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Day 2 of the Washington County Public Schools Boys Soccer Tournament had its fair share of excitement.
Smithsburg topped rival Boonsboro 2-1 for fifth place in the opening game, North Hagerstown downed cross-town rival South Hagerstown 2-0 in the first semifinal, and Clear Spring ousted Williamsport 4-2 in the second semifinal on Saturday at Mike Callas Stadium.
North Hagerstown and Clear Spring will play for the championship at Mike Callas Stadium on Sept. 18.
* The Blazers and Wildcats played to a scoreless draw at halftime. The second half was a completely different story.
Williamsport goalkeeper Alex Aleshire was whistled for a foul in his 18-yard box and given a yellow card, sending him to the sideline for Clear Spring's penalty kick. Brandon Kesselring capitalized to make it 1-0.
The Wildcats answered with a goal by Connor Arnone, but the Blazers' Ralph Weaver converted another penalty kick shortly thereafter to give the Blazers a 2-1 lead.
Blazers, Hubs pass semis test
"I loved seeing the kids handle themselves with maturity (after the first half)," Clear Spring coach Mark Myers said.
Devin Repp scored the third goal for the Blazers with less than eight minutes remaining. Williamsport's Brandon Seiler answered with a goal to cut the lead to one, but Gavin Myers sealed the win for Clear Spring with a late goal.
"Williamsport has a good squad," Myers said, "I'm glad we scored some goals at the end so the game wasn't decided only by penalty kicks."
"Things didn't bounce our way today," Wildcats coach Chris Downs said. "We lost our focus after the two penalties."
* North Hagerstown's defense was stellar again in shutting out South Hagerstown a day after holding Clear Spring scoreless.
The Hubs' offense finally found the net for the first time in the tournament in the last 10 minutes of the semifinal, with Dino Galmanov breaking through.
"We played very hard today," North coach Glen Singer said. "We moved the ball around and were able to capitalize on the opportunity they gave us."
North's second goal came on a penalty kick by Max Psillas to ice the victory.
"Everytime we play North, it's physical," South coach Ryan Myers said. "We played good for 72 minutes but fell apart at the end."
* Smithsburg drew first blood in the fifth-place game when Yusif Kadir netted a goal early.
Boonsboro's Josh Haden got the Warriors on the board in the third minute of the second half to tie the game.
Leopards sophomore Adler Garrett broke the tie with less than nine minutes to play.
"After the lack of goals yesterday, it was nice to see the ball in the net," Smithsburg coach Paul Newman said.
