Lessons learned and a second half comeback led to a season opening win at home for the Powell High School boys’ soccer team on Saturday, as the Panthers defeated Douglas 2-1 with all three goals coming in the second half.

POWELL 2, DOUGLAS 1

Kicking off the season at home the Panthers (1-0) welcomed the Bearcats (0-2) hoping for a test against one of the more consistent teams from the 3A East after scrimmaging Newcastle at home Friday which will not be fielding a varsity team this season.

“I think it was good to see how we fared against one of the consistent performers in the east,” coach David Gilliatt said. “It was good to have the scrimmage against Newcastle the day before to try and get more areas of correction to come to the surface early on.”

Throughout the first half Powell and Douglas each had chances, with Powell finding some of the better opportunities throughout.

The best chance came with 15 minutes left in the first half, as Gianreye D’Alessandro drew a penalty after being fouled inside the box.

He stepped up, but his shot was too hard to his left and hit off the crossbar and out as the game remained scoreless for the entire first half.

With a slight breeze at their back the Bearcats took advantage early in the second half, launching a shot from far out that just snuck over the head of the Panther keeper to make it 1-0 eight minutes into the second half.

Douglas appeared to add to its lead just 2:30 minutes later off a corner kick, but a handling offense was called on the Bearcats and it remained 1-0.

Powell had plenty of opportunities to answer throughout the second half, with several chances going just wide or not finding the final touch.

The Panthers finally got on the scoreboard courtesy of Ethan Frame, who rifled home a ball across the net after the ball bounced around in the box on a corner to tie the game with 17:38 left.

Powell started pressing the initiative, and it paid off with 11 minutes remaining as D’Alessandro drew another penalty after being fouled in the box.

This time he kept the shot low to his left, and converted to make it a 2-1 advantage for Powell.

“Gianreye made a mistake in his first penalty and he knew it. It was important that he be given the chance to fix it and have us take the lead with the second penalty,” Gilliatt said. “It’s pretty common for athletes to be stuck on their mistakes and have it reduce their effectiveness for the rest of the game. Gianreye was able to put that behind him and stay impactful and ultimately help the team win the game.”

The Panthers held out any late attempts by the Bearcats, and earned a 2-1 win to begin the year.

“Playing Douglas exposed some more things we need to work on but overall I was happy with the result and the way the boys dug in and came back after being down a goal,” Gilliatt said. “Overall pleased with my guys and their response to going 1-0 on Saturday and coming back for the win. Respectfully, I did think we were the better team and created more scoring chances than Douglas did. We just need to be better in the final third and improve the quality of these chances. I think it will come.”

HOME GAMES CONTINUE

Powell remains at home this week for another game, welcoming in another difficult 3A East opponent in the defending state champion, Buffalo Bison (1-1).

Following the first contest Gilliatt felt there are plenty of things for his team to work on, including transitioning as well as spacing.

“We still need to work on our spacing for drops. Oftentimes we are too close and then don’t have enough time to make the next pass before we are pressed,” Gilliatt said. “We also need to work on our speed in transition. That could be a conditioning thing but the guys need to be faster at going from defense to offense and back to defense. That will help us stop counterattacks and be more effective when we might have the ball for limited moments in a game.”

Heading into the Thursday contest at 6 p.m. Gilliatt expects a tough opponent in the Bison who bring back talent despite graduating a significant portion of their team from a year ago.

“I think we’ll see defending champs with a lot of technical players who are well coached and organized,” Gilliatt said. “They have some key players that I think can make big impacts for them and it will be important that we stifle these guys and produce our own scoring chances.”