Western Wayne’s boys varsity soccer team saw its magical season come to an ignominious end Tuesday at Lake Lehman High School.

The Wildcats went toe-to-toe with Wilkes Barre Coughlin in the District Two semifinals and came out on the short end of a 6-1 score. Coach Matt Fitzsimmons’ lads played hard, but were overmatched against the #1 seeded Crusaders.

“We played pretty well, but Coughlin is a very, very good team,” Coach Fitzsimmons told TWI Sports. “To our kids credit, they never quit. We had a great season and accomplished some things that haven’t been done here in a really long time.”

Western Wayne closed out its campaign with a 12-3-0 record.

Coughlin now advances to tonight’s Class AA championship game. The Crusaders (15-0-1) will take on Abington Heights this evening at Lake Lehman.

The Comets (15-1-0) pitched a 3-0 shutout against Dallas in the other semifinal match.

On the Pitch
Western Wayne put up a gallant fight in Tuesday’s semifinal, but simply ran out of gas after intermission.

Coughlin opened the scoring  with an unassisted goal midway through the opening half.

Jake Karavitch, who would lead all scorers with one goal and two assists, put the Crusaders on the board at the 23:08 mark.

The bracket’s top seed upped that advantage to 2-0 when Tim Long hammered home a goal off a Karavitch pass.

Western Wayne hung tough in this “David & Goliath” match-up thanks in large part to the stellar play of veterans CJ Bayly, Danny Fernandez and Andrew Green.

Bayly was brilliant in goal. The Wildcats’ senior keeper was under attack all night long by a relentless Coughlin offense.

“CJ took a little bit of a beating back there,” Coach Fitzsimmons said. “But, he played an outstanding game. CJ made a couple of phenomenal saves for us out there tonight.”

Bayly finished up the match with 12 saves.

Fernandez turned in another stellar effort in the midfield. A senior who plays year-round in  leagues all over the area, Danny assisted on every goal Western Wayne scored in the post season this fall.

Against Coughlin, Fernandez unleashed a beautiful pass to Green, who recorded his third goal of the play-offs. Danny fired a missile from the Wildcat 18 that cleared the midfield stripe and found Green open behind the defense.

Andrew outran a Coughlin defender, then blasted the ball past keeper Justin Coskey. The goal came with less than 10 minutes remaining in regulation and brought a smile to Coach Fitzsimmons’ face.

“That was a really nice goal,” he said. “Danny’s pass was right on the money and Andrew didn’t waste the opportunity. Their keeper didn’t have a chance.”

Over & Out
Western Wayne was still in striking distance after halftime, but soon fell victim to the talents of Brian Suchoski.

Coughlin’s top scorer came into this match with a WVC-best 31 goals on the year. In a matter of minutes, he added two more and put the match out of reach.

“He’s the real deal,” Coach Fitzsimmons said of Suchoski. “He a legitimate Division One talent. He’s very quick and can beat you with power or finesse.”

Coughlin outshot Western Wayne by a margin of 18-8 on the night. Coskey recorded six saves for the Crusaders.