Elmira District Boys Soccer

Andrew Legare, alegare@stargazette.com @SGAndrewLegare Published 8:17 p.m. ET Sept. 27, 2017 Updated 11:32 p.m. ET Sept. 27, 2017

First-half goals from Jan Ziembicki and Robert McCarick helped Elmira continue its pursuit of the Southern Tier Athletic Conference West Division title in boys soccer with a 2-0 win at Horseheads on Wednesday afternoon.

Both goals were assisted by Noah Sperduto and they helped leave the Express at 8-1-1 overall and 7-1-1 in STAC play. Horseheads fell to 4-7.

Quick start for Elmira

Ziembicki gave the Express a 1-0 edge with his blast 8 minutes, 14 seconds into the contest. McCarrick converted a perfect crossing pass from Sperduto with 7:17 left in the half to give Elmira a 2-0 lead that held up.

"They hustle, they play well together, but the big thing is they're finishing their opportunities," Horseheads coach Mark Mucci said of the Express. "We didn't give them much today, but they capitalized on what we gave them."

"I knew it was going to be a physical battle just because of how hot it was," Elmira coach Derek Hamilton said. "Ironically, we played a little better in the first half, when it was hotter. We were a little sluggish in the second half, when it was a little cooler. But we got off to that early lead. It was a couple of nice goals. We created a couple of opportunities in the second half, but the first half was definitely our better 40 minutes of play."

Express stays on track

Elmira was coming off a 0-0 tie Friday against Corning but still hasn't lost since a 4-3 setback to Corning back on Aug. 30. The unbeaten streak now stands at eight for the Express, which is in a battle with Ithaca for the STAC West title. Elmira has shut out five of its last seven opponents.

The Express has four league games remaining, starting with a road contest against Maine-Endwell on Friday. Ithaca, 8-1 after Wednesday night's 2-0 win at Corning, plays at Elmira at 4:30 p.m. Oct. 4. Ithaca's lone loss came to Elmira, 2-0, on Sept. 11.

"It was a big win – 8-1-1," Elmira senior defender Nate Forrest said of Wednesday's game. "We’re just going to keep on rolling, keep on getting wins, shutouts."

Horseheads strong in second half

The Blue Raiders had their share of scoring chances and Elmira had just one more shot on goal for the game, 8-7. Express goalie Corey Templar had seven saves for the shutout.

"I changed things up in halftime because we weren’t playing well and tried to put more pressure on them," Mucci said. "Tried to switch up my formation just a little bit to help give us some more pressure in the midfield and give us some more chances to control the ball and work it through the midfield. In the second half, we kept the ball down in that end for a good chunk of that time. We just couldn’t finish."

Raiders chasing postseason

Elmira already has secured a berth in the Section 4 Class AA Tournament. Horseheads needs to win two of its final four games to do the same. Mucci is hoping the players' second-half performance Wednesday bodes well for how they'll play as they pursue a playoff spot.

"That’s the best we’ve played in a few games in that second half," he said. "I thought we kept them pinned in. We made better decisions, better choices, we hustled our butt off and we actually showed we wanted to win the game in the second half. I need them to show that for the last four games we’ve got."

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