Chambersburg boys soccer gets back on track

The Chambersburg boys soccer team had been waiting for a breakout game from Rafael Bonilla.

How does three goals in a game against a quality opponent sound?

Bonilla scored the first, third and fourth goals for the Trojans in a 4-2 non-league victory over Greencastle-Antrim at Kaley Field on Saturday.

As of Saturday, Chambersburg (10-4-3), which is done with the regular season, holds the No. 8 spot in the District 3 4A rankings, which would mean a home game for a first-round game on Tuesday, Oct. 25. The Blue Devils (12-5) are No. 6 in 3A and would host a district game Monday, Oct. 24. But G-A also has a makeup game Monday at Northern York and a Mid Penn Conference tournament playoff game at Lower Dauphin on Tuesday.

After missing nearly the entire month of September, Bonilla had hadn't approached his form of last year, when he scored 13 goals and had eight assists. Before Saturday, he had scored only two goals, and the Trojans' offense appeared a little out of sync.

Chambersburg coach Corey Grove said, "I had a long talk with Rafael yesterday. He wasn't playing like he can. I told him he should play like he did as a kid and have fun out there. And that he needed to trust his teammates and pass the ball to them."

Grove felt his team had their best passing game in the last 2-3 weeks.

Bonilla said, "I don't think we had been playing as well as we did today. We came here with the idea that we had to win to get ready for the playoffs."

The Trojans opened the scoring when Nathan Maynard cracked a low shot off the far post and Bonilla was there to tap it in. About three minutes later, Jared Rohrbaugh tied it up with a shot from the right side, assisted by Brandon Stuhler.

With 10 minutes left in the half, Chambersburg's Amin Butler nearly got free in the box, but collided with goalkeeper Bryson Robinson. On a resulting throw-in by Butler, Maynard skimmed a header to the far post and Rene Quintanilla headed it into the net.

Greencastle coach Scott Gelsinger said, "In the first half, I thought they looked much quicker and beat us to most 50-50 balls. We did get some chances in the box late, but couldn't stick one in the net."

Bonilla and Quintanilla worked a nice give-and-go early in the second half, with Bonilla finishing from about 20 yards. Again, G-A answered quickly, with Stuhler taking a pass from Ben Freeman and cracking in a shot.

But Bonilla put a final dagger into the Blue Devils when he hit a shot from at least 35 yards away from the goal that snuck over Robinson's arms.

"I didn't know if the keeper was out or not," Bonilla said. "I just turned and hit it, and right away it looked like it was going in."

Grove said, "We've worked hard to get Rafael back on track. I hope this means he is now."