Monday night was tough for the boys soccer team as their season ended with a 3-1 loss to Juniata.

Tyrone and Juniata came into the game tied for the last seed in the PIAA District 5 & 6 playoffs.

Equally matched, both teams came out of the gate strong and possessed the ball well. Juniata scored first by pure volume of shots. Tyrone was unable to figure out how to shoot on goal and in that time Juniata found what worked.

After the sixth shot on goal, around the 20 minute mark, Juniata’s next shot skipped into the net.

Juniata dominated the rest of the half as Tyrone struggled to find an offensive rhythm.

Midfielder’s constantly sent strikers down deep into Tyrone’s corners who crossed the ball time after time again. Tyrone was extremely lucky that the regularly open strikers on the opposite side of the field couldn’t control the ball. If so, the game would have gotten out of hand really fast.

Tyrone Head Coach, Nick Miller, pumped up Tyrone at halftime and they came out looking to tie the game.

Like all season Tyrone struggled on defense and couldn’t hold out long enough for the offense to score.

Juniata scored twice on two low crosses Tyrone defenders mis-touched the ball and Juniata strikers buried the ball in nylon.

“Despite being down 3-0, the offensive players never gave up. We ended that game with our heads held high and I was glad that [Bellwood’s] foreign exchange student, Amado, was able to end his U.S. soccer career with a goal,” reflected Senior Anthony Politza.

Tyrone never gave up and off an Andrew Pearson cross, Senior Amado Cardozo was able to beat Juniata’s keeper to end the shutout.

Wrapping up their season with a record of 7-8-2, Tyrone has work to do next season.

Tyrone will lose a small but very talented core group of athletes consisting of: midfielder Nic Mallory, midfielder/striker Noah D’Angelo, striker Brennan McKendree, striker (and foreign exchange student) Amado Cardozo, and goalie Anthony Politza.

D’Angelo has single-handedly been Tyrone’s offense the past two years amassing 55 career goals at Tyrone.

Mallory is a possession beast who can control the tempo of play and find seams to keep plays alive.

McKendree brought a passion to the team this year that pushed everyone to a higher level of play.

Cardozo was a backup offensive weapon that helped D’Angelo up top and made the team laugh with his spotty English and crazy antics.

Politza saved not only 91.43% of shots that came his way, but also saved the team time and time again with his bear-traps for hands and mile-long punts.