Sep 12, 2008 2 min read

Greensburg C.C.’s Tim Wood scored eight goals in the win, including six in the first half. Ethan Shula registered a hat trick of his own, while Brian Appleby also added a tally late in the second half. The Centurions (4-0, 5-0) were on the attack from the opening kickoff, and fired off a series of quick shots on Brownsville goalkeeper Donald Thomas. For the first 12 minutes, Thomas was stellar, turning aside seven shots – some of which when he was left one-on-one with a Centurions striker – and keeping Greensburg Central Catholic off the board.

Shula eventually slipped the first shot past Thomas at the 13 minute mark, while Wood added his first just a minute later on a penalty kick after being knocked off his feet in front of the goal.

“He had a really nice game today,” said Brownsville coach Kelli Sampson on the play of Thomas. “He made some big saves for us early in the game, some great saves, actually, but in the end he just had to face too many shots.”

Too many shots, indeed. When the final horn sounded, the Centurions had tallied 26 shots on the Brownsville keeper, while he managed to turn aside 14, some in rather spectacular fashion.

Eventually, though, Wood became too much for the Falcons (1-4, 1-5) to handle, as he put on an impressive display in the first half, taking on defenders one-on-one and even scoring on a header from roughly 30 feet out.

Offensively for the Falcons, scoring opportunities were almost non-existent. They registered only one shot on goal, which was easily turned aside by Greensburg Central Catholic goalkeeper Adam West, who had a fairly uneventful day between the pipes.

“I think once you get down by that many goals it’s just tough for the kids to come back,” said Sampson. “They kept going the whole time, but, again, when you fall back like we did it’s just a lot to overcome.”

The Falcons return to the pitch next week with a non-conference game against Bentworth at home on Sept. 15, and then follow that up with section matches against Trinity Christian and Serra Catholic.

“Tough game today, but we’ve got three games next week to look forward to,” said Sampson. “We need to work on our ball movement and making cleaner passes, and just focus on things like that moving forward.”