkeeper Mary Beth Saluga with 17 shots.

Paige Puskar, the coach’s daughter, didn’t wait long to get the ball rolling for Connellsville when she stole Saluga’s clearing attempt and broke in free for a shot on Saluga. The Geibel goalkeeper made the initial save, but Puskar captured the rebound and slipped the ball past Saluga for a 1-0 lead at 31:24.

Although Connellsville dictated the action for most of the first half, Geibel managed small bursts into the offensive zone behind Lady Gator scoring threats Kaitlyn Fagan and Liz Sunseri. The Lady Falcon defense stood tall in front of goalkeeper Katrina Kelly.

Kelly keyed the second Connellsville goal after finding Lindsay O’Donnell with a clearing pass. O’Donnell, marked heavily throughout the game, managed to break free from the Geibel defense and buried the breakaway for a 2-0 lead at 19:22.

“Depth is our problem. We have to be concerned with the breakaways. That’s something we need to address,” said Dzavan.

“We got up 2-0, but both goals were off of individual efforts. We need everybody to get into the offense,” said Puskar. “The girls rely on two girls (O’Donnell and Puskar) to score.”

The play in the second half slowed, as might be expected in an early season non-section match. Puskar attributed that to an improved effort by his midfielders.

“The midfield play was good in the second half. Our play is determined on how our midfielders play,” explained Puskar. “Our defensive three, Liz Bell, Kayla Barko and Sara Dunkard plus Sam Brown, played well.”

O’Donnell and Puskar paired for the final goal of the game when O’Donnell buried a Puskar cross past Marion Laurion with 9:23 remaining in the game. Laurion turned aside 11 shots in the second half.

The Lady Gators had a scoring opportunity a couple minutes later when Fagan struck a free kick to Kelly’s left, but the Connellsville sophomore made the final of her six saves to preserve the shutout.

“I would’ve liked to have scored a goal. We had good opportunities,” said Dzavan, whose Lady Gators open the Section 1-AA schedule at Jeannette Wednesday night. “We didn’t have any scrimmages. It makes a difference. It works out the kinks.”

Connellsville finished strong last year, but Puskar doesn’t want the Lady Falcons to wait as long this year to get things rolling. Connellsville opens on the road as well, traveling to Yough Wednesday night for its Section 6-AAA opener.

“We got up 2-0 and our intensity slowed down. We need to work on that,” said Puskar. “The season is a work in progress. I don’t want to get too far into the schedule. We want to be peaking earlier (earlier in the season).”