Pulling one out

Article Photos

MILL HALL - Tyler Kleckner had an idea of where he wanted his shots to go.

As he approached the net with the ball, each time his kicks failed to go between the posts.

On his second try in double overtime, he made his shot count.

From 15 yards out, Kleckner connected his kleat with the soccer ball and put it right past Philipsburg-Osceola goalkeeper Joshua Cowher, picking up the game-winning tally for a 1-0, Central Mountain victory.

It was a hard-earned goal for the Wildcats, as 90 minutes of play against the Mounties accumulated plenty of shots, but nothing lit up the scoreboard.

"I remember just picking my head up and picking my spot, and putting the ball into the back of the net," Kleckner said. "We just all knew that, as a team, we had to come out and pick it up together. We had to make it better than the first half because our first half wasn't very good. We had to put it together in the second."

Central Mountain (8-5-2) put on a solid show in the second 40 minutes of play, forcing the Mounties' back line to work twice as hard in their own territory.

Kleckner alone was a force to be reckoned with. He had at least two shots on goal that were inches from brushing the nylon - including one that rolled off the hands of Cowher and over the cross bar and another one that sailed inches to the left of the far post. Kleckner also almost had an assist on a possible game-winning goal by George Riccardo, but that shot bounced off the top bar and the game continued.

"That was a good shot by Tyler in overtime. He has a good shot, and he has been struggling," Central Mountain skipper Abe Stauffer said. "He thought he was jinxed or snakebitten or something. Hopefully, that goal will get the monkey off his back and we'll see more of that. It was a timely goal and a good shot under pressure. I wish it would have come earlier, but we hung tough there.

"The first half, we had four shots, so it wasn't a good first half. The second, they had two shots and we had 10. Their keeper made some fantastic saves. George (Riccardo) had several good chances and just missed, so he played real good. I told the boys that we had been in overtime before, and we have come away the winner. We had to do it again."

Philipsburg (1-10-2), which started six sophomores, had its chance to put the game away in the first overtime. Alex Boumerhi found himself with the ball about 5 yards away from CM keeper Mike Walizer, and the Mountie took a hard look and kicked the sphere with all he had. Walizer made a leap in the air and deflected the ball away from the goal, keeping the game alive with 8:26 remaining.

"Overall, I thought for us to hang with them and take it to overtime was a positive," P-O head coach Brian Fenton said. "I didn't have anything negative to say to these guys. Obviously, when you play that long and hard and you lose, you get down. But we just told the guys to stay positive. We play Tyrone Saturday, and they only have one win. If we play anywhere near the intensity that we played with (tonight), we should do well.

"For us, we have a roster of 16 guys and come into the game with a record of 1-9-2, so just to get to overtime and have them shut out almost 95 minutes, that is a huge accomplishment for us. This year, we just can't get over that hump. This is our third overtime game, and we have four other games we've lost by one goal. We're pretty much competitive, we just can't seem to get over that hump. We're right there with most everybody, we just can't finish off these tough games. A lot of that has to do with the numbers on the team. Pretty much 11 starters played 90-plus minutes in this game."

Action at the net flowed all night, as Cowher had 13 saves for P-O while Walizer turned away five shots for Central Mountain. The Wildcats outshot Philipsburg 17-4 and had the advantage on corner kicks, 8-4.

"Mike played well (tonight) and came up big," Stauffer said. "We came out of the box one time on a mixup defensively on our part and he came through. That was good. He played strong when we were struggling the first half.

"You want them to challenge, and (Philipsburg) was up to the challenge. They were much improved from the last time we played them. They beat Huntingdon last week, and we beat Huntingdon Monday. They were playing with confidence in the game. They are well coached and have been working hard and are much improved. On Monday, we overcame adversity and came back to win. Billy Hook was out and Zach Stauffer was out, so our two center midfields weren't there in overtime. Jake Corbett came in and played there and did a good job. We moved guys around to try and get the best out of everybody."

Mountain League

CENTRAL MOUNTAIN 1, PHILIPSBURG-OSCEOLA 0, 2 OT

Second Overtime

CM - Tyler Kleckner, 5:27.

Shots: CM 17-4. Corner Kicks: CM 8-4. Saves: P-O 13 (Joshua Cowher). CM 5 (Mike Walizer). Records: CM 8-5-2, P-O 1-10-2. No JV game.