WILLIAMSPORT BLANKS ATHENS, 6-

By: Tim Birney  /  October 8, 2022

WILLIAMSPORT — Athens trailed Williamsport by a goal about 50 minutes into the game, but a Wildcat injury opened the flood gates as the Millionaires scored four goals in a five-minute span on its way to a 6-0 win here Saturday morning in non-league boys soccer action.

“It was not a good day for us,” said Athens coach Jake Lezak. “We were missing starters to begin the day ,then losing two more during the game plus another playing injured … we did not step up and play balanced defense for five minutes in second half.

“We were unorganized and (Williamsport) took full advantage,” noted Lezak “We had players in new positions against a good team.

“We get the next few days to recover, and see who we will have against Wellsboro on Thursday,” added Lezak.

Connor Poole scored about 9 1/2 minutes into the game, and the Millionaires led 1-0 at the half.

The game remained 1-0 until Angelo Casas scored with 29:25 remaining in the game to make it 2-0. Over the next five minutes, Jett Johnson scored a pair of goals, sandwiched around a goal by Poole to extend the lead to 5-0.

Jack Fink capped the scoring with 10:15 left in the contest.

Williamsport had a 9-4 edge in shots-on-goal, while Athens had a 6-5 edge in corner kicks.

Senior Grant Liechty recorded three saves in net for the Wildcats.

Athens, now 9-6-1 overall, and 8-1-1, travel Thursday to face NTL-leading Wellsboro (11-2), which is 10-0 in league play.