Due to realignment in the Mid-Penn Conference in boys' soccer this year, there is a new team in the Mid-Penn Colonial Division looking to knock off two-time defending division champion Gettysburg.
That school is Boiling Springs High, and the Bubblers came into their match with the Warriors sporting a 4-0-1 mark in their first five division matches.
With first place in the division at the midway point in the season on the line, the Warriors proved they were still the biggest dog in the yard as they took down their guests, 4-0, in boys' soccer action Saturday morning at Gettysburg High School.
It completes the first trip around the division for both teams, and the Warriors outscored their opponents 19-0 in running the table the first time.
Count Boiling Springs head coach Matt Brenner among those impressed with Gettysburg.
"I knew they would be tough, but they were even better than I thought they would be," Brenner said. "They moved the ball extremely well, found open space, exploited any mistakes we made and were very impressive."
Gettysburg (7-1, 6-0 Mid-Penn Colonial) threatened twice in the opening minutes but were denied both times by Bubbler keeper Colin Frownfelter.
Yet the Warriors didn't throttle back their attack a little bit. They continued to press and broke through with a goal when Jon Tarbox pocketed his fourth goal of the season off assists from Joe Schmitz and Mauricio SanJuan-Martinez. SanJuan-Martinez
Tarbox returned the favor when he set up Schmitz's eighth tally of the campaign with 20:05 to play until the break. A cross from right to left found Schmitz with an open look and he went to the lower right corner for the goal.
"I sat backside there, ran horizontally to stay onside and Jon played a great ball to me," Schmitz said. "I've been working a lot with the coaches on making good runs and on my shooting, and it's paid off so far."
The count stayed 2-0 for the next 15 minutes before an own goal pushed the Gettysburg lead to 3-0. Oscar SanJuan took a shot that richocheted off a Bubbler defender into the net with 5:09 left in the opening frame.
Osvaldo Solano then capped the scoring for Gettysburg with the help of assists from Paul Brown and SanJuan at the 2:35 mark of the first half.
"I didn't think that we played that great for the first 15 minutes," Gettysburg head coach Scott Hancock said. "Boiling Springs plays a different defense than we've seen this year, so it took us a little while to figure them out."
After tallying four goals on six shots on goal in the first half, the Warriors came up empty on all eight shots on goal that they accumulated in the second half.
"It's a little disappointing that we couldn't finish any of our chances in the second half," Hancock said. "We did look better on defense in the second half, though. Our defensive shape has been a little loose. We haven't worked on it a lot in practice, but it got better in the second half."
With the win, Gettysburg has now 29 consecutive division matches and will look to continue that run when it hosts Greencastle-Antrim at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.



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