Early Pressure, Balanced Scoring Lift Karns City Over Ridgway and Into Class A Championship Match

KARNS CITY, Pa. (EYT/D9) — The Karns City boys soccer team didn’t want to let Ridgway breathe.

The Gremlins swarmed the Elkers’ goal with strong passing and an aggressive attack, taking shot after shot. Some were turned away by keeper Garrett Lehman, who had an exceptional night for Ridgway. Some hit the cross bar or sailed over it.

But some found the mark — three in the first half to be exact — as Karns City advanced to the District 9 Class A championship match with a 4-0 home win over the Elkers on Thursday night.

“We knew coming in that they would have confidence off their last performance (an upset win over Redbank Valley),” said Karns City coach Justin Ryan. “We were focused on a quick start. We wanted to move the ball quickly and find shots and we were able to do that.”

Tyler Callihan finally capitalized for Karns City 14 minutes into the match with a goal off a perfect feed from Myles McCully.

At the seven-minute mark, Landon Wilson made it 2-0 and the back-breaker for Ridgway came with just 13 seconds remaining in the first half when Mallick Metcalfe found the back of the net to send the Gremlins into halftime with a comfortable 3-0 advantage.

“That’s something we talked about, getting two quick ones, but finding that next one,” Ryan said. “With a 2-0 lead, if they score, they feel like they’re right back in it. You get that third and it’s just a little bit more deflating for them. It was definitely good to get that.”

Dane King closed out the scoring with a goal midway through the second half.

Four goals from four players.

That’s been the M.O. of Karns City this year. There is no dominant goal-scorer, just a bunch of players who are capable of firing in a shot.

“That’s definitely been our thing all year,” Ryan said. “We haven’t really relied on one person. I think our leading scorer has 14 or 15 goals, which is probably the lowest number for us in quite a while. But we’ve probably have four or five who are around 10. Tonight, having Landon and Dane step up — they haven’t found their name on the scoresheet too often — but on a night like this, they’re able to find their chances.”

Karns City could have had even more goals if not for Lehman, who made several difficult saves, especially in the first half.

He ended up with 16 in the match.

Lucas Yasika also came up big in net for Karns City when he was called upon.

The junior didn’t face nearly as many shots as Lehman, but he turned every one of them away.

“Lucas stands tall,” Ryan said. “He probably hasn’t had a whole lot of action in the last four or five games, but he makes a couple of really good saves each game.”

Karns City, the No. 3 seed, will take on fourth-seeded Elk County Catholic for the Class A championship on Wednesday at site and time to be determined.

“Our goal was to get back and challenge for a district title,” Ryan said. “For this group, to be in the title game has to feel good moving forward.”