NTL BOYS' SOCCER: LEE'S SECOND HALF GOAL LEADS TROY PAST TOWANDA (2024-10-10)

BY CHRIS MANNING
Northern Tier Sports Report
EAST TROY — Troy boys’ soccer saved their best for last, edging Towanda 1-0 in their season finale Thursday.

In a game marked with little scoring but quite a bit back and forth action, it was Landon Lee shot just under the crossbar with 18:56 on the clock that proved to be the game winner.

“It feels very, very good to finish on a high note,” Troy coach Dane Seeley said. “We came very close to our keeper getting his 500th career save, but the whole team is glad to come away with a win.”

Timothy Hornung finished with nine saves for the clean sheet, including a diving one late in the first half that kept the game scoreless. He was also big on a several corner kicks - an area Towanda has proven to be particularly dangerous this season - as the Knights had a 10-2 edge in corners.

“We had been training for this yesterday, and knew what our roles were,” said Seeley. “Everybody performed exemplary.”

Nate West and Blaiz Nichols combined for seven saves. West was given a red card when he grabbed a through pass outside the penalty box, giving the Trojans a free kick.

Troy’s initial effort was snuffed out the Black Knight defense, but they didn’t clear it. It worked its way around to an open Lee, who put it the one spot the keeper couldn’t get to it.

“He’s got a great foot, and I’ve been waiting for more of those all year,” said Seeley. “But it was wonderful to see that ball going in.”

Troy out shot Towanda 13-7, but the Knights had plenty of attempts just miss either side of the post. A few runs on through balls saw shots go just wide throughout the match for Towanda.

The loss puts Towanda (7-9) behind the eight ball as they need to win their final two games to get to .500 and earn a district berth. They host Montrose on Saturday with a 1 p.m. start, and then finish the regular season on Tuesday as they travel to Shamokin for a 5 p.m. kick-off.

Troy (2-16) ends their year with a win, something that Seeley hopes will jump start the process into year two for him in 2025.

“I think our returning players, because we are a young team only graduating two seniors this year, is going to be much hungrier than they were at the beginning of the year,” he said. “Everybody that I had not coached before this is on board and ready to go.”

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PHOTOS BY CHRIS MANNING

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