Another close game and yet another loss for the CD East Boys soccer squad. Carlisle defeated CD East 2 – 0 on goals from Gabe Stasyszyn and Evan Collins. So, unless the Panthers pull out a win Thursday against a very tough Chambersburg team, they will win fewer games this season than last season. That’s not what many people were expecting from East when this season began.
East once again played with a great deal of determination. Perhaps the 9 – 0 shelling they absorbed the last time these two teams met was in the back of their minds. To be fair, that was a game in which East’s top two keepers, Rotman Saltos and Sean Orlando, were unable to play, leaving the backstopping duties to JV keeper Timmy Sirlupo. As many familiar with soccer will tell you, there is an uptick in the level of performance between a JV squad and a varsity squad.
So with Orlando standing in goal the first half and Saltos minding the net during the second half, East more than made amends for the first meeting between these two teams. Slowed by nagging injuries throughout the year, Orlando admitted he was “slow” reacting to the rocket off the foot of Gabe Stasyszyn with less than 5 minutes gone in the first half. Stasyszyn goal would put Carlisle up 1 – 0 at the half. Saltos fared a little better in not surrendering a goal until the seventeenth minute of the second half but eventually Evan Collins would find the back of the net giving the Thundering Herd a 2 – 0 lead.
Once again East was done in by their inability to move the ball. East mustered only 2 shots on goal in comparison to the Herd’s 23. You don’t win many soccer games giving up 23 shots on goal while managing only 2 as a team. For whatever reason, East can’t seem to push the ball into the box and get off a shot on goal. Time and again they made forays into Carlisle’s zone, only to be dispossessed, make a soft pass that was jumped on by a defender, or watch a mid-fielder cross the ball into an empty box because no one else penetrated the zone to put pressure on the keeper.
East has one more game left in an effort to match their win total from last season but it won’t be easy. Chambersburg is waiting in the wings and after putting a 7 – 0 beat down on East in September; it doesn’t look good for the Panthers. East will honor their outgoing seniors Thursday at Landis field. Game time is 7 pm.