Boys' soccer: Two goals from Udit Jain sends Lancaster Mennonite to district semis
HERSHEY- Thanks to two first half goals by junior Udit Jain, no. 3 Lancaster Mennonite (16-3-1) was able advance to the District 3 Class AA semifinals with a 2-0 result over no. 11 Hamburg.
A multi-goal win is a much welcomed relief for the Blazers after it took overtime to defeat no. 14 Wyomissing at home on Monday.
"After the game with Wyomissing, they came out with the focus they needed on offense and defense," Blazer coach Fred Winey said.
The Blazers tallied their first goal of the game when Brock Rohrer made a long throw-in towards the goal and after Chase Ross got a piece of it, Jain was in the right place at the right time to clean up the mess and strike the ball past Hamburg keeper Logan Adams.
"Sometimes in the playoffs, it comes down to something like that; a set piece here, a corner kick there. In some games, it comes down to who makes the mistake and who capitalizes," Winey said. "I don't know if that was a mistake but you just can't be as sloppy or kick it out of bounds because sometimes the throw is just like a corner kick."
Five minutes later, Ross assisted Jain again with a drop pass that allowed the junior forward to send the ball to the left of the net.
"The first one was kind of lucky, it just fell down to me and I just stabbed it in," Jain said. "The second one was really good; I got a good touch on it. Chase Ross played really well and got both of my assists. We played really well, even in the second half; we touched the woodwork twice so we played really well."
The Blazers dominated the stat book; holding a 13-2 advantage in shots and 12-0 advantage in corner.
"Mr. Winey told us we needed two goals in the first half to really put them on back on their feet and we got the two goals and we were happy to just maintain the lead."
Jain, a transfer student from Singapore, is experiencing the District 3 playoffs for the first time and so far, has enjoyed every second.
"It feels great. It's the first year I get to experience it. I just hope we can do well after this and I hope we can get to states and do something really good this year."
Lancaster Mennonite will now look ahead to Monday when they'll meet up Fleetwood in the district semifinals.
Fleetwood defeated the Blazers via penalty kicks in the district semis last season.
"You take it as it comes. Whoever is there, we'll try to play the best that we can. We won't necessarily do a lot of things different than what we usually do," Winey said.