NTL BOYS' SOCCER: TWO HEADERS PROPEL TOWANDA PAST TROY (2024-09-04)

BY CHRIS MANNING
Northern Tier Sports Report
TOWANDA — Three games into the season Towanda boys’ soccer finds themselves in a unique position - above .500. With their 2-1 win over Troy on Tuesday the Black Knights are 2-1 on the season, and 2-0 in NTL play.

“It’s our work showing,” midfielder Jack Wheaton said about his team’s early season success.

They did plenty of that against the Trojans, controlling possession for much of the game as they out shot Troy 28-5 on the night.

“That’s just something we’re trying new is to play to possession,” Wheaton remarked. “Work the ball slowly up the field.”

It was the set pieces that they prevailed on, getting headers from Gianni Assante Di Cupillo and Conner Barnes off Owen Lane corners for their two goals. For Lane, the connection comes down to chemistry.

“We don’t really work on corners,” he said. “The day we took corners I actually wasn’t there, so I didn’t take corners, but I’ve always been the person to take them.”

Still, Troy had a gutty effort on the night, keeping within arm’s reach most of the way despite falling down in the early minutes. Timothy Hornung was a vacuum with any balls that he could get his hands on, and the Trojans didn’t quit, taking over in the final 10 minutes to make it a 1-goal game off a Hart Houseknecht goal.

Even in the final minute Troy had the ball inside the Towanda box looking for the equalizer.

“Just get it out,” Lane was thinking. “Just do everything to get it out.”

The Knights cleared it and stayed undefeated in league play as Blaze Nichols finished with four saves for Towanda.

“That’s the best feeling,” the senior Lane said about the win. “Winning a home opener, and it’s the last first home game at that.”

The Knights got on the scoreboard 1:44 into the game as Lane found Assante, who rose up amidst four Troy defenders, to head it back across the face of the goal past Hornung for the 1-0 lead.

That set the tone for the first half, especially the first 20 minutes of the half.

“Scoring early on is always a good thing because then it just brings the (other) team’s morale down immediately,” Lane said.

That led to two more point blank chances for Towanda but they couldn’t capitalize. Troy’s first scoring chance came at the 32:30 mark when a shot off a corner kick was just wide of the frame.

With 27:40 to play Towanda’s Braden Spencer got behind the defense but his shot was right at Hornung, who made the catch. The Knights had three more close range chances after that only for Hornung to snuff them out.

Troy’s Gavin Lykon-Leffler had a good look at the 16:30 mark of the first half but Nichols was able to get the save.

At 12:27 Spencer had another shot that got stopped by Hornung, while at the other Troy’s Aaron Prouty found Lykon-Leffler whose attempt at the far post was just wide.

Attacks weren’t as common early in the second half as the team’s traded possessions. It wasn’t until the 17:36 mark when Lane hit Barnes for a picture perfect corner for the 2-0 lead.

Towanda tried to pour it on after that with several more attempts on goal, but Hornung was able to keep it a 2-goal deficit.

The tied turned in the final 10 minutes when Houseknecht dribbled through the defense and beat Nichols wide to make it a 2-1 game with 3:47 left to play.

Troy’s best chance to knot the game up came at the 1:30 mark when they had a corner kick go across the face of the goal untouched. On the far side a Trojan player tried to one touch it back towards the goal but it went out of bounds.

In the final 15 seconds Troy got it deep again, but a big boot from a Towanda defender put it out of bounce, and put the game out of reach for the Trojans.

“This is something I’ve been waiting for since my freshman year,” Lane said. “So it feels really good.”

Troy’s rough start to the season continues as they fall to 0-6, but this was their best effort so far as they finally get to play a home match on Thursday with NEB at 4 p.m.

Towanda (2-1) will host Galeton on Thursday with a 6 p.m. start, then get a big test to the end the week as they welcome Southern Columbia on Saturday for an afternoon kick-off.

As of right now, though, they’re hoping to continue to make some noise, and maybe be a bit of a dark horse in the league.

“There’s definitely an opportunity there,” Wheaton said. “We just have to reach for those opportunities.”

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PHOTOS BY CHRIS MANNING

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