CUMBERLAND — Fort Hill boys soccer coach Zach Steckman remembers the days when the Sentinels were on the wrong side of lopsided losses to Allegany.
Tuesday’s game at Greenway Avenue Stadium, however, was anything but lopsided. After falling behind early, Fort Hill rallied past Allegany with two second-half goals for a 2-1 victory.
“Allegany kicked our tail for a long time,” Steckman said. “In my six years, we had 18-0 games, 9-1, 7-1. I said to (Allegany coach) Blake (Geatz), ‘You know, it’s nice that these games are competitive.’ And that’s how it should be. That’s how area soccer should be. We got very good teams in this area.
“But you saw what it meant. I mean they celebrate with each other. They needed that.”
The Sentinels (2-1) struggled to generate chances at the net in the first half, but they came out rejuvenated in the second stanza. Freshman Walker Smith took advantage of an open net after the Campers’ goalie was out of position, and tied the game at 1-1 with 32:13 left.
Fort Hill’s second goal played out similar to its first. With about 16 minutes left, Jake Rice made a run on the left side of the field and found an open net for the go-ahead score.
“Sometimes our best soccer is when we muck it up a little bit and we make it a little dirty,” Steckman said. “We just fly around, be physical. It’s not always the prettiest brand for us. But in both of those goals, they were just loose balls in the box and we found our way to them just by being us. Being physical, being in the right place at the right time (and) burying it in the back of the net.”
The Sentinels won despite being outshot by a sizable amount. Allegany fired off a flurry of shots in search of an equalizer, but Fort Hill goalie Bobby Brauer preserved the lead. The senior finished with 11 saves — seven of those came in the second half.
“You need a solid goalie to carry your team,” Steckman said. “We found Bobby last year. We’ve been trying to get him to play his whole high school career, and he decided to come last year as a junior. He’s just been fantastic.”
Allegany (2-1) scored its only goal on a corner kick about 11 minutes into the game. Ryan Mitchell delivered a ball that found freshman Max D’Atri, who buried it into the net.
Geatz thought the early goal was a bright spot, but was disappointed with how the rest of the match went.
“I was over the moon to put one of those in there,” Geatz said. “I thought that was the shining point of our game. The rest was just kind of downhill from there. We never took the momentum and ran with it.
“I thought our last 10-15 minutes looked decent. But it’s an 80 minute soccer match, it’s not a 15 minute one. We had chances there at the end that maybe could’ve gone in, but I don’t want them and we don’t want to rely on the last 10-15 minutes of a match to make something happen.”
Allegany will hit the road to Oakland for a match with Southern at 7 p.m. Thursday. Fort Hill has a week hiatus before its next game Sept. 17 at Keyser.
