Leopards’ section streak over

By Jason Black

For the MV Independent

Entering the 2020 season, the Connellsville girls soccer team believed that if it wanted to win the Section 2 (3A) title this year, it would likely have to go through highly-ranked Belle Vernon to do so.

But after Tuesday night’s game at Connellsville Stadium, maybe the road to the section championship will travel through Connellsville.

The Falcons (1-0, 1-0) blitzed the Leopards (0-1, 0-1) right from the start, scoring two goals in less than six minutes on their way to an impressive 5-0 win.

“It’s the first game and obviously you want to win the first one,” Connellsville coach Jeff Puskar said. “But they were 12-0 last year and they have most of their players back, so we had to have our best effort and that’s what happened tonight.”

Connellsville couldn’t have asked for a better start to the season, or a better start to the game.

The Falcons took control right from the opening whistle as they were immediately able to put pressure on the Belle Vernon defenders.

Connellsville’s Nevaeh Hamborsky was denied on a fine save by Belle Vernon’s Grace Henderson in the opening minute, but Hamborsky found redemption just seconds later.

Hamborsky stationed herself in front of the net and was able to take a fine corner kick by Cayde Koballa and head it into the back of the net for a quick 1-0 Connellsville lead.

That lead swelled to 2-0 just moments later as Jocelyn Gratchic drilled a long-range shot into the upper portion of the net, off an assist by Morgan Smouse. And just like that, the Falcons had doubled their lead before the match was six minutes old.

“We moved the ball so well,” Puskar said. “The effort needed to be there, and it certainly was.”

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