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SH in semis

SCHUYLKILL HAVEN - Cold with intermittent downpours.

That was the weather and that was the theme of the game for Weatherly Thursday in its 4-0 quarterfinal playoff loss to Schuylkill Haven.Here's the cold. The Wreckers (8-10-1) offense managed only two shots on goal in the entire game, the first one coming with 11 minutes to go in the game when junior Gary Buck's attempt off a direct kick from senior Michael Kennelly was saved. Two minutes later, Paul Eckert was stopped by Haven goalkeeper Cole Handling, who dove in front to knock the ball away."The weather hurt our game today," said Weatherly coach Phil Deroisiers. "We're not used to playing on the turf and the wet field caused sudden skips and bounces. We never got ourselves on track."Now the downpours. Although Haven didn't barrage the Weatherly net all game long, it did capitalize on offensive bursts down the field.At the 16-minute mark of the first half, Wrecker's goalkeeper Kennelly stopped a point-blank header off a corner throw in. Then, nine minutes later, after Weatherly was called for a hand ball in the box, Haven's Dawson Evitts scored off a penalty kick.Hurricane's head coach Vanco Georgeevic said after the game that there was extra motivation for his team to play Weatherly."They were the only team to defeat us in league play, and scoring the first goal was a big advantage for us, especially on our turf field," he said.With 16 minutes left in the half, the Hurricanes increased their lead to 2-0 when Bryce Sisko converted a pass from Ryan Koch with a kick inside the left post.After holding his team back in the defensive zone in the first half, coach Deroisiers decided his Wreckers needed to generate more offense in the final 40 minutes.He removed his goalkeeper, Kennelly, who had already displayed strong kicking skills and placed him on offense. Although he didn't score, Kennelly did assist on the first of Weatherly's two shots on goal.Schuylkill Haven built an insurmountable three-goal lead with just five minutes gone by in the final half when Brendan Clauser took a pass from Gavin Evitts and sailed a kick into the top left corner of the goal.With just nine minutes remaining, Dawson Evitts tallied his second goal of the game on a spinning and turning corner kick that found its way into the left side of the net."We made too many mistakes today," said Deroisiers. "We tried to defend them early and then wear them out so we could spread the field, but it just didn't work out. I am still very proud of this team. It's the first time in a while that a Weatherly team has qualified for the playoffs."STOP AND GO… Weatherly's Kennelly went from saving goals to trying to utilize his finesse and speed in the second half in an attempt to jump start his team's offense.COACH GAP… Haven coach Georgeevic, with his 27 years of experience, is the only coach in his school soccer history, while the Wreckers' Deroisier just completed his second year at the helm.