ALTOONA — Saturday night’s PIAA Class 3A boys soccer quarterfinal between Franklin Regional and Conrad Weiser was a matter of creating opportunities.
The bulk of them, though, belonged to the Scouts as they controlled play for much of the night and blanked the Panthers, 2-0, at Altoona’s Mansion Park.
Panthers coach Nick White believes Conrad Weiser (26-0-1) proved why it is the top team in the state as Franklin Regional wrapped up the season at 19-5.
“They’ve got two all-state strikers, they’ve got all-conference players littered all over their lineup,” White said. “We were on the back foot a bit and were defending a lot in the first half. I thought that we defended pretty well.”
The first of those opportunities came a little more than 10 minutes in as Cash Stout’s shot hit off the crossbar and was later followed by one that deflected off to the right side of the net.
The Scouts broke through in the 16th minute as Owen Hunt took a feed from Owen Meredith for a goal off a corner kick.
“On that corner kick, we lose a mark, it was a perfect header and we didn’t defend that corner well,” White said.
The Panthers’ best scoring chance came with 13 minutes in the first half as Fabrizzio Costa sent a shot high.
Coming out of halftime, the Scouts kept the pressure up as Abu Barrie shot one off the pipe. Four minutes later, Luke Callahan had shots turned away on a pair of prime scoring chances.
About a minute later, Meredith knocked one in from the 20-yard line to make it 2-0.
“This is the kind of game in playoffs where you need to capitalize on free kicks and set pieces, and we worked on those pretty heavily,” Conrad Weiser coach Derek Long said. “When Owen Meredith has a free and open shot like that (in the second half), he’s usually putting it on frame for us.”
“He’s one of our studs in the middle. If he has a great game, we have a great game.”
Said White: “We didn’t generate enough offensively, and that’s because the way that they play, and the way they were running numbers, they kind of smother you and force you to defend a lot. It will be a tall order for anyone to stop that team.”
White is looking back with pride on the Panthers’ season.
“For us to be able to win a section title outright, for us to be able to go to the WPIAL championship game for the second year in a row, and for us to be able to go the state quarterfinals for a second year in a row, these guys have a lot to hang their hat on. We overcame a lot this year to get to this stage.”
He is also grateful for the contributions of his senior class.
“Their leadership has been second to none,” he said. “They’re always the one leading the pack and making sure everybody comes with them. They came to so many things in the summer and were leading the way in that regard. They’re leaving behind a really good legacy. These seniors are going to be missed.”