When Ryan Sharkazy took over the Palmerton boys soccer program four years ago, his main goal was to build a team that would have good team chemistry, be a lot quicker and put pressure on opposing defenses.

Last year, the Bombers struggled through the Colonial League season with just one win, that coming against Pen Argyl.The year before, the Bombers were able to muster four wins overall and just two in league play.If Monday night's thrilling 2-1 win at home over Wilson is any indication, Sharkazy can see some light at the end of the tunnel.It upped Palmerton's record to 3-4 in league play and 3-6 overall and the coach was more than happy with the triumph."We've been preaching to play a full 80 minutes all year and this is the first time we did that," said Sharkazy. "I'm very proud of how far we've come since day one."Trailing 1-0 at halftime as Wilson's Jimmy Fritz was the lone goal scorer in the first 40 minutes off a Mike Whildin assist, the Bombers rode some great saves by goalie Ryan Yacone and tough defense waiting for their opportunity on the offensive end to even things up."Ryan could have made saves standing on his head tonight," said Sharkazy. "He was fantastic. He kept us in the game and we made him very aware afterwards that it was as much a team win as his."With 15:39 left in the game, Jarrett Long fed Brett Papay and the junior slipped the ball past Wilson goalie Ricardo Riguetti-Medina to tie things up at 1-1.Palmerton kept pressure on Wilson after that and with 7:38 remaining, Maclain Allen found himself going one-on-one with Riguetti-Medina and pounded it past him for an unassisted goal that was the game-winner."Those two guys (Papay and Allen) joined us late in the season," quipped Sharkazy. "The pre-season was over and they came to me and said they'd like to play for us."We've been working with them. This is their first experience playing soccer and they wound up being a huge difference for us tonight.EVEN STEVEN … It was quite an even matchup as both teams finished the night with 10 shots on goal and both teams had shots carom off the crossbar. Yacone wound up with one more save than Riguetti-Medina and that proved the difference.LATE BLOOMERS … Both Papay and Allen joined the club late and the duo have been a great addition to the team, according to their coach. Papay, a member of the Palmerton boys basketball team, and Allen, who played football the last couple of years and is quite a swimmer, both decided to come out for soccer, a sport that neither had played on the high school level in the past.S IS THE MAGIC LETTER … All five seniors, Devon Santon, Jacob Oldt, Josh Rehrig, Logan Blasiak and Mike Dreyer got starts for the Bombers. A good group of sophomores, Bryce Beam, Jesse DeKorte, Jarrett Long, Noah Schaffer and Ryan Yacone also started and look like a good group gaining experience to build around for next season. Rio Kapur, a junior, was the other starter.