Falling Short
HAMPTON TWP — For 14 straight outings, opponents had knocked on Butler’s door and left empty-handed.
That unbeaten streak ended Tuesday night in a 3-2 defeat at the hands of North Allegheny in the WPIAL Class 4A boys soccer semifinals.
A 34th-minute marker by the Tigers’ Mykola Denysenko was, in essence, the difference as the Tigers (16-1-3) moved onto the final. The score came as Denysenko chased down his first try, which bonked off the crossbar after the ball was left in space.
“We got out of position a little bit, then when the ball came in the middle, there was a miscommunication between our goalie and our players,” Golden Tornado coach Troy Mohney said. “We ended up leaving the ball right for the kid to shoot it in. … If we get into halftime at 1-1, now we can talk about things and kind of calm down a bit.
“Giving that second one up, that was the heartbreaker there.”
That goal was preceded less than a minute before by Butler’s Cody Lubinsky’s make on a free kick teed up by Landon Stevenson.
Both Thomas Sheptak and Nick Niebauer had chances to level the game at two apiece for the Golden Tornado (14-3-3) in the second half. Sheptak’s left-footed try in the 60th minute was wrangled by Tigers goalie Dante Accamando, while Niebauer’s attempt skidded just wide left two and a half minutes after that.
“Those are just those small instances during the game,” Mohney said. “There’s lots of those throughout the game. We see the one in the beginning that clearly hit the guy’s hand and we don’t get (awarded a penalty kick). We get that, and we’re winning it, 1-0, it could be a completely different game.”
Mohney was referring to a sequence where Sheptak attempted a shot from just inside the box in the 9th minute. Aside from (Lubinsky)’s reply, Butler had just one other shot attempt in the first half, a header that floated over the net in the 35th minute.
North Allegheny opened the scoring exactly 26 minutes into the contest, as Nathan Katari caused a Golden Tornado own goal by firing a shot off a defender from the end line. Graham Kunz’s insurance marker in the 66th minute proved important when Lubinsky pulled his side within one with a minute to play.
Mohney was proud of the attitude of his players.
“It didn’t happen today, but how about the fight of our guys coming back there,” he said. “It’s a good group. … The character of these kids, it’s tremendous. This was the best NA played against us the three times.”
“They’re a good team,” Tigers coach Manuel Montero said. “Just like them, we’ve been on a great roll. We got a few knocks at the end of season, (so) we couldn’t be at full force. But, this was kind of why they were where they were at with so many unbeaten games, because they’re very organized. They’re gritty. They finish their chances.
“They gave us a hell of a challenge in all three games this year.”
