Gallaspie hat trick helps Cats past Rangers

 

SPENCERVILLE - Spencerville's Will Gallaspie accounted for a trio of goals on Thursday evening as his Bearcats picked up their second victory of the week, a 5-2 win over WOSL rival New Knoxville. 

Gallaspie was credited for the opening goal of the contest at 37:45 as he was the last player for the Bearcats deemed to have touched a bouncing ball off of the turf that was sent into the goal by a New Knoxville player. 

With 26:37 remaining in the first half the visiting Rangers were whistled for a foul inside the box on and found themselves just moments later staring at a 2-0 hole on the scoreboard after Gallaspie was able to send a ball past New Knoxville keeper Josh Deitsch on the awarded penalty kick. 

"Giving up the own goal hurt us at first, but I thought the penalty call in the box by the official really took the wind out of our sails for the rest of the first half" opined New Knoxville coach Matthew Stetler after the contest. 

The Bearcats added one more score by Gallaspie with 19:59 to go before the halftime break as he sent a rocket through the box and into the goal for a 3-0 lead to complete his hat trick on the evening. 

"Will Gallaspie is really developing into a pure scorer and helped us put pressure on their defense tonight" said Spencerville head coach Josh Van Gorder. 

Spencerville notched their final marker in the first half under a minute later on a kick from outside the box from the leg of Joel Van Gorder to take a 4-0 lead before halftime stoppage. 

New Knoxville picked up their first goal of the game in the second half as senior forward Patrick Covert scored his 10th goal of the season when he rolled a ball into the back of the net past Spencerville goal keeper Dominic Adkins who had come out to chase the play to trim the lead to 4-1. 

"We had a plan to minimize New Knoxville's strength but their #7 (Covert) is an amazing player who deserves player of the year consideration. We knew we would need to mark him but he broke out and put two on us" said Van Gorder about Patrick Covert after the contest. 

Emerson Layman found himself with repeated attempts to join his teammates in the scoring column on the evening but was unable to do so as he was repeatedly robbed by highlight level saves by New Knoxville's Deitsch that included a point blank diving save in the final ten minutes across the Memorial Field turf.

Covert picked up his second goal with 6:06 remaining as he launched a rocket that bounced off of the post and Adkins and into the net to get the Rangers within 4-2. 

Unfortunately for the Rangers the Bearcat barrage of Deitsch continued for the rest of the game and pushed the lead to 5-2 with 1:29 to go on a headed ball by Joel Van Gorder. 

"I am very proud of our effort as a team, we are five games in and have already equaled our wins total from last season" exclaimed Josh Van Gorder after the win.

New Knoxville's Stetler said of the game "I thought Spencerville did a great job utilizing their speed and passing in their offensive attack. We lost Ryland Dyrness early on in the game and it really hurt us defensively as he plays a big part for our team. I'm pleased with how we bounced back in the second half and it opened things up for Covert but Spencerville just had too many weapons for us to handle,"

Next up for the Rangers (2-4-1) is a Saturday afternoon tilt against Miller City while the Bearcats (3-1-1) wait until Monday to play their next contest, a 5 P.M. start in Paulding against the Panthers.

Goals:

1st Half:

37:45 - Will Gallaspie (SV)

26:37 - Will Gallaspie (SV)

19:59 - Will Gallaspie (SV)

19:10 - Joel Van Gorder (SV)

2nd Half:

35:33 - Patrick Covert (NK)

6:06 - Patrick Covert (NK)

1:29 - Joel Van Gorder (SV)

Saves:

Dominic Adkins (SV) - 3

Josh Deitsch (NK) - 10