By Ted Waddell
FALLSBURG — September 12, 2003 – In Wednesday’s non-league boys’ soccer game that was tied 1-1 at the half, the Fallsburg Comets finally prevailed over the visiting Liberty Indians.
The Comets were able to squeeze out a 2-1 victory on a second-half shot by Victor Leventritt that went past a former teammate.
Leventritt scored what became the game-winning goal at 7:40 on an assist by Daniel Friedman.
Liberty’s goalkeeper, Tyler Hartman, is a transfer student from Fallsburg. Last year, Hartman anchored the cage for the Comets and Coach Paul Marsden.
This season, he’s tending goal for Indians and Coach Hazel Yaun.
The Comets scored the first goal of the match at 13:58, as Rob Sneckenberg fired one into the net on an assist by Mike Juarez.
At 34:20, Liberty’s Matt Burns scored a goal on an assist by Ramon Romero, tying it up at the half.
Hartman had six saves against his former team. Fallsburg goalie Antonio Gamble was credited with 10 saves.
“It was our usual Fallsburg-Liberty matchup,” said Yaun. “It was very physical.”
Yaun said she thought the Comets went to the ball a little harder in the first 40 minutes of play, “but in the second half, we picked it up quite a bit.”
Not content to sit on her hands with a shortage of players this year, Yaun recently went looking for new players at an Indians’ football game.
After a busy day along the gridiron sidelines, she found three players and a couple of avid student football spectators.
“I thought we had a much better second half,” Marsden said. “It was much more team-oriented . . . we know what we’ve got to do out there, but a lot of the guys are young.”
Returning senior captains for the Comets are Sean Buckner, John Hoefling and Mike Juarez.
Marsden is expecting a few more booters to join the active roster, “and then we can start jelling.”
“As long as our learning curve keeps going up, we’ll be okay,” he said.
With the win, Fallsburg evened its record at 1-1. Liberty fell to 1-3 on the season.
Both Liberty and Fallsburg are scheduled to return to the soccer field at 4:30 p.m. today. The Indians host Sullivan West in a league contest, while the Comets travel to Chapel Field for a non-league match.