YORK, PA-On a gorgeous summer evening at
Graham Field, the York College men's soccer team continued
their winning ways defeating visiting Arcadia University
4-0. The Spartans' are a perfect 5-0 as
their unbeaten streak moves to 45 consecutive games while Arcadia
drops to 0-4-1 for 2007.
From the opening whistle it was apparent that
Arcadia was set on playing a defensive-minded
match. The Knights put ten players on their side
of the pitch hoping that sheer numbers would stymie the potent
Spartan attack. Even against this set-up York
combined well during the opening minutes, but were simply unable to
connect that final pass. The green and white
maintained most of the possession as Arcadia was content to let the
Spartans come to them.
York did have
difficulty in getting quality shots on target until Jon Ports (Baltimore,
Md. / McDonogh) tallied in the 27th
minute. Mike Whalen (Philadelphia, Pa. / LaSalle)
played a beautiful long ball along the left sideline to forward
Jason
Mancuso (Toms River, N.J. / Toms River
North). Mancuso collected the pass and
blasted a shot at Arcadia goalkeeper Jeff Kratohwill forcing him to
make a lunging stop. Unable to hold the ripper,
the rebound went straight across the goalmouth to the on running
Ports who hammered it home for his fourth goal of the
campaign.
As they have done so often this season, York
scored shortly after their first tally. In the
30th minute of action, Mancuso and Ports combined once
again. This time Mancuso was the fortunate
recipient as Ports dribbled to the endline and played a ball to
Mancuso who promptly gave the home squad a 2-0
advantage. It was the senior's fourth goal
of the season.
Heading into the halftime break, the Spartans
held a huge margin in shots at 11-1 while also leading in corners
3-1.
Extending their
lead in fine fashion, three Spartans combined for the third score
in the 54th minute. Ports collected the ball on the
Knights' endline and played his pass to Justin Suchoski
(Langhorne, Pa. / Neshaminy) at the top right corner of the
penalty box. The sophomore midfielder swung a
lofted cross to the far left post where Whalen banged home the
header notching his third goal of the season.
York finished
off the scoring in the 86th minute on a goal by Mike O'Connell
(Bowie, Md. / Archbishop Spalding).
O'Connell hit a one-timer that caromed off Kratohwill and
right back to the sophomore who knocked in the header on his second
attempt on goal.
Dominating throughout the 90 minutes of
action, the green and white recorded 25 shots to only two for the
visitors. Furthermore, the Spartans led in
corner kicks by a 9-1 margin.
In goal, Kyle Marks
(Yardley, Pa. / Pennsbury) went most of the way with Ryan Hock
(Brookeville, Md. / Sherwood) coming in to finish off the
clean sheet. Hock also recorded York's
lone save. Arcadia's Kratohwill played an
exceptional match in net turning away nine Spartan attempts in
addition to cutting off numerous crosses and dangerous
chances.
The green and white take to Graham Field once
again on Saturday hosting Christopher Newport
University. The non-conference tilt is scheduled
for a noon start.
GAME BOX
