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WRIGHT TWP. — The guy who used to be the smallest came up big Saturday night.
Mike Zaleski scored twice and Crestwood steered the action all game as the Comets defeated Valley View 4-0 to win their fourth consecutive District 2 Class 3A boys soccer championship.
Crestwood (13-0-2) will play District 4 champion Selinsgrove (10-5) on Tuesday at a site and time to be announced.
Zaleski has been there for all four district titles. The first one came when he didn’t measure up to his teammates.
“As a freshman, I was one of the smallest ones on the team,” Zaleski said. “And then I grew throughout high school and now I’m the second tallest on the team.”
Zaleski looked a lot taller than his claimed height of 5-foot-11 on his first goal. Johnny Olejnik sent a long direct kick into the penalty area, and Zaleski jumped up and connected on a header less than two minutes into the game.
Crestwood controlled play for the most part in the initial 40 minutes and made it 2-0 on Collin Bogdon’s goal with 6:28 left until the break. Keeper Cole Kranson kept it that way with a leg save with five seconds remaining.
Valley View had a patch about eight minutes into the second half where Shay Gillen, Dominic Pichany and Luke Kotcho had shots. The Cougars, though, could never generate a steady attack or disrupt Crestwood’s precision passing game.
“They’re the best team we’ve seen all year,” Valley View coach Danny Burg said. “We hadn’t seen that kind of possession up in our league at all to be honest with you. So getting (offense) in spurts isn’t something we’re used to. Out style of play is aggressive and not technical.”
Ben Rossi assisted Zaleski with 15 minutes left in the game. Nico Schwartz finished off the scoring.
The game was the third for Crestwood in six days after a long layoff following the Wyoming Valley Conference season.
“We had 10 days between the last game of the regular season and the first playoff game,” Crestwood coach Dave McFarland said. “We really restarted. We kind of started preseason-like conditioning-wise and stuff like that. That’s probably why we weren’t amazing against Berwick, but the goal was to finish now at the top and go into states with at least a chance to win the next game.
“Hopefully, this isn’t the max. Hopefully, we’ll have another step forward.”
District 2 Class 3A Championship
Crestwood 4, Valley View 0
Valley View`0`0 — 0
Crestwood`2`2 — 4
First Half: 1. Cre, Mike Zaleski (Johnny Olejnik), 2nd minute; 2. Cre, Collin Bogdon, 34th; Second Half: 3. Cre, Zaleski (Ben Rossi), 66th; 4. Cre, Nico Schwartz, 72nd.
Shots: VV 9, Cre 23, Saves: VV 13 (Matt Cole), Cre 7 (Cole Kranson). Corners: VV 2, Cre 11.