BOYS' SOCCER: Central York cruises into York-Adams championship game

MANCHESTER — One of the things that Central York boys' soccer coach Frank Lenno was concerned about after his team defeated Susquehannock, 5-1, in a York-Adams League Boys' Soccer Tournament semifinal was getting enough rest for the title game.

Making short work of the Warriors (12-6-0) on Tuesday night at Northeastern certainly helped.

A frenzied first half allowed Lenno to utilize much of his bench in the second 40 minutes as the Panthers (18-1-0) remained unbeaten in York-Adams League action.

With the win, Central faces Gettysburg — a 5-1 winner against Biglerville in Tuesday's other semifinal — in Thursday's York-Adams League championship game at Susquehannock at 5:30 p.m.

"We just try to work our tail off to get in behind the backs and we were able to get a few quick, early goals," Lenno said. "We got everybody in tonight, we got to rest a bit tomorrow and look forward to Thursday."

The first 15 minutes of the game featured a scoring outburst that saw the Panthers emerge with a 3-1 early lead.

Leading the way for the Division I champs during the scoring mania was speedy senior forward Igor Gomes, who netted a hat trick on the night.

Gomes got the action started with his first goal less than three minutes into the game off an assist from Jared Hileman. Michael Tolley set up Gomes' second score two minutes later.

"We just connected and I just got to the PK area and scored," Gomes said. "We were working hard and did a really good job passing and connecting all game."

The Warriors got on the board at the 12-minute mark when Kaleb Lippy found the back of the net on a pass from Jayson Gayle, momentarily getting Susquehannock to within a score at 2-1.

However, Tolley answered right back for the Panthers, taking a feed from Gomes to put Central ahead 3-1.

Gomes would later complete his hat trick with 10 minutes remaining in the first half to give the Panthers a 4-1 edge going into halftime.

The action really settled down after that, with the teams trading possessions and pushing the play from end to end.

Carter Mummert gave the game its final score when he found the back of the net with less than a minute left in regulation. Mummert was able to chip the ball up and over a Susquehannock defender and then head in the high bounce to the top left corner of the net.

Trevor Holderegger stopped three shots and Kameron Stoll stopped another in net for the Panthers. Aaron Bilbie made 13 saves for the Warriors.

After quickly dispatching Susquehannock, the Panthers just as quickly shifted their focus to the other Warriors and getting that much-needed rest.

"They will tell you 'incomplete' probably," Lenno said, when asked to assess the Panthers' season thus far. "We still have some lofty goals. We're on the path, we're doing things correctly and we're seeing good results. We want to see good results in a few weeks as well."

"We've got to rest. We got a couple guys banged up. Keeping guys healthy and managing the guys, we're doing more of that at this time. But they guys battled, a couple guys banged up still played and they did the job. And that's what we ask them to do all the time."

OTHER BOYS' SOCCER

Gettysburg 5, Biglerville 1: At Spring Grove, the Warriors' Connor Weikert struck in the opening minute, setting the tone for his team's easy 5-1 victory over the Canners and booking Gettysburg's spot in Thursday's Y-A League championship game against Central York. Warrior junior Matt Yingling scored twice in the closing six minutes of the half to take a 3-0 lead into the break. Coming out of the break, Drew Wivell made it 4-0 Gettysburg in the 44th minute, allowing most of the Warriors' starters to be taken out for substitutes. The only Biglerville goal came on an own goal in the 75th minute off a corner kick that deflected off a Warrior defender and then was bobbled into the goal by the keeper. The goal snapped a 12-match shutout streak for Gettysburg. Jeremy Allinger scored the final goal for the Warriors in the 77th minute to seal the victory.

Trinity 1, York Catholic 0: At York Catholic, the Irish trailed 1-0 at the half and were unable to find the equalizer, dropping the non-league match. Ethan Higgins made five stops in goal for the home team.

— Reach Elijah Armold at earmold@yorkdispatch.com.