×

Probst back and better for CM

KAREN VIBERT-KENNEDY/Sun-Gazette Central Mountain’s Grant Cole moves the ball during the game against Williamsport Tuesday at Balls Mills.

KAREN VIBERT-KENNEDY/Sun-Gazette
Central Mountain’s Grant Cole moves the ball during the game against Williamsport Tuesday at Balls Mills.

WILLIAMSPORT — Central Mountain’s Cy Probst didn’t get a chance last year to showcase his talents in goal. An injury robbed him of his junior year.

As the 2020 fall season started to get closer, Probst was hoping he could get a chance to have one last solid year.

The Wildcats may have lost Tuesday to Williamsport on the road, 3-1, but Probst played great in goal. The senior goalie came up with numerous saves that prevented WIlliamsport from increasing its lead further.

“He’s come back looking pretty good. He’s really motivated to improve,” Central Mountain coach Billy Hook said. “He wanted to have one last season before focusing on baseball. He said he wanted to be the best he can be.

“He’s definitely improved a lot.”

One of his best saves came late in the second half when Williamsport’s Owen Kaar tried to send a shot inside the left post only to have Probst dive and get a finger on it at the last second and force it out of bounds.

Williamsport scored just 2 minutes into the game and had three first-half goals to put Central Mountain behind, 3-0, at the half.

Central Mountain had three shots on goal in each half, but only managed two shots from inside the 18-yard box. One of them came courtesy of Nate Brinker, who sank a penalty kick late in the second half to end Williamsport’s shutout bid.

“We had chances, we don’t have a guy who has a lot of goals to his name and that confidence I think, so we just need to hopefully get (that),” Central Mountain coach Billy Hook said. “We definitely had chances, I’m happy with that for sure.”

Williamsport played solid in the first half, scoring three goals in the opening 40 minutes and scored the game’s first goal just 2 minutes into the game.

“We weren’t 100% sure what to expect. We had a scrimmage day, but we had a couple guys out and even tonight, we haev some injuries that we’re working through already,” Williamsport coach Lee Kaar said. “But when you score first and score that early, that lets the guys take a deep breath and be like ‘OK, lets go.'”

Williamsport (1-0) kept pressure against Central Mountain (0-2) the entire first half.

Zach Lake scored Williamsport’s opening goal 1 minute, 54 seconds into the game when he slid and got off a great shot to the far right post just out of Central Mountain goalie Cy Probst’s hands.

Williamsport scored 16 minutes later when Owen Kaar sent a great corner kick to just outside of the 6-yard box to Logan Hall, who used his body to send it in for a 2-0 lead.

Jimmy Pombor sent a beautiful pass between a Central Mountain defender’s legs from roughly 40 yards out to Lake, who dribled it inside of the 18. Lake finished and buried a great shot to the left post to put the Millionaires ahead, 3-0, with 6 minutes left to play until halftime.

“He brings some hustle and some strength,” Kaar said of Lake. “He definitely brings some of that aggressiveness and strength that we like inside the box.”

Central Mountain broke up the shutout bid thanks to a call inside the box that gave the Wildcats a penalty kick with 7:17 to play. That’s when Nate Brinker lined up and drilled a shot to the right post just out of goalie Elliott Wannop’s reach to cut the deficit to two. However that would be the closest Central Mountain would cut the deficit.

The Wildcats had various opportunities throughoutt he game, but Williamsport’s defense did an outstanding job in preventing Central Mountain many looks from inside the 18. Aside from the penalty kick, Central Mountain had just one shot come from within the 18.

“It starts back with Elliott (Wannop) and Tyler (Fausnaught). Elliott between the pipes, he has a very large presence and a very large wingspan,” Kaar said. “Then his communication comes throguh Tyler and Tyler sees everything and really reads the game well to cut off any of those potential chances that Central Mountain had tonight. It’s going to be a long season and we have a lot of work to do yet.”

The Wildcats had six shots on goal, two of which came from both Chase Young and Brinker.

One of the best chances the WIldcats had came with 34:39 to play in the second half when Young fired a great hard shot toward the center of the net that Wannop caught.

With just over 2 minutes to play, Peyton Jones had a high shot for Central Mountain towards the left, but Wannop came up again big with a stop.

“We had chances, we don’t have a guy who has a lot of goals to his name and that confidence I think, so we just need to hopefully get (that),” Hook said. “We definitely had chances, I’m happy with that for sure.”

Williamsport 3,

Central Mountain 1

W– Zach Lake, 38:06. W–Logan Hall (Owen Kaar), 22:28. W–Lake (Jimmy Pombor), 6:02. CM–Nate Brinker (penalty kick), 7:17.

Shots: CM 6, W 8. Corners: CM 0, W 6. Saves: CM 3 (Cy Probst), W 4 (Elliott Wannop).

Records: Central Mountain (0-2), Williamsport (1-0).

NEWSLETTER

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *
   

COMMENTS

[vivafbcomment]

Starting at $3.69/week.

Subscribe Today