BY JEFF FALK
HARRISBURG – There is a certain amount of improvement that occurs naturally throughout a season, through osmosis, through repetition, through physical growth. There are also certain levels of improvement which are cherished and pursued and expected.
Safe to say the Annville-Cleona boys’ soccer team wasn’t looking to break even.
On a gloomy Saturday morning at Bishop McDevitt High School’s Rocco Ortenzio Stadium, the Little Dutchmen put forth an uneven performance in a 3-0 non-league loss to the home-standing Crusaders. Bishop McDevitt’s Nick Camposarcone tallied a pair of goals 20 seconds apart early in the first half to set the tone, and Annville-Cleona experienced difficulties generating dangerous chances throughout.
With the result, Annville-Cleona, one of the smallest Class AA programs in District Three, slipped to 8-8 overall. The win made Bishop McDevitt 3-9 on the fall.
“We’ve improved, but not to the point where we need to be,” said veteran Annville-Cleona head coach Ray Kreiser. “We’ve gotten better, but not enough to be in the upper echelon. We’ve improved enough to get out of that lower tier. All season long, we’ve played dead-center in the middle. We don’t have that one signature win. We beat the teams we’re supposed to beat and lost to the teams we were supposed to lose to.
“Coming into the season, in the midfield we felt OK,” continued Kreiser. “But we were very young defensively and very young offensively, and it’s shown. At one point we were 6-6, 4-4 in the section (Four of the Lancaster-Lebanon League), had 32 goals for and 32 goals against.”
Following their Saturday morning bus ride to Harrisburg, Annville-Cleona just couldn’t get anything going offensively.
The Crusaders’ dominance of the midfield limited the Annville-Cleona attack and led to their own offensive chances. The Little Dutchmen were held to five total shots, four of which came in the first half and only a couple of which were dangerous.
After trailing 2-0 at halftime, all that Annville-Cleona could muster over the second 40 minutes of action was a single shot.
“We just struggled,” said Kreiser. “We struggled to finish. We had a couple of opportunities early. But when we couldn’t finish them, we began to press.
“The first half wasn’t too bad,” Kreiser continued. “We lost our composure after the penalty kick and it resulted in the second goal. We struggled to get some good opportunities. We don’t have a lot of depth and we’re relatively young.”
Bishop McDevitt was awarded a penalty kick 17:01 into the match when attacker was fouled in the box. Senior Nick Camposarcone gave the Crusaders a 1-0 lead by making good on the chance, going low right to beat Little Dutchmen goalie Ben Wickizer.
Then off a quick counter seconds later, Camposarcone gobbled up a feed from teammate Mitch Ward and broke in alone on Wickizer from the right wing. Wickizer came off his mark to meet Camposarcone and got a big piece of his shot, but the ball bounced behind him and into the Little Dutchmen net.
“We made too many defensive mistakes in the first half,” said Kreiser. “We closed it down in the second half. On their third goal, we had two very young defenders out there, because I had nobody left.
“I thought the two teams were fairly evenly-matched,” Kreiser added. “If we get some of those opportunities, it’s a totally different game.”
Down a pair of goals, Annville-Cleona was still very much in the contest, until Crusader Leo Posavec made it 3-0, with 12:32 remaining. After accepting a pass from Camposarcone, Posavec rifled a 20-yard right-footer that deflected off Wickizer’s hand, the right goal post and in.
“If you look at the overall picture, I think the game might have been closer than the score indicated,” said Kreiser. “Sometimes we finish like crazy. Sometimes we don’t finish. That’s been the tale of our whole season.”
Bishop McDevitt peppered the Little Dutchmen goal with 14 total shots and Wickizer was credited with seven saves, including one on another Camposarcone PK with 12:05 to go. Crusader sophomore netminder Ricky Stains logged the shutout.
“We knew this was probably going to be a .500 season, just because we’re so young,” said Kreiser. “We had some players who didn’t come out, which made us lighter. For the younger kids, they need to play more to get better. We knew we were going to have our struggles.
“It would be nice to win the last two and end up on the right side of .500,” concluded Kreiser. “It would be a lot better to be 10-8. But there’s been an awful lot of young palyers who have gotten a lot of playing time. Hopefully we can reap the rewards down the road.”
To purchase images in this article email jkfalk2005@yahoo.com, or to view more go to https://lebanonsportsbuzz.com/photo-gallery/.
2018 Annville-Cleona Boys’ Soccer Results
| Date | Opponents | Outcomes | |
| 8/31 7:00 pm |
New Covenant Christian at Annville-Cleona |
||
| 9/01 11:00 am |
Annville-Cleona Everett Area at James Buchanan |
1 5 |
|
| 9/01 2:00 pm |
Littlestown Area Annville-Cleona at James Buchanan |
1 6 |
|
| 9/05 6:00 pm |
Lebanon Catholic at Annville-Cleona |
1 7 |
|
| 9/07 4:00 pm |
Annville-Cleona at Lancaster Catholic |
1 5 |
|
| 9/10 7:00 pm |
Annville-Cleona at Pequea Valley |
1 7 |
|
| 9/12 4:00 pm |
Elco at Annville-Cleona |
3 5 |
|
| 9/14 4:00 pm |
Northern Lebanon at Annville-Cleona |
1 4 |
|
| 9/18 4:00 pm |
Annville-Cleona at Tulpehocken |
1 6 |
|
| 9/20 7:00 pm |
Lancaster Country Day at Annville-Cleona |
2 0 |
|
| 9/21 4:00 pm |
Lebanon at Annville-Cleona |
1 6 |
|
| 9/26 4:00 pm |
Annville-Cleona at Lebanon Catholic |
3 0 |
|
| 9/28 4:00 pm |
Lancaster Catholic at Annville-Cleona |
5 0 |
|
| 10/01 4:00 pm |
Pequea Valley at Annville-Cleona |
5 0 |
|
| 10/05 4:00 pm |
Annville-Cleona at Northern Lebanon |
30 | |
| 10/06 10:00 am |
Annville-Cleona at Bishop McDevitt |
03 | |
| 10/08 7:00 pm |
Annville-Cleona at Lebanon |
||
| 10/10 4:00 pm |
Annville-Cleona at Lancaster Country Day |
||
PIAA District Three
Class AA Power Rankings
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