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KINGSTON — On a night when the seniors were honored at halftime in front of their families and friends, it was fitting that the upperclassmen were the ones who delivered the Wyoming Valley West boys soccer team its second straight win.
A senior either scored or assisted on all but one goal for the Spartans (4-5-1) on Wednesday, en route to a 6-0 senior night victory over Hazleton Area (1-8).
“Very special senior night. A couple guys who had never scored before got an opportunity to either score or have an assist. That kind of thing,” Wyoming Valley West head coach Charlie Whited said. “You take a win and you hope that you continue to build on it.”
After registering six shots in the first 15 minutes, Wyoming Valley West finally got one through when Jake Gurtis connected on a Nick Bazadona crosser.
Gurtis got the shot just on the fringe of the box and put one behind the Hazleton Area keeper to take a 1-0 lead with 21:12 remaining in the half.
And Gurtis and Bazadona made sure to double their lead before the end of the first half. Gurtis found fellow senior Mitch Forgash, who left the ball right in front of the goal for Bazadona.
The senior forward squared up, and drilled his shot into the back of the net to give the Spartans a 2-0 lead with 1:36 remaining in the half.
“Mitch Forgash had a great pass to Nick Bazadona and he had a great finish and that (gave us) definitely a little more comfort to go into the second half knowing we had two goals,” Gurtis said. “They always say that two goals is the hardest lead to keep, so we had to go out there in the second half (thinking) that the game wasn’t over yet, don’t count out Hazleton. Yeah, it was big though. It was big.”
Gurtis quickly took control of the game early in the second half.
After having two of his shots saved four minutes in, the senior had a couple more tries at the 32-minute mark. The fourth time was the charm.
Jared Bittle found Gurtis, who took a shot that was saved by Cougars goalie Jeremy Aquino, but he found his rebound and executed.
Whited said after Wyoming Valley West’s 3-2 Sept. 26 loss to Dallas — and reiterated it again on Wednesday — that the Spartans have struggled to find a groove offensively this season.
However, he’s hoping the six-goal outburst could be the type of performance that propels the Spartans in the playoffs. It was just the third time they’ve scored more than two goals this season.
“That’s the idea here. We’re hoping that jump-starts us,” Whited said. “Maybe this will open things up for us and we’ll start putting more balls in the net.
“Hopefully we finish strong.”
Wyo. Valley West 6, Hazleton Area 0
Hazleton Area`0`0`—`0
Wyo. Valley West`2`4`—`6
First half — 1. WVW, Jake Gurtis (Nick Bazadona), 18:44; 2. WVW, Bazadona (Mitch Forgash), 38:24. Second half — 3. WVW, Gurtis (Jared Bittle), 47:52; 4. WVW, Jacob Jakewczak (Bazadona), 56:03; 5. WVW, Ryan Stevens (Scott Nilson), 64:19; 6. WVW, Noah Miller (Forgash), 70:78.
Shots — HAZ 1; WVW 33. Saves — HAZ 18 (Jeremy Aquino); WVW 0 (Brian Oppel, Josh Sanfilippo). Corner kicks — HAZ 0; WVW 11.
