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Boiling Springs hands Bermudian Springs a wakeup call


Many of Bermudian Springs' opponents in the Eagles' first 13 matches of the season are unlikely to qualify for the District 3 playoffs.

That wasn't the case when Bermudian faced Boiling Springs on Monday, when the Bubblers came away with a 6-2 victory at Alumni Field in York Springs.

Bermudian (12-2) entered Monday's match holding the No. 3 spot in the Class AA rankings, while Boiling Springs occupied the seventh spot.

"This is an early wakeup call for us, and hopefully we learn from it and improve," Bermudian head coach James Zerfing said. "It's better that it happened now than in two weeks during the district tournament. We need to play better if we're going to be successful in districts."

The Eagles unleashed a barrage of shots on Bubbler keeper Drew Fink in the early going but were unable to dent the scoreboard. Fink denied Jake Halfman's shot a little more than a minute in and then stonewalled Sam Johnson twice in the opening five minutes.

Boiling Springs (10-3-1) struck first when Matt Ly set up Benny Cole for a goal at the 34:10 mark of the opening half when Ly played a ball from left to center, and Cole found the lower right corner of the net.

Halfman evened things for Berm less than four minutes later off of a Jhonatan Hernandez assist.

Bermudian continued to fire away, but Fink denied them.

"If you don't stick your early chances, you usually regret it," Zerfing said. "We had a chance to get an early lead and couldn't do it."

Cole and Halfman exchanged goals again with Ly assisting Cole with 18:10 to play in the half and Johnny King setting up Halfman with 16:28 to go.

Ly sent the Bubblers to the half ahead 3-2 when he scored on a direct kick from 30 yards out on the left flank with a shot that went over Eagle keeper Danny Alvarez and into the right side of the net.

"Ly is incredible, that was a phenomenal goal he scored there," Zerfing said. "Our flat four in the back didn't do enough to contain their offensive weapons."

After a pretty even first half, Boiling Springs controlled the second half and struck for three goals in the first 14 minutes to put the match away.

Ly sandwiched goals around Cole's marker as each finished with a hat trick and Ly added a pair of assists. For the year, Cole has 21 goals and Ly has 13 markers and 16 helpers.

"Benny and Matt feed off each other very well, and we haven't had a duo like them in my time here," said Boiling Springs coach Matt Brenner, in his eighth year at the helm. "When they're on the same page, they're tough to deal with."

Bermudian owned a 12-9 advantage in shots on goal and a 4-2 edge in corners.

"They were on their toes in the first half, and it was a lot of back and forth action," Brenner said. "We found some things on the outside that worked well for us in the second half, and we started playing outside-in. It gave our guys room to make some runs in the middle and lanes for wings to get the ball to them."

Boiling Springs33—6Bermudian Springs20—2

First Half — 1. BoS, Benny Cole (Matt Ly), 34:10. 2. BeS, Jake Halfman (Jhonatan Hernandez), 30:28. 3. BoS, Cole (Ly), 18:10. 4. BeS, Halfman (Johnny King), 16:28. 5. BoS, Ly, 3:25.

Second Half — 6. BoS, Ly (Jared Brymesser), 35:13. 7. BoS, Cole (Brymesser), 31:47. 8. BoS, Ly, 26:18.

Shots on Goal — BoS 9, BeS 12

Corners — BoS 2, BeS 4

Goalies — BoS, Drew Fink (10 saves), BeS, Danny Alvarez (3 saves).

J.V. Score — Boiling Springs 0, Bermudian Springs 0