Penn Hills boys soccer looking to stay on even keel

By: Josh Rizzo
Sunday, September 11, 2022 | 11:01 AM

Entering a season with high expectations has the Penn Hills boys soccer team trying to reign in its emotions in the early going.

The Indians were scheduled to enter a Section 3-3A match with Penn-Trafford last Thursday missing two of their top attacking players, neither due to injuries.

Penn Hills saw players pick up red cards in a 3-1 win over McKeesport and 3-2 loss to Latrobe. The Indians are working on channeling their enthusiasm. The results of Penn Hills’ match with the Warriors were too late for this edition.

“It’s been a challenge all season,” Indians coach Ryan Hankey said. “We want to work on balancing our emotions. We know we have high expectations this year.”

Trying to stay on an even keel mentally was tough for a Penn Hills team that started with meaningful games from the outset. The Indians (2-1, 2-1) didn’t play in a traditional opening-weekend tournament. Instead, Penn Hills opened by blanking section rival Gateway, 3-0, Sept. 1 at Nate Ferraco Memorial Field.

The Indians followed that up by beating McKeesport, 3-1, two days later on the road.

Preparing for games that will be important in the playoff chase had Hankey looking for ways to keep his team sharp.

The weekend before the game with the Gators, Hankey held a scrimmage with all the players in the program while the other teams played in opening tournaments.

“It was kind of a varsity offense vs. varsity defense kind of practice,” Hankey said. “We wanted to be as ready as we could. We have been training three days a week since the first week of July.”

In the loss against Latrobe, Penn Hills was set back by a red card the team got just before halftime. While the Indians rallied to tie the game early in the second half, they had a hard time keeping up and eventually gave up two more goals.

“This team has adjusted to a lot of adversity,” Hankey said. “Last year, we played without one of our better players for four or five games. They are prepared to handle those situations.”

Alinur Zhamaldinov, Mack Byrnes, Lenny Duncan, Alex Monteque and Eric Cronin have done the scoring for the Indians so far this season. Penn Hills hopes if it can continue to score and cut down on getting carded, the Indians can get back to the WPIAL playoffs for the second straight year.

“There’s a buzz about this team and what we can do,” Hankey said. “We have the right mindset and winning two section games to start the season was a big confidence boost. We want to have the right mindset and take things one game at a time.”

Tags: Penn Hills