The Tigers outshot the Poland Bulldogs 4-3 to advance to the Division II distict final.

The Tigers outshot the Poland Bulldogs 4-3
to advance to the
Division II distict final.

By DOUG CHAPIN

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

POLAND — One of the unique things about tournament play in high school soccer is the fact that a season which begins in the sweltering heat of July can come to a sudden end in late October on just one shot.

So it was Monday night as Howland defeated Poland in a shootout to win the Division II district semifinal. The Tigers, who outshot Poland 4-3 in the shootout after a 2-2 tie, face Mooney Thursday night in the district final.

Howland junior goalkeeper Daniel Miller guessed correctly and moved to his left to stop the shot of Poland captain Brian Garcar to decide the contest. Miller also stopped the Bulldogs’ second shooter, Taylor Malaniak.

“I guessed on every one,” Miller said. “A couple of them I guessed right but they just had too good a shot. Yeah, the last one I guessed. I was real lucky.”

The Tigers were successful on their first four shots of the shootout — Eric Albani, Sumit Kovoor, William Henderson and Matt Zador — all to the lower left corner. Ryan Gerin hit the post on Howland’s fifth shot. Poland had makes by Blake Rhein, Dan Hunt and Ryan Storkel.

Howland coach George Stevens said each individual player decides what his target will be.

“We sometimes have fun at practice taking penalty kicks,” he said. “They kind of have in their mind where they feel comfortable going.”

Like many coaches, Poland coach Brad Sackella is not a big fan of the shootout to decide ties.

“It’s something I guess you’ve got to have or we could be here all night, but it’s certainly a rough way to end,” he said. “Especially for the senior class, it’s the last game they’ll play. Unfortunately we also lost in a shootout last year. We certainly practiced for this occasion, but it’s a tough way to end a long season.”

Poland (10-3-5) took a 2-0 lead in the first half. Ryan Rovnak drilled a shot from about 10 yards away with 34:41 to play after Howland was unable to clear the ball on a throw-in.

With 3:48 remaining in the half, Storkel tallied from right in front of the net on a rebound after Brian Witt’s shot hit the crossbar. Storkel showed good patience, waiting for just the right moment to trigger his shot.

Sackella said there was concern about a letdown in the second half with a two-goal advantage.

“We wanted to play as though we were down by one, that was the focus of our halftime talk,” he said. “I think we kept the intensity up, we continued to play solid in the second half. Unfortunately we let two slip in, but we continued to keep a lot of pressure on their goal and continued to run our game plan.”

Miller kept the game from going to 3-0 with a big stop on a blast by Storkel about four minutes into the second half. The Bulldogs had another good chance at about the 26:25 mark when Miller stopped Wesley Shure but the rebound trickled away. Alan Gavolis got a foot on the ball, but Kovoor stopped it on the goal line for Howland (11-0-7).

Meanwhile, Poland keeper Andrew McElroy came up big at the 33:00 mark with a stop of Kovoor who drilled a hard, low shot as he came in on the left side.

Freshman Scott Heinemann finally got Howland on the board when he converted on a corner kick by Gerin with 14:49 to play. Albani scored the tying goal with 1:55 left on an assist by Scott Barkett.

Stevens said the Tigers changed things around in order to get their offense going.

“We completely switched. We put our central defenders in the midfield and we put our center midfielders up at forward to get some offense,” he said. “We were down 2-0 so if didn’t make any difference if we conceded another goal. That was kind of a calculated risk we took. It ended up it worked out.”

Miller and McElroy both made good plays in the first five minutes of the initial overtime period coming off their lines to get on the ball just before an attacker.

Poland’s Storkel set up Brian Ciccone with 6:26 left in the first overtime but Miller made another outstanding stop. He also tapped a long shot by Rovnak over the top of the crossbar with 1:02 left in the second overtime period.

Miller ended up with eight saves and McElroy had 10 for the Bulldogs.