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By Brad Rosemas
For the Mirror
SIDMAN -- The Forest Hills defense held Bishop Carroll to two shots on goal in the second half of Tuesday's District 6 Class A boys soccer quarterfinal.
The No. 6 seeded Huskies still made the most of what they were given.
With the game tied, Bishop Carroll's Pablo Fernandez-Diaz got behind the defense and put a shot past Forest Hills goalkeeper Michael Singer to give the Huskies a 2-1 victory over the No. 3 seed Rangers at G.H. Miller Field.
"To be honest, I was kind of nervous," said Fernandez-Diaz, a native of Madrid, Spain, who is approaching one year of playing soccer in the United States.
"I didn't want to mess up that opportunity. I just did my best when I shot it, and I scored. Our team worked very hard tonight, and I'm glad we were able to get the win."
As Forest Hills controlled the start of the second half, the Rangers outshot Bishop Carroll 5-1 through the first 25 minutes, while recording four corner kicks, as well as two free kicks. There was also a four-minute stretch where the ball didn't leave the Huskies' side of the field.
But, it took one bounce for Bishop Carroll to get a scoring opportunity.
Fernandez-Diaz controlled the ball through two Rangers defenders, leading to a one-on-one opportunity against Singer, where he beat the goaltender to the left side to put the Huskies in front with 8:58 to go.
"It came down to a couple small things that could've gone either way," Forest Hills coach Keith Pesto said. "Obviously, Pablo got free off the one bounce and was off to the races for a one-on-one with the keeper. That's a battle you don't wanna fight. They executed tonight a little better than we did. A lot of the times, the score doesn't reflect the true meaning of the game, but tonight, 2-1 was right. It was close."
The Huskies then turned up defensively for the final nine minutes, not allowing a shot on goal for the remainder of the contest.
Forest Hills, however, received a golden opportunity to tie the game following a handball in the box called with 57 seconds remaining. Kaden Carpenter took the penalty kick, but his shot went wide left of the net.
"The final nine minutes was very big," Bishop Carroll coach Chad Ryan said. "The defense has been strong for us all year. We definitely stepped it up. They still got the PK, but thankfully, it didn't hurt us."
Ryan said he noticed a big difference in his team's play, particularly with aggression, compared to their 5-1 loss to the Rangers on Sept. 26.
Bishop Carroll utilized a strategy based around attempting to create breakaway opportunities for its forwards, as the Huskies attempted six of these passes in the first half before finishing with eight total.
The initial try was a success, as sophomore Will Tremel found the back of the net at the 34:59 mark, giving the Huskies a 1-0 lead just over five minutes into the game. The others resulted in two offside calls, three saves by Singer and a free kick that was shot wide.
"The boys came out ready to play today," Ryan said. "The first game, I don't want to say we watched the game, but we kind of watched them run around us. Today, we went after it and hustled to get those fifty-fifty balls. That's what pushed us over the hump."
The Rangers answered the Huskies' opening tally just 1 minute, 42 seconds later when Gavin Ickes found an open lane following a scrum in front of the net and put the ball into the bottom left corner of the goal.
Singer recorded six saves, while Bishop Carroll goaltender Jude Koehle tallied nine.
The loss concludes Forest Hills' season at 10-9. The Rangers, led by their two seniors Ickes and Singer, made their first playoff appearance since 2018. Forest Hills also earned more victories than the last two years combined (7).
"It was lots of work in the summer that got us here," Pesto said. "We were working as soon as school was out in the spring, doing shooting and playing pick-up games. They were way ahead of where we thought they'd be, and it showed. It was a great season."
Bishop Carroll (8-9) advances to Thursday's semifinal, where the Huskies will take on No. 2 seed United at 8 p.m. at Richland High School as the nightcap of a doubleheader.
Top-seeded Richland faces the winner of No. 4 West Shamokin and No. 5 Bald Eagle in the other semifinal at 6 p.m.
"It's gonna be a good one," Ryan said. "It's definitely gonna be a good one."
SCORE BY HALVES
Bishop Carroll 1 1 -- 2
Forest Hills 1 0 -- 1
FIRST HALF: BC--Tremel (Novak), 34:59; FH--Ickes (unassisted), 33:07.
SECOND HALF: BC--Fernandez-Diaz (unassisted), 8:58.
RECORDS: Bishop Carroll (8-9), Forest Hills (10-9).