History in the making
JEFFERSON TWP— It's all about history for the Knoch boys soccer team.
The Knights posted the first home WPIALplayoff win in the program's history Tuesday night, shutting out Mount Pleasant 3-0.
"From here on, anything else we accomplish is making history,"Knoch coach Doug Wood said. "This program has never gotten past the second round."
Knoch (14-1-1) will play Belle Vernon (12-4-2), a 1-0 winner over Indiana Tuesday night, in the next round at a date, site and time to be determined.
Mount Pleasant (8-10) entered Tuesday's game having allowed more goals than it scored (28-25), but was involved in a scoreless tie at halftime.
"Our plan was to sit back, wait for them to make a mistake and capitalize on it,"Vikings coach Floyd Snyder said. "But that's a very well-coached team with a lot of skilled kids."
The Knights had a 9-1 lead in shots and took six corner kicks to Mount Pleasant's none in the first 40 minutes, but couldn't dent the scoreboard.
"Yeah, that was a little frustrating,"Wood admitted. "They were packing in on us and making it tough. Once we got that first goal, we knew the style of the game would change."
Adam Sharbaugh, Knoch's leading scorer with 15 goals, had the best scoring chance in the first half. His header, off a penalty kick by Michael Hook, was stopped at point-blank range by Vikings goalkeeper Joey Fearer with 14 minutes left in the half.
Sharbaugh never did score in this game. Neither did Kevin Wood, the Knights' second-leading scorer with eight goals.
"That's encouraging to me,"Coach Wood said. "If you only have one or two kids who can score goals, you're not going to stick around in the playoffs for very long."
Knoch finally got on the board with 34:30 left in the first half. Just seconds after injured Mount Pleasant defender Mark Snyder was helped off the field, the Knights' Trevor Gordon had a throw-in from the right corner that got loose in front of the net.
Three Knights had a shot at the ball and it was senior midfielder and co-captain Travis Tasker who drilled it into the net.
Tasker added a second goal with 22:18 left in the game, taking a pass from across the goalmouth and slipping it into the left corner of the net. Tasker now has eight goals on the campaign.
Knoch's final goal of the night came off the foot of freshman Klaus Ondrizek, who converted his second tally of the season on a breakaway with 10:04 remaining.
The Knights had a 15-5 edge in shots.
"(Goalkeeper Joey Fearer) has been our backbone all season,"Snyder said. "He's kept us in a lot of games and he kept us in this one.
"We just couldn't generate any offense."
Few teams have against Knoch, which has allowed only 13 goals in 16 games. Tuesday marked the Knights' seventh shutout of the season.
Knoch junior goalkeeper Cullen Hinderliter made two critical saves early in the second half when the game was still scoreless. He pinned a shot by midfielder Trevor Cutlip against the crossbar from 33 yards out and made a sliding saved on midfielder Gio Orozco's attempt from 25 yards away.
Both stops occurred less than five minutes into the half.
"Cullen came up big when he had to,"Wood said. "He'll have to do that a few more times if we expect to keep on playing."
