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Williamsport’s Balza scores twice to propel Millionaires past Shikellamy boys

By Jon Gerardi 5 min read

As the time was winding down on the clock, Shikellamy pushed forward and had one last ditch effort to put in an equalizer to tie the game against Williamsport and avoid a loss. But with just four seconds remaining, Shikellamy's Ryan DePhillips got the ball 25 yards out and tried to send in a shot, only to see it go just wide out of bounds as the Millionaires' defense put on pressure.

Williamsport held strong in the final ew minutes and didn't allow that game-changing goal to slip by en route to a hard-fought 2-1 win at Balls Mills on Tuesday afternoon.

It was a scoreless first half where majority of the game was played in the midfield as both teams struggled to get great opportunities, but coming out of the break it didn't take long for the Millionaires to strike.

With 35:38 to play, Williamsports Isaac Balza got to the 18 and sent his shot to the left post past keeper Allen Light to give Williamsport a 1-0 lead. And less than two minutes later, Balza struck again.

The Millionaire again got inside of the 18 and was able to send in a shot for a fast 2-0 spark that gave Williamsport momentum.

"I think once Isaac got that goal, it got us going a little bit, but I don't know what was wrong with the players," Williamsport coach Brett Hofstrom said. "It just seemed like everyone was lackadaisical. I don't know. Maybe they thought they'd win the game no matter what, but we have to get a better effort on Thursday against Milton."

Shikellamy fired five shots on goal in the first half, but the Millionaires limited the Braves in the second half. Shikellamy fired five shots in the final 40 minutes, but only one of which was on frame and that was a late goal which cut the deficit to 2-1.

That came when Sebastian Ramirez was outside of the 18-yard box on the left-side of the field and passed back to DePhillips. From there, DePhillips took a quick step to his right and rifled in a shot to the right upper-90 past the reach of Williamsport goalie Max Fink and made it a 2-1 deficit with 17:12 to play in the game.

"They really only got one quality shot on goal and they score don it. Other than that, they were taking long shots. That's what we do, try to minimize the high-quality scoring chances. We create four or five chances, hope to score on two," Hofstrom said. "One of our goals this year was if we score at least two goals, you have a good chacne at winning games. We play a certain way right now unitl we get healthy. Once we get healthy, it may look a little different."

In the first half, Williamsport had chances inside of the 18 as Balza got within 10 yards on two occasions, but both chances to put in a goal went wide one way or another. But the Braves' defense attempted to prevent Balza from scoring, but the talented Millionaire found ways to score twice.

"The guy can make something happen out of nothing. You saw in the one goal, you saw other times, where he could have possibly finished," Hofstrom said. "The keeper made a great save on that third goal that would have went in if keeper didn’t get a hand on it. He just has that ability to make something happen."

That third goal nearly went in with 9:20 to play. Balza got the ball and tried sending in a shot for a second-half hat trick only to see Light block it and tip it out of bounds to preserve a 2-1 deficit.

In the first half, Shikellamy's Justin Martinez was able to get a good shot off from outside the 18 that he sent low, but Fink was able to block it. It was the best chance the Braves had in the first 40 minutes of scoring.

The Millionaires also nearly scored in the first half. With 8:17 to play, Connor Hofstrom got a 1-v-1 look with Light and had a Shikellamy defender on him. He sent a would-be goal to the left post, but a whistle negated the play and the goal was waved off.

While Shikellamy out-shot Williamsport in the first half, 5-2, the Millionaires would end the game winning the possession battle.

"It was good because like I said we were lackadaisical and we weren't trying to get into a foot race with them," Hofstrom said. "I think we had control for most of the game in terms of the middle area, in terms of having higher-quality scoring chances and they were just taking those long shots. So it was good."

The win moves the Millionaires to 5-1 and Williamsport travels to Milton on Thursday.

Williamsport 2, Shikellamy 1

W--Isaac Balza, 35:38. W--Balza, 33:57. S--Ryan DePhillips (Sebastian Ramirez), 17:12.

Shots: S 6, W 8. Corners: S 2, W 5. Saves: S 4 (Allen Light), W 5 (Max Fink).

Records: Shikellamy (1-5-1), Williamsport (5-1).

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