Neither team generated quality chances during the first half of the contest, with Lewisburg registering four shots to Hughesville’s none in a game that looked like it might be decided by the midfield. Against a tough Green Dragon team, though, coach Cole Lesher was happy with the evenly matched play in the first frame.

“The first half was phenomenal,” he said. “We’ve been talking about how the sum of the parts is greater than the whole, and they’re beginning to show that. The touches they were making were quick, and they just refused to give up early.”

When the teams retook the pitch for the second half, Lewisburg looked like a different team and the Green Dragons earned a 5-0 win over the Spartans with five second-half goals. The Green Dragons crashed the box and sustained pressure for the opening minutes of the frame before Viktor Permyashkin dribbled through the middle and found paydirt.

“They just came out with more energy than we did,” Lewisburg coach Ben Kettlewell said. “We needed to make sure we worked the ball around, and after we came out flat, we were able to adjust in the second half.”

CJ DOEBLER/Special to the Sun-Gazette Hughesville’s Wesley Harvey fires a shot against Lewisburg during Monday’s game against the Green Dragons. Lewisburg won, 5-0, thanks to five second-half goals.

He did it again just over a minute later, maneuvering to the middle of the field and unleashing a low screamer that found the back of the net.

“He’s generally the key for most teams we play,” Kettlewell said. “They focus on him and guard him tight, and I think we saw that a little bit in the first half.

“He was able to find a couple of moments there in the second to take the game open, he just did what he does,” Kettlewell continued.

The Spartans slowed the game down trailing 2-0, but Lewisburg continued to thwart any offense Hughesville could muster.

Logan Kitchens netted a goal from way downtown nearing the halfway point of the second frame, bouncing off the far post before ricocheting back across behind Hughesville’s Royce Gardner before settling in the back of the net.

Isaac Schreffler pushed the lead to four on a penalty kick following a handball, and Kitchens scored again with less than a minute left to give Lewisburg a 5-0 win.

“Things didn’t go our way in the second half, and I think there were a few things where we were hesitant,” Lesher said. “We’re talking about how we’re going to move forward and think about how we can limit the simple mistakes and have a better mentality when things are rough.”

While Lesher said the team plans to work on resilience and mindset after the loss, there was also a lot of good to take away from a matchup against one of the toughest teams they’ll face all season.

“When you’re in a tough game against a good team and you’re competing with them, it’s easy to revert back to a different mindset,” Lesher said. “There were a lot of times in the second half where we were playing great, but it was just tough for some guys to slow things down. We’re just going to pick back up. This is something we’re sure we can fix and come back from.”

Lewisburg 5, Hughesville 0

L–Viktor Permyashkin, 37:08. L–Permyashkin, 35:44. L–Logan Kitchens, 21:16. L–Isaac Schreffler (penalty kick), 17:17. L–Kitchens (Permyashkin), 0:20.6

Shots: L 18, H 2. Corners: L 13, H 1. Saves: L 0 (Gabe Pawling), H 8 (Royce Gardner).