HUMMELSTOWN - Greenwood's reliable keeper, Ryan Kerstetter, was beaten when his teammates misplayed a corner kick, allowing High Point Academy a soft goal just a minute into their District 3 Class A boys soccer quarterfinal Saturday at Lower Dauphin.
Kerstetter's teammates then spent the better part of the afternoon making life hard for his counterpart on the way to a 4-1 win over the Eagles, pushing Greenwood into the semifinals - where they'll face Tri-Valley League rival Lancaster Country Day, which they beat twice by a combined 12-0 score in the regular season.
That game is set for 5 p.m. Tuesday at Cumberland Valley's Eagle View Middle School.
Article Photos
Sentinel photo by LARRY?YOHN
Greenwood’s Tyler Fegley controls possession against High Point Academy’s David Schleifenheimer during the District 4 Class A boys soccer match Saturday in Hummelstown.
Greenwood controlled the flow of play, and the Wildcats were relentless in front of Eagle goalie Dylan Englel, who seemed almost lucky to be down just one goal midway through the first half after mishandling one ball before stopping it and offering up a juicy rebound on another that the defense saved for him.
Yet the Wildcats were disappointing coach Tom Magill, who felt the team was missing opportunities that High Point was offering.
"We won't last real long if we keep playing that way," he said, offering a thorough breakdown as to what his team should have done better.
"We overshot the ball a lot. I thought we panicked too much when we had the ball at our feet. We were trying to get rid of it too quickly and we didn't need to," he explained. "Our lack of communication was awful, just plain awful."
But whatever Greenwood was doing worked on the scoreboard, as the Wildcats built a lead and extended it when Josh Ferguson, who connected on the first Wildcat goal from an Alex Potter feed, hit a penalty kick awarded when Greenwood forced a hand ball in the box. Jarrett Fortenbaugh had the go-ahead goal in between.
High Point had its moments, but the Eagles spent a good bit of time back on their heels, sometimes hesitantly watching to see what Greenwood was going to do next. The Wildcats just kept moving forward.
Englel, though, played a better second quarter, and the Wildcats were held scoreless for the last 17 minutes before the break. He proved to be a better goalie than the first five minutes made him look, especially in light of the fact that High Point's offensive efforts were few and far between.
At halftime, the Eagles apparently realized they could at least step over Greenwood on offense where running through had failed, and on defense they started to pack the box whenever the Wildcats were in scoring position.
"We actually played a little better in the second half than the first half," Magill said. "We actually strung some nice passing sequences together, we just didn't get a finish at the end."
But even that couldn't stop Greenwood's high-octane front, which delivered another goal 10 minutes after the break when Aaron Smith dropped a ball on Tyler Fegley, who easily made his mark on the twine to finish out the scoring.
