Moessner and Moyer propel Bentworth past C-H
ELLSWORTH – The fourth time turned out to be the charm to unlocking another strong night for Bentworth striker Adam Moessner.
After seeing a shot sail high, another one saved and a third hit the post – all in the first eight minutes – Moessner received a perfect through ball from Billy Moyer and dribbled around a couple of Chartiers-Houston defenders before putting a shot home to give the Bearcats an early lead.
Moessner went on to score four times and Moyer netted a pair for the defending state champion Bearcats, who earned a 6-0 win over Chartiers-Houston Thursday night in a battle of the top two teams in the Class A Section 2 boys soccer standings.
“We knew that (Chartiers-Houston) was going to challenge us, because they want to win the section as badly as we do,” Moessner said. “We know we’re the team everyone is trying to beat, but we’re still on top.”
With the victory Bentworth improved to 7-0 in the section and 7-1 overall. Chartiers-Houston fell to 3-2-2 in section play and 7-2-2 overall.
The Bearcats have outscored section opponents (63-1).
Moessner, a junior who recently surpassed 100 career goals, looked dangerous from the start, ripping a shot over the crossbar in the second minute and had another one on target that was saved by Bucs keeper Calan Acree. A minute later he hit the post with another attempt.
But in the 10th minute he found the net.
“We had a quick start to the game and we were getting through early,” Moessner said. “I could get past the defense, so when he gave me a good pass, I knew I had to put one in eventually.”
In the 21st minute, Moessner doubled Bentworth’s lead with some nifty dribbling. He was able to juke around a defender to give himself enough space to put a strike into the net from just inside the 18-yard box to make it 2-0.
With his older brother, Ryan, graduated and playing at PennWest California, Moessner is receiving a lot more attention from defenders.
That was the case again Thursday, but, like he normally does, he was able to make a major impact.
“Every team is defending us differently than they do any other team,” Moessner said. “They’ll drop a few more people back on defense and do some double and sometimes even triple teams to try and keep us out. But we know that if we just keep breaking through, we’ll eventually get one.”
Aside from the two goals Chartiers-Houston defended pretty well in the first half. Acree made a couple of nice saves and the Bucs won a few free kicks off fouls but didn’t generate much with them.
The only shot in the first half was a long-distance attempt that was easily handled by Bearcats goalkeeper Isaac Vipperman.
“Our defense is stout,” Bentworth coach Nick Malarbi said. “Anytime we put Dillan (Colbert) back there we know it’s a defense good enough to get us to a state championship. Noah (Reynolds) is another basically four year starter that plays outstanding. He’s so solid at center back and everyone overlooks him. Parker Lang has been amazing at outside back and tonight it was a little bit of a mix of Garrett Allan and Paxton (Thomas) at the other outside back and both did well. I hope they feel the confidence from that one. It was a good effort all around.”
Moyer extended Bentworth’s lead five minutes into the second half. He scored after a scramble in front of the Chartiers-Houston goal to make it 3-0.
Chartiers-Houston’s best chance to score was mere moments after Moyer’s goal. The Bucs had a free kick from 35 yards that bounded toward goal, but Vipperman won a race to the loose ball and covered it.
Moessner completed his hat trick with a goal in the 59th minute.
Moyer’s second goal was an impressive shot from a tough angle with 14 minutes remaining. He curled a shot underneath the crossbar from the right side of the 18-yard box.
“I was on a two-game non-scoring streak, so I felt like I needed to get at least one tonight,” Moyer said. “I was happy to help our team get some goals and get a win.”
Moessner scored his fourth with seven minutes remaining by sticking his foot out while falling over in the six-yard box and directing the ball into the bottom left corner of the net.
Bentworth generated 11 corner kicks and did not concede one to Chartiers-Houston.