09/23/24 Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski / Hollidaysburg's Micah Helsel is pressured by Altoona's Colin Etters.

By John Hartsock

jhartsock@altoonamirror.com

HOLLIDAYSBURG — The Altoona Area High School boys soccer team has several players who can put the ball into the cage.

The defensively-sound Mountain Lions also have several players who can keep the ball out of it.

Altoona parlayed a great positional defensive effort into its fifth consecutive shutout victory Monday night, blanking archrival Hollidaysburg, 3-0, at Tiger Stadium.

Hollidaysburg (8-2) wound up with just two shots on goal and had no serious scoring chances against Mountain Lions’ senior keeper Luke Mitchell. Altoona, which defeated Hollidaysburg, 2-0, two weeks ago at Mansion Park, swept the season series from the Golden Tigers.

“We came out of the gate a little slow tonight — we didn’t get into our groove until the 30th minute of the game,” Altoona coach Dave McCarter said. “I feel like we’re peaking right now, and we’ve played a lot of our games this season away from home. We have a nice five-game shutout streak going, and now we’ll be playing several home games.

“This is a fun group to coach, they play well together, and they’re all great teammates for each other,” added McCarter, who got his 100th career coaching victory at Altoona in the Mountain Lions’ win over Hollidaysburg earlier this season. “My job is just to stay out of their way and not screw anything up.”

Senior center-midfielder Justin Bossler scored the only goal that Altoona would need when he got free in front of the Hollidaysburg cage and converted a feed from junior forward Jace Black at the 19:26 mark of the first half to give the Mountain Lions a 1-0 lead at intermission.

“I got some space in front of their net, and Jace took on a couple of their defenders and was able to get me a good ball, and I was able to get a good shot off,” Bossler said.

Altoona went ahead, 2-0, at the 5:11 mark of the second half, when junior forward Colin Etters, using two Hollidaysburg defenders as interference, took a pass from Troy Peterman and slipped a kick along the ground and into the lower left corner of the cage.

“Etters split two defenders and I don’t think their keeper ever saw him because of that,” McCarter said. “Etters was calm, and picked the lower left corner.”

Black put a padlock on the victory by speeding down the field and threading the right corner of the cage with a kick with just under 10 minutes left in the game, setting the 3-0 final score.

“Altoona keeps possession well, and after the first half was pretty even, we couldn’t get anything going in the second half – we couldn’t create any offense,” said Hollidaysburg coach Craig Shale, whose team hosts Bedford tonight. “I just think we had some tired legs in the second half. Altoona played well, and they deserved to win.”

Sweeping this rivalry series is sweet for either program.

“Hollidaysburg is a really good rival for us, and they’re always tough,” Bossler said. “To be able to go to their home field and pull out a win feels good.”

The Mountain Lions are off until Saturday, when they host Middletown at Mansion Park.

“The rivalry games like the ones we have with Hollidaysburg always go back-and-forth,” McCarter said. “Both teams are up for the games, and they’re fun games to play. To get a season sweep against them is rare and nice. We’ll take it.”

SCORE BY HALVES

Altoona 1 2–3

Hollidaysburg 0 0–0

First half

1, A–Bossler (Black), 19:26.

Second half

2, A–Etters (Peterman), 5:11. 3, A–Black (Spallone), 30:33.

Shots on goal: Altoona 11, Hollidaysburg 2. Keepers–Mitchell, A; Jancula, H.

Records: Altoona (10-1); Hollidaysburg (8-2).

JV: Altoona, 2-0.

Junior high: Hollidaysburg, 5-0