LEWISTOWN - It's safe to bet that in the wild, if a lion and a husky were pitted in a fight against each other, the lion would win. Apparently the same rule also applies on the soccer field.
On Tuesday, when the State College Little Lions traveled south for a Commonwealth Division boys soccer match against Mifflin County, State College asserted its dominance by outscoring the Huskies 6-0.
Mifflin County coach, Jared Byler, summed up the game well.
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Sentinel photo by BRADLEY?KREITZER
Mifflin County’s Bret Pallotto (10) and State College’s Mike Rury battle for the ball in Mid-Penn Commonwealth Division action Tuesday in Lewistown. Mifflin?County lost 6-0. See more photos online at cu.lewistownsentinel.com.
"We didn't come out with a lot of fire, and passion and intensity tonight, and that came back to bite us. We were lacking in our fundamentals. We were making a lot of basic mistakes in the first half, so we dug ourselves a huge hole."
And unfortunately for Mifflin County, Byler was right. The Huskies really were in a big hole going into the second half.
With the score at 5-0 after the first 40 minutes, Mifflin County was in a deficit it would never be able to overcome. But, as Byler explained, he talked with the team at halftime and told the boys they needed to go back to the basics to stop making the mistakes of the first half.
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*Mifflin County hosts Carlisle Thursday
For the most part, Byler's plan worked.
Mifflin County only gave up one goal in the second half, for a final score of 6-0. And beneath the shutout loss, this second-half performance was a small victory of its own.
It showed that Mifflin County could dig in and keep State College from running away with the second half the way it had the first. It also kept the score two points better than the 8-0 loss Mifflin County took to the Little Lions Monday night when the teams played a make-up match in State College.
"We only gave up (one) goal in the second half, so it was nice to see a little bit of improvement from what we displayed in the first half," Byler said.
State College's Jake Garrigan and Nick Christie both played a major role in their team's strong offensive outing. Each assisted the other for one goal apiece, and Christie also shot another unassisted goal during the first half.
"It's tough to play back-to-back nights in this conference with the level of competition we see," Byler said. "So we were tired, they were tired, we just came out on the losing end this evening."
Mifflin County hosts Carlisle on Thursday for its last home match of the season.
