Bethel Park deals Rams first section loss
The beautiful game can be a frustrating one sometimes, and the Ringgold boys soccer team witnessed that firsthand Thursday night.
Despite having the lion’s share of possession and generating more going forward, it was Bethel Park that used its only two shots of the match to score two goals and return home with a 2-0 victory in Section 2-3A.
“There’s not much you can say when you dominated the game for 75 out of 80 minutes,” Ringgold coach Rob Fabean said. “They get a fortunate cross from the goal line, from the left side, from a left foot, and somehow it goes in seven minutes into the game.
“I thought that we owned the entire game. I mean, possession-wise it wasn’t close.
… We just have to be better with our chances around goal.”
The Black Hawks (6-2, 6-1) and the Rams (5-2-1, 4-1-1) are at the top of the section as two of the stronger teams in Class 3A, and it was Bethel Park’s Xavier Jackson that ran the show with a goal and an assist.
He scored the first goal six minutes into the match with a cross that looped over the head of Ringgold goalkeeper Donovan Fortuna and into the back of the net while he went on an impressive run and cut a ball back to Max LeMessurier who bagged the final goal of the game.
Bethel Park started the game off strong with a missed chance before Jackson opened the scoring. From then on, the Black Hawks felt fine with sitting back and inviting pressure from the Rams.
Nick Evans just missed a chance for Ringgold before Cody Scheponik had a strike that crushed the crossbar and preserved Bethel Park’s advantage.
Bethel goalkeeper Luke Rubican similarly kept his squad in front with five saves in the match, most of which came in the second half. Jack Brodak put a half volley wide on a cross from Scheponik before the end of the first 40 minutes as the score remained 1-0.
Ringgold continued to fire away in the second half as Zach Whaley got forward and latched onto two set pieces. In the 46th minute, he headed just over on a corner kick, and three minutes later he reached a free kick from Izaiah Wilson but put his header just wide.
The Rams continued to attack up the left side as Scheponik was busy, and he found Wilson a few minutes after that who put another chance just wide of Rubican.
“We knew we had opportunities on both sides of their outside backs that we could attack all my long if we wanted to, and we deliberately just kept going (to the left),” Fabean said. “We missed a couple of great opportunities in the first half. I thought we had space in behind, but the passes were just a little too heavy. We’ll clean that up.”
With 21 minutes left, Michael Stasko forced a strong save from Rubican, and the Black Hawks went the other way with an attack of their own.
Jackson got the ball on the left wing and nutmegged a defender before dribbling almost up to Fortuna and setting up LeMessurier from about 10 yards out for the second goal of the night.
The Rams kept pushing forward and got a strong strike from Wilson that forced another difficult save from Rubican, but the ball just wouldn’t go in the back of the net for Ringgold.
Ringgold will hope to get its shooting shoes on for what will be a busy week next week. Monday will be a nonsection match at rival Belle Vernon, Tuesday will be a section match against Albert Gallatin, Wednesday will be the remainder of a section match against Trinity that was postponed in extra time, and Thursday will be a section contest at Laurel Highlands.
“It’s a tough week for us, but I’m confident,” Fabean said. “I mean, I’ve seen every team in our section play so far, and there’s nobody that’s as good as we are. We just have to be better when we have chances around the goal and just not give up the kind of goals we give up.”
