Even great teams have games where they falter early. Last night, Tyrone had glances of brilliance in the second half but only after taking in too much water in the first.

In the opening period Tyrone and Philipsburg traded possessions, but neither could gained much ground.

After ten minutes of play, Phillipsburg began finding room to shoot. Many of PO’s shots were off target and from outside the 18 yard box.  Early on Tyrone was getting very few shots with little power.

As Phillipsburg worked the ball down field, Austin Krise found a hole in the defense where he was able to squeeze off a shot from the six yard box. The shot bounced off the Tyrone’s keeper, Anthony Politza, and found the back of the net.

Following the first goal, Tyrone’s Noah D’Angelo received a controversial yellow card while trying to run through a defender, putting Tyrone into a hole without their best player.  Tyrone’s defense stuck up and stopped Phillipsburg’s production until D’Angelo was able to come back in the game.

Even with D’Angelo back, Tyrone’s defense slipped and Phillipsburg’s James Tew was able to slip a bouncing goal over Politza at the end of the first half. Tyrone’s Nic Mallory made an attempt to save the ball behind Politza, but he misjudged his kick and the ball hit net.

The second half would be a new page for Tyrone. Mallory moved up to midfield to generate more offense which would prove beneficial. Tyrone then dominated the midfield and eventually broke through Phillipsburg’s defense late in the game.

With 6:33 left in the game D’Angelo made a flawless run toward goal where he then got fouled inside the penalty kick box.

“Noah took a hard foul for the team and capitalized on the opportunity with a clutch goal”, said Tyrone’s Asher Christine.

The momentum was with Tyrone the rest of the game. They continued to form great series’ but Phillipsburg defense wouldn’t budge a second time. When the clock expired, no one doubted Tyrone’s effort. The team just gave up one too many goals in the first half.

Tyrone’s next game is home Thursday against Central, September 10 at 4:00.