It was a tale of two halves for the Plymouth United boys White team on Saturday at Hines Park.
United entered halftime of its final game of the fall in a 1-1 tie with Hartland Havoc Gold, thanks to a second-minute goal by Oliver Horswill.
Hartland evened things when its corner kick 10 minutes before the half glanced off United goalie Justin Wojcik's gloves and trickled into the back of the goal.
Hartland scored twice in the first 12 minutes after the intermission en route to a 5-1 win.
"It was two different halves. That was it," said United coach Mario Ramirez. "We pressured hard in the first half and backed off in the second."
In the first 30 minutes, though, United controlled much of the play, nearly scoring in the very first minute, when a long dribbling run by Alex Cross ended with a shot that beat the Hartland goalie but sailed just wide.
United broke through a minute later when a long throw-in from captain Kyle Czarnik began a sequence that ended with the ball bouncing in front of Oliver, who confidently half-volleyed it off the left post and into the goal.
United held Hartland scoreless over the next 18 minutes, thanks to a pair of tremendous defensive plays.
First, Justin made a diving save to his left in the 9th minute. Three minutes later, after Justin was beaten, Kyle sprinted from the top of the box back to clear the ball just before it crossed the goal line.
Justin made a number of nice saves in the second half as did substitute goalkeeper Thomas Dono to keep the game as close as it was.
Hartland nearly scored on a second corner kick, but Justin deftly tipped it over the crossbar in the 41st minute.
United's White team, playing up in age and in the 8v8 format for the first time, competed well in all of its games, and each player _ Alex, Oliver, Kyle, Riley List, Ashton Quinn, Liam Householder, Madison Grieb, Gabe Rosas, Nathan Hunt and Dylan Schmitzerle _ made important contributions throughout.
Now it's on to indoor soccer and Futsal training for boys White and the other teams in the club.
