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Lewisburg boys defeat Midd-West to win third straight District 4 Class AA title

By Jon Gerardi 5 min read

Standing 45 yards away from the goal on a free kick, Simon Stumbris did his best to eye up the goal. He took a quick few steps and quickly rifled a shot high. He just stood back and watched it sail toward the right upper 90.

Not many in the stands may have thought he could score from that deep, but Stumbris, his teammates and coaches all know he's more than capable of doing so.

His shot curved perfectly toward the right corner, sneaking in past goalie Cole Keister to give Lewisburg its third and final goal, and all but seal the win for the Green Dragons. As soon as Stumbris saw it go in, he turned around and simply put his hands in the air to celebrate.

The win gave Lewisburg its third consecutive District 4 Class AA title, and they did it by beating their rival Midd-West on a chilly Thursday night.

"It's something that we know he's got in him and we just need him to be courageous and do that," Lewisburg coach Ben Kettlewell said of Stumbris's ability. "He picks and chooses his moments. … He's a heck of a player."

Since 2014, Lewisburg has played Midd-West in the postseason every year, and seven times the two have met for a district championship.

Lewisburg and Midd-West both are in the state playoffs and will play Tuesday at a time and site to be determined.

"It's always nice to beat Midd-West, but they are hard and it's not an easy win regardless of what the scores have been," Kettlewell said. "Some have been nailbiters, some have been a little more relaxed for us, but they've always been tough. Nothing comes easy against Midd-West."

Lewisburg played great throughout the entire 40 minutes. The Green Dragons helped control the midfield and kept a lot of possession. Midd-West went 29 minutes, 55 seconds between the first and second halves without firing a single shot.

"We learned a lot from the first time we played them. We definitely did not play our best that game, I felt like we let them possess too much around us and we didn't ever get into a good groove," Permyashkin said.

"We talk about defense it's not just our back four. It's our whole team and concepts we talk about. That's huge. If we can eliminate shots, they can't score," Kettlewell said. "If we do have to give up, we trust Tony (Burns) in back and he's a lot of reason we're organized and can do that. It's huge we don't give up shots."

Lewisburg scored with 24:54 to play in the first half when Stumbris sent a great pass right to the feet of Permyashkin inside of the 18. Permyashkin got it and fired a shot toward the far left post, banking it in for the early 1-0 lead to put the Mustangs down early.

"Simon played the long ball. We've been working on our free kicks, especially from that area, and I knew just make the far post run," Permyashkin said. "I was honestly kind of expecting to run across but it went so far over the defenders head, I just touched it in."

Seventeen minutes into the second half, Lewisburg struck again to go ahead by two. That's when Alfred Romano put in a shot from inside the 18 past Keister with 23:46 to play in the game.

"I felt Alfred was knocking on the door and it was just a matter of time until he got his moment to be able to do it and have some composure and slide it past a good goalkeeper," Kettlewell said. "When Alfred scored his goal, that definitely settled us down from being nervous there in first five or 10 minutes of second half. Phil's goal was also huge to just calm us down."

The Green Dragons out-shot Midd-West, 8-4, and of Midd-West's four shots on goal, all came from outside the 18 as the Green Dragons' back line refused to allow the Mustangs to get into any dangerous positions and score.

"I have a lot of confidence in those four or five guys, who ever they put back there. I've been playing with them since my freshman year, and even before that. We've built a bond," Burns said of Lewisburg's defenders.

Midd-West's Noah Romig had one of the best chances to score for the Mustangs when he ran in front of the 18 and tried to send in a shot high toward the right post, but saw it sail over the goal.

Burns ended with four saves in goal to increase his career shutout tally to 45. And while the shutouts are impressive as he's third all-time, behind only former greats Christian Galalgher (51) and Logan Cho (61), Burns is more concerned with the team's goals than his own.

"No matter what my personal goal is, the team goal comes first, and those shutouts honestly mean nothing right now," Burns said. "We're just 0-0: no record, no goals against, no goals scored. We just keep going along and that's what we've always done."

Lewisburg 3, Midd-West 0

(District 4 Class AA championship)

L--Philip Permyashkin (Simon Stumbris), 24:54. L--Alfred Romano, 23:46. L--Stumbris, 13:28.

Shots: MW 4, L 8. Corners: MW 2, L 1. Saves: MW 4 (Cole Keister), L 4 (Tony Burns).

Starting at /week.