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THRILLER: Lewisburg boys oust Lake Lehman in penalty kicks 5-4 in state playoffs

By JOE BARESS 5 min read

LEHMAN -- After 110 minutes, nine kicks in the penalty shootout and a phenomenal effort from Lake-Lehman goalkeeper Brady Windsor, Jack Kohl had an opportunity to finally put the game away for defending state champion Lewisburg.

The Green Dragons connected on their first four kicks in the shootout, and the Black Knights converted four of its five -- opening the door for Kohl.

“Stepping up, I'm not doing a slow walk up there,” the junior defender said. “The more you do that, the more you're just going to psyche yourself out, whether I should go this way, that way, whatever. I just wanted to get up there, stay calm, cool, composed.”

Kohl ripped the ball into the right side of the net, and District 4 champion Lewisburg defeated District 2 champion Lake-Lehman, 0-0 (5-4), in a penalty shootout Wednesday in the PIAA Class 2A boys soccer first-round game on the black turf at Edward Edwards Stadium.

“I was going to put it as best as I could in the corner and if he got to it, he got to it. If not, we celebrate, and we won,” Kohl said. “It's a great feeling.”

The Green Dragons will face District 3 runner-up, a 2-1 winner over District 11 champion Northwestern Lehigh, in Saturday’s quarterfinals.

Wednesday’s game was a rematch of last year’s first-round game when Lewisburg defeated Lake-Lehman, 3-2.

Lewisburg pressured the Lake-Lehman zone, but Black Knights defenders, including Bodhi Cronin, Finn Cronin, Justin Morris, Miller Mattie and Evan Fike, didn’t let much through.

“They communicated like I asked them to,” Lake-Lehman coach Ricky Bartolini said. “They shut down an unbelievable attack for 110 minutes. They did everything I asked them to do and I have to take my hat off to them as well because what they did is no small feat by any means.”

Any ball that got through, Windsor turned back. The saves only got more impressive as the Lake-Lehman keeper only got stronger as the game progressed. Windsor, who finished with 14 saves, could have made a season’s worth of a highlight reel off of Wednesday’s game.

“I have to give him all of the credit in the world, because he was one of our field players last year and that's where he wanted to play this year,” Bartolini said. “He and I had to have a very real conversation at the beginning of the year because we lost our all-state goalkeeper last year, Andrew Chapple, and I said if you play in the field we might win some games, we might lose some games, you'll have fun, but who knows where the season goes. I said, if you step up for your team and you play goalkeeper for them, there's a good chance that we repeat as district champions.”

Bartolini was right, and Wednesday night, Windsor gave the Black Knights a chance at a PIAA first-round victory over the defending state champion.

In the first half, he dove to make a save after a Lewisburg player ripped a shot off a corner. Then, he leaped for Everett Good’s high-arching shot.

In the second half, Windsor dove to stop Riley Gulden-Luthi’s direct kick, he corralled a bounding ball in the box as two Lewisburg players converged, he stopped a point-blank shot in the middle of the field.

In the first and second overtimes, Windsor dove to stop a header off a corner, punched the ball away on a free kick, turned away a point-blank kick from the right side and sent the game to penalty kicks when he leaped to stop a header off a corner kick -- just getting his right hand on the ball to send it over the net.

“I give him all the credit in the world,” Bartolini said. “He stepped up for his team unselfishly, even though it's not where he wanted to be and he performed and tonight especially, we are not here without him. He had probably a half dozen spectacular saves that kept us in the game, and I just can't say enough about him as a player, as a person and especially the performance.”

Despite the effort, Lewisburg never wavered and never got flustered. Instead, the Green Dragons played like defending state champs.

Goalkeeper Gabe Pawling, Gulden-Luthi, Eli Abunassar and Keegan Crosby connected on their penalty kicks before Kohl sealed it.

Lewisburg outshot Lake-Lehman, 24-7.

“Credit to them,” Kohl said. “They're a very hard team to break. We got through a few times and just couldn't convert on chances and that's part of the game. If you can't score, you can't win in regular time. I think we played a good, solid game. They didn't have too many chances, except for a few out of range shots, and obviously with Gabe in goal we're pretty good with that. Overall, I think just converting was a struggle today, but just getting through the game, just getting to practice tomorrow, getting to practice Friday and then getting a game on Saturday is the biggest part, and I think our game kind of reflected that.”

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