Warren picked up right where it left off in Oil City, defeating Titusville, 6-0, behind hat tricks from Hunter Mohney and Matt Sandberg on Thursday evening at War Memorial Field.
The Dragons, coming off a 10-goal output against the Oilers on Tuesday, struck early and often for the second straight game.
The Rockets hung tough with Warren in the early going, but Warren broke through when Mohney raced away from the defense and calmly slid a shot past the Titusville goalkeeper.
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Times Observer photo by Jonathan McAfoos
Looking for space
Warren’s Matt Sandberg finds himself between two Titusville defenders during Thursday’s region match at War Memorial Field. Sandberg registered three goals and an assist in Warren’s 6-0 Region 4 victory.
Two minutes later, Sandberg helped blow the game open by scoring two goals in 20 seconds. The first came on a cross while the second came on a through ball and gave the Dragons a 3-0 lead at the half.
Mohney scored first in the second half, knocking in a rebound off of the Rockets goalie to make it 4-0. Sandberg and Mohney each added one final goal each in the last 20 minutes.
Warren had a chance for one more in the last 30 seconds when Nick Tarpenning smashed a penalty kick, but the Titusville keeper made a fantastic save, diving to his right.
Liam Boger had three assists, Joseph Bell added two, and Sandberg had one.
Nate Sandberg registered the shutout in goal.
"I'm really happy with our effort tonight," said Warren coach Tom Harrington said. "We thought it would be a little closer, so it was nice to come out and win 6-0. We switched formations tonight (from a 4-4-2 to a 4-5-1) to give us more midfield depth and Liam (Boger) and Phil (Hachula) both had good games in midfield. We played really well out of the back and passed extremely well."
Harrington also had the opportunity to get everybody playing time for the second straight game.
"I got the entire bench in tonight. Twenty-six guys got in the game, and 25 got in on Tuesday at Oil City," Harrington said.
Warren (6-3 overall, 2-1 in Region 4) will host Corry on Monday in its fourth straight region game.
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Eisenhower 3, Seneca 2, OT
ERIE - Eisenhower's boys soccer team showed its resolve in a 3-2 Region 3 overtime win over Seneca on Thursday.
"Overall, the team really dug in," said Eisenhower coach Mike Decker, whose Knights are 1-2 in the region and 5-2 overall.
Trailing 1-0 late in the second half, freshman Grant Venman ran down a ball to the outside "that everyone else thought was going long and wide (out of bounds)," said Decker. "He made a beautiful centering pass to Jake VanHouten."
VanHouten scored with 5:41 left in the 80-minute match to tie the score. From there, two more goals were scored in regulation.
Eisenhower took the lead at 2:30 left when VanHouten played a little through ball up to Andy Decker, who moved up from on offense due to injuries on the team. Decker scored to make it 2-1.
At Seneca's smallish, grass field, a throw ball could easily make it in front of the net, and Seneca scored both times that way, including with time winding down to tie the score and force overtime.
Ike outshot Seneca, 19-5, for the entire match and didn't take long to win in overtime. Decker chipped a ball over defenders to VanHouten for the game-winner five minutes in.
Coach Decker said Ricky Zortman and Eric Daugharthy "really stepped u[ in the middle of the field, and Ben Perkins and Matt Eernisse in the back."
Ryan Williams started for the first time in the backfield and did well.
"They showed a lot of resolve to come out with a win - that is a good thing," said Decker.
Eisenhower is behind Fairview, Mercyhurst Prep and North East in the region standings and has a chance to upset one of them on Monday, hosting North East.