BY SHANE HENNIGAN
Times-Shamrock Writer

Mountain View’s stellar defense held Montrose’s offense in check for 66 minutes last Monday (Oct. 12).

That defense finally faltered in the 67th minute, allowing two goals 1:43 apart. Luckily for the Eagles, their offense stepped up much earlier to make sure that the match’s outcome would never be in doubt.

Justin Rowe had two goals and two assists and Mountain View scored three goals in less than six minutes early in the second half to break the game open, as the Eagles rolled to a 4-2 victory over Montrose in a Lackawanna League Division III boys soccer match.

“We have that capability to score quick goals when we play at our best,” Mountain View coach Roger Thomas said. “Kind of unfortunate to give up two direct kicks late in the game. But the good news is that we put ourselves up by four and therefore, we could withstand it.”

Montrose (6-2) had two good scoring opportunities in the first nine minutes, but couldn’t convert.

From that point, Mountain View (6-1-1) put the pressure on and got on the board in the 18th minute. Nick Pellew took a pass from Rowe in the box, made a move on his defender, turned and fired a shot toward the right post. Goalkeeper Brendan Buck dove to make the save but the ball deflected off of him and bounced into the net to put the Eagles ahead, 1-0.

Despite both having their chances, neither team would score the rest of the half.

The Eagles came out aggressively to start the second half and their scoring outburst began in the 47th minute. After his initial shot in the box was deflected back to him, sophomore Alex Showalter controlled the ball and fired a shot to the right post and into the back of the net for a 2-0 lead.

“Everything was just bouncing around and I turned to my right and the ball was there so I just shot it to the far side and it went into the side netting,” Showalter said.

Rowe got into the scoring four minutes later when he took a pass from Sam Flannery in the box and knocked it in for a three-goal lead.

Two minutes later, Rowe got behind the defense. Showalter fed him a through ball from midfield and Rowe finished it off with another goal.

“I saw Alex lining up so that’s when I started making the run,” Rowe said. “I just took off there and I saw when it was the right time to shot there. It was big for us.”

The Meteors tried to mount a comeback and got something going in the 67th minute. After Mountain View was whistled for a foul, Giovanni Amato finally got one to go, scoring on a direct kick from the top of the 18-yard box.

Amato then scored again in the next minute on another direct kick, this one from about 25 yards out to cut the deficit in half. But that was the closest Montrose came for the rest of the game.

“We pressed when we had the chance but it was just too little too late,” coach Dan Cherney said. “I saw a lack of heart and desire from our guys. I don’t think we wanted it as much as they did. We’ve been playing hard and we’ve been playing well all year so it was kind of a surprising. But we’ll learn from it. It’s just one game and we’ll get better (today). That’s the biggest thing.

In other play-action on Oct. 12, Elk Lake and Blue Ridge both took wins.

At Carbondale, Blake Chew had a goal and an assist to lead Elk Lake to a 4-0 win.

Bailey Newhart, Rierdan Reyan and Ben Woolcock also scored for the Warriors.

At Blue Ridge, Alex Mejia had four goals to lead the Raiders, 7-0, over Dunmore.

Corbin French had two goals and an assist for the winners.

Later in the week Blue Ridge fell to Lakeland, 2-1.

Corbin French scored for Blue Ridge.

Goalie Gavin Bradley had 21 saves.

At Forest City, Bailey Newhart’s second goal of the game snapped a tie and lifted Elk Lake to the 3-2 Division III victory.

Blake Chew added the other goal for the Warriors.

Eric Paulin and Tyler Clift scored for the Foresters.

At Montrose, Giovanni Amato had a hat trick and Tom Vaccaro had two assists to lead the Meteors, 6-1, over Carbondale Area.

Ricardo Sanchez scored for Carbondale Area.

At Mountain View, Alex Showalter had two goals and an assist to lead the Eagles, 6-0, over Old Forge.

Justin Rowe and Stephen Mordent each added a goal with two assists for the winners.