The Palmyra Boys HS soccer season came to an end on Monday night in Gettysburg. The 3rd seeded Warriors were simply too much as they defeated the Cougars 3-0 to advance District 3 AAA quarterfinals (against 11th-seeded Garden Spot who upset Hershey on penalty kicks). Gettysburg scored early on mishit cross by Drew Wivell. The wind-aided ball took a big bounce and eluded Palmyra GK Derrick Ciesielka and 3 leaping Warrior attackers to grab the momentum as the Cougars back line looked on. The Warriors got their second goal of the game when an unmarked Logan Carbaugh headed a well-placed corner kick into the Cougar goal. Matt Yingling (who sported a fashionable muffler the entire evening) picked up the Warriors 3rd goal of the game when he found himself wide open and ripped a shot into the goal from less than 15 yards out.
Palmyra's offense continued to struggle to generate quality chances. Sean Bordner had the best opportunity to get on the board for Palmyra after eluding the Gettysburg keeper but a retreating defender was able to clear the ball off the line to keep the Cougars off the board late in the first half.
As the season comes to an end, we wish our 5 graduating seniors the best in their future endeavors.
Next season the Cougars hope to improve on a 6-12-1 season and awaken a dormant offense that scored 1 or fewer goals in 12 of their 19 contests in 2016. Contributing freshmen from this season's varsity team stand to play a bigger role on the 2017 team. Several players from the highly successful JV team could also join the mix to create a deeper, more cohesive unit. Sophomore Derrick Ciesielka who was a field player prior to 2016 "cut his teeth" as a goalkeeper this season and will hopefully return to backstop the team in 2017.
Let's go Cougars!!
