By SPENCER BATES
PORTVILLE — With the regular season now in the rearview, the No. 5 seed Portville boys soccer team scored a big 4-0 win over No. 12 seed Frewsburg in the first round of the Section 6 Class C bracket.
The Panthers successfully avenged their first-round exit from last season’s tournament with a controlling performance. But still, there was a lot left on the table according to head coach J.J. McIntosh.
“It was a little alarming that we started so flat,” McIntosh said. “You try to learn from the mistakes you make one year (so as to not take them into) the next year. Obviously, every team is different, we have new kids this year, but we did the same thing last year … we came out flat and we got booted in the first round on our home field. Today was not our best effort to say the least.”
It would have been nearly impossible for Portville to control its first round affair much more than it had. An incredibly significant portion of the game consisted of the Panthers bearing down on their guest’s goal, mounting repetitive attacks with little reprieve in between. But for all the attacking they did, at the break all they had to show for their efforts was one goal, scored by midfield maestro Colin German, who was assisted by Garrett Reynolds.
“We kept the ball in our attacking end for, I would say, a large majority of the game,” McIntosh said. “But soccer is an unforgiving game. If you can’t put the ball in the net, even if the other team’s not scoring on you, the game’s going to stay tight. … Credit to Frewsburg, I thought they were out-hustling us the first 15 minutes of the game. … Once we started working on the outside, we started figuring out how to break them down a little bit. Our goals came from a little more quality in the attacking third and that’s really what we needed all along.”
Portville’s Luke Edwards (10) looks to get past a Frewsburg defender. (Spencer Bates)
McIntosh noted that during the break he had a heart-to-heart with his players in which he emphasized the importance of taking the opportunities when they come. His team had the fixture under its thumb but was unable to reap the rewards. That trend would continue for nearly 20 minutes into the second half, but a laser of a free kick in the 59th minute from Vic Vena provided the Panthers with a brace and a little more comfort.
“In Sectionals, everything intensifies,” McIntosh said. “Every missed opportunity that we had, (Frewsburg gained) a little momentum. … I think they did a nice job of feeding off that momentum. … You got to execute when you have your opportunities. If you don’t, and you let teams hang around, everything from there on forward gets more difficult for you. I think that was the case today, especially in the first half.”
Portville operated with much more composure with the two-goal advantage in hand and put the game on ice with a goal apiece from Patrick Perkins and German in the 73rd and 79th minutes, respectively. Still, according to McIntosh, the message he had for his team after the game, despite what ended up being a large score differential, had a similarly cautious tone to the talk he delivered at halftime.
“They’ve got to realize that once you get into this part (of the season), nothing’s going to be easy again, everything is going to be that much more difficult,” McIntosh said. “Everyone’s going to be giving their best effort moving forward. Everyone knows what’s at stake: you lose, you go home. When you’re up against that, the desperation takes over, and sometimes it comes down to who wants it more. They can learn from that here, for sure.”
Portville’s Garrett Reynolds (14) attempts to retain possession while under pressure from a frewsburg defender. Reynolds provided an assist for the Panthers in their win over the Bears. (Spencer Bates)
But the alarm bells are far from going off in McIntosh’s mind. He knows what his team is capable of. Now, it is just a matter of getting that top-end product in each and every game from here on out.
“We have to fix the little things that weren’t working today and focus on what we do best,” McIntosh said. “Every game is different. There are certain kids today who, it just seemed like they couldn’t stop the ball when it was kicked to them, but they’ve got 12 goals on the season. So, it’s not like they don’t know how to do it. It’s just about bringing the mentality and desperation moving forward, knowing that if we play like that again, it will be our last game.”
Portville will travel to face No. 4 seed Holland in the Class C Quarterfinals on Oct. 24 at 4:30 p.m.
