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Dylan Sherman scores twice in Montgomery’s 2-0 win vs. South

By Jon Gerardi 8 min read

Roughly three weeks ago, South Williamsport traveled to Montgomery and beat the Red Raiders, 2-1, in a Mid-Penn game between the two. Montgomery's players didn't forget about that game and kept it in the back of their minds for when they met up on Tuesday at South Williamsport Community Park.

That loss, plus an Instagram social media post, helped provide a little fuel for Montgomery in the rematch.

Montgomery put pressure on South Williamsport early into the game and came away with two goals in the first 14 minutes of play en route to a hard-fought 2-0 game in a physical contest on Tuesday afternoon.

"The boys were provided some additional motivation from social media via posts referencing our matchup earlier this season," Montgomery coach Mike Sherman said. "I constantly stress to our players that the last thing you want to do is give a team more of a reason to want to beat you."

Dylan Sherman came up big for the Red Raiders to strike and put Montgomery on the board. With just under 32 minutes to play until halftime, Montgomery's Weston Sherman lined up for a free kick from 40 yards out. Instead of trying to send in a ball to the 18, the younger Sherman tried to send in a goal from deep. His shot was right on the mark high, nearly slipping under the crossbar, but South Williamsport keeper Kaiden Paulhamus got his hands on it high to block it, tipping it backwards.

The ball hit off the crossbar, however, and stayed in play, landing inside of the 6-yard box. That's where Dylan Sherman was to tap it in and quickly give Montgomery a 1-0 lead with 31:34 to play until halftime.

Montgomery struck again five minutes later.

With 26:54 left in the first half, Dylan Sherman again found the ball from inside the 18 on the left side of the field and rifled a shot to the near-left post for a fast 2-0 lead.

"That was definitely key in this one (to score early). Yesterday at practice they knew how they marked us," Sherman said. "They marked us the same way they shut us down last time, so we had some stuff in the beginning to counteract that, so it worked pretty early."

In the first meeting in which the Mounties were victorious, South Williamsport did a solid job containing and neutralizing Dylan Sherman. So entering Tuesday, Montgomery knew they had to change some things to not allow their key offensive player to be limited against.

"They man-marked Dylan with a decent player there, pretty much right on him. Yesterday at practice we worked on where his movements needed to be to free up more space. In the first game they did an awesome job just limiting space. This game we knew what we had to do to get more of it," coach Sherman said. "It just took shifting him 30 yards up the field to free up that space. Because he was drifting back into the central defender, he was pulling his defender with him. And basically, there's five of them back there at that point. Putting him at the top, it eliminates at least one of those guys."

After Montgomery buried its first two goals, South Williamsport started to counter and put pressure on the Red Raiders. Montgomery had three shots on goal -- two for goals -- in the first half and all three came in those first 14 minutes of the game. After that, South Williamsport possessed and kept firing off shots, shooting nine total, six on target.

"They had three shots on goal and two scores, which gives you a great percentage. But once we had the defense settled down and played the flat-back four with a sweeper and then we marked No. 1 (Dylan Sherman). They settled down and really did a great job," South Williamsport coach Howard Woodruff said. "Then we had a couple scenarios where we send two of our full backs up in a midfield position and try to move the ball up closer. We did that well, but it was just our finishing. We couldn't make the goals today."

It wasn't for a lack of effort, however. South Williamsport peppered Conor Irwin constantly, and each time Irwin came up with a stop or South's back line cleared the ball away from dangerous chances.

With 16:45 until halftime, South Williamsport's Carson Harris got into the 18 and shot to his right, only for the ball to sail wide. Five minutes later, it was Harris again getting into the 18 and trying to shoot from the edge of the 6-yard box. That's when Irwin came up with a good stop.

Irwin ended the game with 10 saves, six coming in the first half when the Mounties dialed up the pressure in hopes of putting in a goal to try shifting momentum.

"We've done well all season at doing that (battling until the end). We just cannot finish the ball. We can't put the ball in the net for some reason. If we're not kicking it over, were kicking it right to the keeper," Woodruff said. "We had a couple nice give-and-gos that we executed on and a couple different lineups, but they're a good team. That No. 1 (Dylan Sherman) is just an incredible player. We gave him a free run on goal and he made us pay for it."

Within the first two minutes in the second half, South Williamsport had one of its best opportunities to put in a goal. Spencer Beatty got to the 18 and rifled a great shot to the left post, but the shot went just wide of being a possible big goal to open the half.

Beatty would get a chance with 8:00 to play but had a shot go to the left of the goal from just outside of the 18.

"We pretty well thought we could control the game and control the field and tempo, which I thought we did," Woodruff said. "he only thing we didn't control was the scoreboard, unfortunately."

South out-shot the Red Raiders, 10-5. Montgomery's defense did well not giving many easy looks at the goal. Of South Williamsport's 12 total shots in the second half, only four were on frame and the Red Raiders forced all 12 of those shots to come from outside of the 18.

In the first half, South Williamsport's Bobby Regan had a great header attempt from 6 yards out, but Irwin came up and stopped it high, preventing what would have been a goal.

"Conor is just an absolute animal in goal. He's been the guy for multiple years now. He has the experience and he's able to see things a lot of young keepers can't. There when we were having a rough part in the season, Conor probably faced more shots than anybody in this league," coach Sherman said with a laugh. "He's pretty seasoned and he knows where to put himself to take advantage of his agility. Conor's not a big guy, but he's agile, he's smart and he knows the field. When you put that together, he's able to keep the ball out of the net."

Sherman noted that entering the game, him and the players knew that they had to limit South Williamsport standout Carson Harris.

"I was concerned because Carson Harris is awesome. You heard me yelling double, triple 9 because that's where the problem is," coach Sherman said. "I'm sure he's a little frustrated because he's a top-notch player. To keep turning them away, it's hard for 80 minutes."

The win moved Montgomery to 4-8 and 2-6 in the Mid-Penn while South Williamsport dropped to 4-10-1 and 4-3-1 in the league.

While the Mounties entered the game with a losing record, coach Sherman knew that the Mounties were a better team than their record indicated.

"That was a big win, South's a quality team. Their record doesn't reflect quality of play because they've stayed in a lot of games a lot closer than people would have thought," coach Sherman said. "To get a 2-0 result tonight I was very impressed with our performance and glad they were able to put it back together and get it in the right direction this season."

Montgomery 2, South Williamsport 0

M--Dylan Sherman (Weston Sherman), 31:34. M--Dylan Sherman, 26:54.

Shots: M 5, SW 10. Corners: M 2, SW 1. Saves: M 10 (Conor Irwin), SW 3 (Kaiden Paulhamus).

Records: Montgomery (4-8, 2-6 Mid-Penn), South Williamsport (4-10-1, 4-3-1 Mid-Penn).

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