WINGATE — The Bishop Carroll boys’ soccer team scored the first two goals against Bellefonte in the District 6 semi-final game Oct. 25 at Bald Eagle High School.
Unfortunately for the Huskies, one of those goals counted for the Raiders after a ball caromed off a BC player into his own net for a Bellefonte goal.
That score, along with a gritty, four-goal second half rally, vaulted Bellefonte to a 5-4 victory over Carroll and into the D-6 finals against the winner of the match between Hollidaysburg and Huntingdon.
In the second game of the night, a AA opening-round match, Bald Eagle Area completed a Centre County sweep with a 3-2 victory over Forest Hills.
Nick Zink scored the game-winner for BEA in the 67th minute, just a minute after Forest Hills tied the game at 2-2 with a goal by Wyatt Bramley.
BEA will now face the winner of the Ligonier Valley and Cambria Heights game in the District 6 semi-finals Oct. 31 at a site to be announced.
In the back-and-forth Bellefonte-BC contest that saw both teams come from behind, Bellefonte scored the final two goals of the night in the last 20 minutes of the game to finally subdue Carroll and qualify for the final.
Raider Dan Simmon scored the winning goal — his second of the night — in the 66th minute. He took a perfect pass from Alex Horner and sent a hard shot high and over the left side of BC goalie Andrew Grusceil. The goal gave the Raiders a 5-4 lead, and from there the Bellefonte defense held on for the win. Bishop Carroll did not get off another shot.
“We were making a play downfield,” Simmon said about his game-winning goal, “and Alex (Horner) played it to me. I took a touch inside and then just put it away.”
Simmon’s goal was the last one in a turbulent second half.
Carroll was ahead 1-0 after Alex Karlheim opened the game with a goal in the 12th minute. But four minutes later, the Raiders’ Dan Catchmark tried to clear a loose ball in front of the BC goal and it hit defender Chris Goodbird’s leg and bounced into the net to tie the game at 1-1.
Neither team could score again in the first half, but that changed quickly after the break.
Bellefonte went up by two goals after Simmon scored his first from just outside the box in the 48th minute, and then Horner headed one in two minutes later to give the Raiders a 3-1 advantage.
Carroll hardly blinked though. Less than two minutes after Horner’s goal, Karlheim took a pass from Owen Reihart and slammed a shot past goalie Josh Gaus that closed the gap to 3-2.
BC sophomore forward Selvin Maykovich followed with two unassisted goals that put the Huskies back into the lead, 4-3. In both instances, Maykovich used his speed to break past Bellefonte defenders before going one-on-one against Gaus.
“This is what you expect at district play,” Simmon said, “the constant counter-attacks trying to wear down the opponent.
“It was quite a shame to give up three goals in like three minutes, and we sort of felt like we would lose the game, but we turned it around.”
That turnaround began when Raider coach Scott Martz put in an extra defender to stabilize the game and wait for something to happen with his offense.
That something came in the 60th minute when forward Marco Mazzei split two defenders and scored from 20 yards out to tie the game 4-4.
“Offensively, I thought we could come back and score,” Martz said, “but I was a little bit nervous about our defense tonight.
“We did put an extra guy back on D. Normally, we play three guys but we did put an extra guy back defensively, hoping to solidify a little bit and help us out. They (the Carroll players) are quick. They have a high-powered offense.”
With the Raider defense finally catching up with the BC speed, Horner and Simmon got together for the winning goal with 14 minutes left to play.
“They (the players) stepped up when they needed to step up and got us a 5-4 win,” Martz said. “Bishop Carroll is a good team, and I am happy with the win tonight.
“I am just happy that we’ve gotten back to this point. It’s been four years since we’ve been back to the championship. These guys were just freshmen then, so I am happy for them to get back. Hopefully we’ll get a victory.”
