RECAP: Day 1 Of The East-West Classic

The 27th edition of the East-West Classic in Pennsylvania kicked off Friday afternoon at Highmark Stadium in Pittsburgh.

In Game One, Quaker Valley defeat Exeter 3-1 behind goals from Reiter (assisted by Fernandez), Kriebel and Chamovitz (assisted by Reiter).

Quaker Valley will take on Fleetwood in their 2nd game of the Classic at Highmark Stadium Saturday at 2 pm. And Exeter will take on West Allegheny at 11:30 am on Saturday.

In the middle game of the triple-header Friday, West Allegheny would take on Wilson, who was a 2018 PIAA State Finalist and Wilson took the early 1-0 lead into the half.

The Indians had a golden chance to even the score early in the 2nd half, but from that point on, Wilson ramped up the pressure and in the 61st minute they found the back of the net off the foot of Victor Vottero to go up 2-0.

And just seven minutes later, Jeffrey Kuser added another goal for Wilson as they went up 3-0 in the 68th minute.

Wilson was able to put West Allegheny onto their heels as the second half wore on and the Indians were reacting to what Wilson was doing instead of applying the pressure.

West Allegheny did have a couple corner kicks late in the 2nd half, but were unable to find the back of the net as Wilson shuts out West Allegheny 3-0 in game two of the East-West Classic.

To close out day one of the Classic, Mt.Lebanon and Fleetwood would face off under the lights.

Early on in the first half, both the Blue Devils and Fleetwood were keeping most of the play in the middle third, but Danny Simboro was able to net the first goal for Mt. Lebanon in the 14th minute to put them up 1-0.

The Blue Devils back line was solid for most of the first half and they were able to keep the pressure on Fleetwood for most of the half.

It looked like Fleetwood was just trying to survive the pressure and get to halftime trailing by 1, but they were able to generate a late counter attack and slip one through the back line of Mt.Lebanon as Jeffrey Rosenberger was able to even the match at 1-1 in the 34th minute.

It would remain tied through the 2nd half, but it wouldn’t be without any excitement as both teams had golden opportunities to break the tie and give their team the lead, but both Steven Vines (Mt.Lebanon) and Wesley Seaman, who entered the match at the start of the second half for Zach Haas (Fleetwood), made big saves when they needed to.  Late in the half, Vines would make a save that he had to stretch like gumby to make as punched the ball away to keep the game even.

The final match of Friday’s action would go to overtime, and two minutes in Mt.Lebanon looked to have found the back of the net but Seaman scrambled back to deny the Blue Devils right on the doorstep.

With just over two minutes remaining in the Overtime, it was a scramble in front of the Blue Devils net as the ball got by the Mt. Lebanon keeper and Connor Heck got to the loose ball and found the back of the net for the game winning goal and Fleetwood would win the match 2-1.

The East goes 2-1 in Friday’s action with wins from Fleetwood and Wilson. Quaker Valley got the lone win Friday for the West.

Day two of the East-West Classic will get going Saturday morning when Mt.Lebanon and Wilson get going in the first game of the day at 10 am.  In game two, it will be Exeter against West Allegheny at 11:30 am and to wrap up day two it will be Fleetwood against Quaker Valley at 1:30 pm.

Pittsburgh Soccer Now will have an audio broadcast for all three games Saturday with Spencer Witt on play by play and analysis from Former Seton-LaSalle coach Ryan Kelly.

And you can follow along with all the action on Twitter by following Matt Harkins (@MattyIcePGH) and John Krysinsky (@pghsoccerscribe.)