One wild Panther still roaming the Zanesville countryside
“I am extremely proud of our effort tonight,” said third-year West Holmes head coach Nic Fioritto after watching senior wing Sloan Le get free on a breakaway down the right side, off the opening faceoff, blasting a shot on goal which Maysville senior keeper Trevor Reed blocked, leaving a bouncing ball inside the penalty box that senior midfielder Andrew Vaccariello was able to launch into the back of the net for a 1-0 Knights lead. “These guys left it all out on the field tonight.”
Freshman goalkeeper Logan Gallion put himself down on the field moments later, coming up with a diving save to his left as the West Holmes defense protected the lead for nearly 22 minutes before Waltemire worked his way into the left side of the penalty box and beat Gallion to the opposite corner to tie the game at 1-1 with 18:04 left to play in the opening half.
“He’s a good player and he knows how to finish,” said Fioritto as he watched Waltemire put the Panthers in front 2-1 at the 4:52 mark when he fired from the left side again, blasting the ball across the mouth of the goal, past Gallion and into the right corner on what was nearly a carbon copy of his first goal. “He knows how to score and credit to him, he did a good job finding the back of the net.”
But the Knights had several nice opportunities to put the ball in the back of the net as well, which they weren’t able to finish in between Waltemire’s two first-half scoring strikes, as senior midfielder Collin Galbraith got behind the Maysville defense with 15:30 remaining in the half, dribbling to just inside the left corner of the penalty box and blasting a shot that hit Reed right in the chest for an easy save.
Then, as the clock inversed itself to 13:50, junior Brazilian midfielder Fernando Floriano slid into the right side of the penalty box to keep a loose ball alive for Vaccariello but was met on the ground by a charging Reed, who knocked the ball away, allowing Maysville to clear.
But 1:21 after Waltemire’s second goal Vaccariello lofted a corner kick high into the left side of the box where Galbraith was pushed from behind while trying to connect on a header, giving the senior midfielder a penalty kick which he drilled home by going left as Reed dove to the right, knotting the game back up at two apiece with 3:25 left to play.
“I think these conditions actually suited us a little bit better,” said Fioritto, after taking the 2-2 tie into halftime with the rain continuing to pour down and the field devolving into a deep mud pit. “They play on turf, so they’re not used to the crazy bounces and things like that, but that’s been our field the whole year.”
“As far as the conditions, we knew that some of our normal possessions that we like to do were going to be a little more difficult,” agreed Maysville head coach Lance McGee. “Poor conditions have a way of evening things out and tonight I think it showed, definitely in the first half.”
But less than 2:30 into the second half, Maysville was given a decided advantage the rest of the way when Knights junior defender Trent Grassbaugh was hit with a straight red card at the same time a penalty kick was awarded to Waltemire, as he was held inside the box while dribbling in on the right side.
“Unfortunately we had that first penalty kick and then a red card all within a minute and it just deflated us,” explained Fioritto as Waltemire fired his penalty kick off of Gallion’s hands and into the upper part of the net, putting Maysville back in front 3-2 at the 37:33 mark. “And playing 10 on 11 is going to make us tired a lot quicker.”
Gallion may have gotten tired pretty quickly in the second half as he was tested in between the pipes time-and-time again after the Panthers gained a man advantage, charging out of goal, cutting down Waltemire’s angle and sliding to clear the ball on a one-on-one breakaway attempt with 31:23 showing on the clock; coming all the way out to the top of the box and sliding to take another one-on-one scoring opportunity away with 29:28 left to play; sliding out one more time, 28 seconds later, and watching as Waltemire chipped the ball over him, trickling it across the open goal mouth before the Knights were able to clear.
A simple slide wouldn’t do with 27:21 left to play, however, as Waltemire again got past the West Holmes defense, into the penalty box on the left side, challenging Gallion one more time, as the Knights keeper came out and tackled the junior forward from Maysville, setting up another penalty kick, which Waltemire launched over the crossbar to keep the score 3-2.
“We tried to go three in the back with somebody sitting back as an extra defender, but also pushing up a little further,” explained Fioritto. “But we needed to get on the attack because we were behind. That’s the frustrating thing, we had the opportunity but once they went up 3-2 we automatically had to go on the attack, so we had to get numbers. In the back of your mind you know when you do that, there’s a good chance of them possibly scoring another goal on a couple breakaways.”
And that’s exactly what happened, starting at the 19:06 mark, as Waltemire took a forwarding pass just beyond the midfield stripe, dribbled down the left sideline, beat West Holmes sophomore defender Nick Vaccariello along the goal line and pushed one past Gallion into the opposite corner, to put the Panthers up 4-2.
“Waltemire’s been pretty explosive all year,” said McGee as he watched his junior attacker seal the 5-2 win for Maysville less than two minutes later, when he ended up with possession of the ball on the left side, off a West Holmes goal kick, dribbled across the field into the right side of the box, and ripped a shot across the goal into the upper left corner of the net. “Thirty-one goals, he set the school record for us this year already. Obviously he had a pretty good personal performance considering the conditions.”
Obviously, and regardless of the conditions.
“We knew Waltemire was a good player,” explained Fioritto, as he brought all of his seniors (Tyler Brown, Galbraith, Le, Reed Miller, Marshall Overholt, Andrew Vaccariello and Justin Wahl) off the field for the final time, with 6:32 left to play. “I certainly didn’t think he would erupt for five goals. If we were able to replay this game I would certainly man-mark him.
“The hardest part was seeing the seniors come off the field for the last time. In the three years I have been here we have had some ups and downs, but I am extremely proud of these seniors. They worked their tails off tonight and they certainly didn’t want their season to end.”
But it did end, as the Panthers survived two early attacks from the West Holmes seniors and struck back with a vengeance, leaving one wild Panther still roaming the Zanesville countryside and traveling occasionally as far north as Warsaw.
Published: October 20, 2011
