DIVISION I Eagles crush Blue Streaks to advance to district semifinal

Howland's Leah Albani scored twice in the 5-0 win over Lake.
By BOB ROTH
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
HOWLAND -- Good defense and the reliability of Leah Albani led the Howland High girls soccer team to a 5-0 victory over Uniontown Lake in a Division I sectional tournament match Saturday at Lombardo Field.
The Tigers (13-3-1) will play in a district semifinal at home on Tuesday.
Howland scored its first goal with 14 minutes, 56 seconds remaining in the first half when sophomore forward Sarah Mangiarelli scored in the box.
"The defense pushed off and when Darcy Quinlan threw the ball in I ran to it and scored," said Mangiarelli.
Just over three minutes later, Albani, a senior forward who attempted 15 shots in the game, drilled her 22nd goal of the season from 16 yards out.
"I was on the wing and instead of kicking the ball with my left foot, because a defender was right on me, I hit it with my right foot and it went in," said Albani.
Just 21/2 minutes later, Albani scored again on an assist from senior Lisa Hlaudy.
Shaking it off: "We were off for a week and knew we would be rusty," said Howland coach Gary Anderson, in his eighth season. "After the first 10 minutes we took control of the game and played good soccer."
Howland scored its final two goals in the second half, on shots by Quinlan and junior wing Stephanie Cornicelli, the latter at the 13:34 mark.
With most of the game played in Lake territory, the Blue Streaks (4-13-1) attempted just nine shots on goal and two corner kicks. Howland keeper Tracy Moore made seven saves.
Lake's Kathy Stuck, a sophomore, made 23 saves.
"They kept coming at me and all season long I have been fortunate to have good defenders out there helping me," said Stuck. "This season was a rough one."