Shining on the biggest stage
MECHANICSBURG — George Williams aptly summed up the night for his Seneca Valley boys soccer team.
“We turned in by far the best game we’ve ever played and it came on the biggest stage,” he said shortly after the Raiders received the state championship trophy Saturday at Eagle View Middle School.
SV dominated play against District 1 champion Lower Merion, blanking the Aces 6-0 to claim its second state title in three seasons.
Junior forward Cole Kamarec began the barrage with a pair of goals six minutes apart, the first coming in the 10th minute after Lower Merion failed to clear a cross from the right of its net.
The tallies gave Kamarec 17 goals on the season, though his last two understandably carry more weight.
“Scoring twice in a state championship game, I’m finding it hard to describe the feeling,” he said, but then allowed: “It’s probably the greatest moment in my life.”
But before the Raiders began to consistently challenge Aces’ goalie Crosby Johnson, they received a boost at the other end of the field.
In the third minute, the Aces were awarded a penalty kick when Drew Davis was fouled just to the left of SV’s net.
Sam Nyenka took the shot, but Raiders’ goalie Ryan Krumenacker dove to his left to make the save, the first of his seven stops on the night.
“I had a gut feeling he was going that way,” said Krumenacker. “It was a guess, but it got our whole team going.”
Kamarec’s first goal came less than seven minutes later.
“I thought we were unfortunate to not put (a goal) away early, but then Seneca hit us with a couple of waves with their attack,” said Lower Merion coach Nico Severini. “Kudos to Seneca. They’re a great team.”
The Raiders (22-1-1) pushed their lead to 3-0 when Max Marcotte finished after receiving a pass from Gavin Loya.
Beaux Lizewski fed Connor Oros for a fourth goal with just four seconds remaining in the half.
The Aces (23-2) did manage to earn seven corner kicks in the game, but SV turned them away each time.
In the 36th minute, Lower Merion’s Simon Rosen put a shot on net that would have been a goal, but Liam Connellan was there to keep it out of the bottom left corner of the net.
“We knew they had players we needed to stop and if we didn’t, we’d be in trouble,” said Williams. “Offensively, we had to get dangerous on them. We found the gaps and exploited them.”
Turning gaps into goals in the second half were Loya in the 47th minute and Evan Howard 12 minutes later.
Johnson had seven saves in defeat.
Krumenacker was in goal in last year’s state title game, a 1-0 loss to Conestoga. After feeling the sting of defeat in the final, he appreciates what it took to get back and win.
“This is what we’ve been dreaming of since that game ended last year,” he said.
The Raiders also achieved redemption within this season alone. Their only loss came two weeks ago to Pine-Richland in the WPIAL title game. They responded with four straight wins in the state playoffs by outscoring their opponents 18-3.
“For the guys to be able to come back from that loss and get here was amazing,” said Williams. “But winning makes it that much better.”
