By MIKE KEMMETER
of The Gazette
The Pacelli High School co-ed soccer team would love to eliminate two minutes from its showdown with Waupaca Tuesday at Lake Pacawa.
The Cardinals, holding a 1-0 lead with just under two minutes remaining in the first half, allowed two goals before halftime and eventually fell to the conference leading Comets, 3-1.
"We had opportunities. We had more shots than they did. We out shot them and controlled the game for the most part," said Pacelli assistant coach Ralph Gagas, who was filling in for absent coach Manny Carreiro.
But the stretch Waupaca dominated decided the game. The Comets knotted the score at 1-1 with just over a minute left when Tyler Radley took a cross pass from Jeremy Dehnel and beat Pacelli goalie Kurt Kramer.
Waupaca struck again less than a minute later when Andy Porrey scored on a header. Porrey jumped and knocked in Alfredo Estrada's flip throw-in from the corner to give the Comets a 2-1 advantage.
After 38 scoreless minutes in the second half, Waupaca sealed the win on Theran Pfeiffer's breakaway goal. Ben Blair got an assist on the game-clincher.
"This was a good win for us," Waupaca coach Mark Polebitski said. "We knew going in Pacelli was going to give us trouble. Every time we've played Pacelli in the past, they've been tough."
The Cardinals, who dropped to 3-2 in the Mid-State Conference, had a chance to knock Waupaca (5-0) from the ranks of the undefeated in the conference.
"It's a tough loss for the kids," Gagas said. "They wanted the game as much as anybody did."
While the Cardinals got their only goal on a Steve Baumhofer penalty kick, Pacelli had several opportunities to score goals. In the second half, for example, a Nate Swenson shot hit the goal's crossbar.
"They had some nice breakaways. Nate took over our defense and went right up the middle a couple of times," Polebitski said.
"We kind of dodged a couple bullets."