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WHITEHALL TWP. — Making a run out of districts and all the way to the state’s final four in the Class 3A field, the Dallas boys soccer team was sure to accumulate some bumps and bruises along the way.
It may not have mattered Tuesday; the Mountaineers’ postseason journey ran into a buzzsaw in the form of District 1 champion Radnor.
The Raptors possessed the ball on a near-permanent basis and capitalized on a huge advantage in both shots and corners to defeat Dallas 3-0 in the state semifinals at Whitehall’s Zephyr Sports Complex.
There just wasn’t a whole lot the Mountaineers could do. Radnor got to every loose ball, racked up 16 corner kicks and kept Dallas on its heels the whole way.
“They were just tenacious as a team, it’s tough to deal with for 80 minutes,” Dallas coach Jesse Williams said. “We were banged up, but they were just a better team. … They deserved to win.”
Williams noted that, among other things, he had a team captain dealing with turf toe and the hero in the team’s quarterfinal win, Devon Nelson, had been battling a high fever and played through.
The Mountaineers persevered through the bumps and bruises in wins over Selinsgrove and Jim Thorpe, but Radnor showed no mercy in punching its ticket to the state title match, a year after getting knocked out in the semis.
Dallas’ defense held up well for first 30 minutes with Radnor getting looks but nothing good enough to convert.
That changed with 11:55 left in the first half, when an entry ball sent into the box made its way to the back post, where Andrew Marino was waiting to push it across the line for a goal.
“That goal opened everything up,” Radnor coach Joe Caruolo said. “Our confidence hit, everything followed after that.”
The Raptors pushed the lead to 2-0 just a few minutes into the second half. Roman Rivera was the goal-scorer on a ball that bounced off several players before Rivera corralled it and went to the bottom left corner of the goal to score.
Tyler Ferst scored the final Radnor goal on a perfectly placed low cross from Matthew Santerian. The Mountaineers played the final minutes of the second half a man down after being assessed a red card.
The loss brought to an end Dallas’ finest run in 25 years, making its way into the state semifinals for the first time since 1999.
“Nobody expected us to be here, expect us,” Williams said. “If you would have seen these kids two years ago … those kids turned into a team, they were fighting every single game.”
PIAA Class 3A semifinals
Radnor 3, Dallas 0
Dallas` ` `0`0 — 0
Radnor` ` `1`2 — 3
First Half — 1. RAD Andrew Marino, 11:55. Second Half — 2. RAD Roman Rivera, 34:06; 3. RAD Tyler Ferst (Matthew Santerian).
Shots — RAD 18, DAL 0. Saves — RAD 0 (JD Ball), DAL 7 (Cole Kutch). Corners — RAD 16, DAL 0.