Thursday, September 26th was a special night for the Greater Latrobe Boys Soccer team. The Uniontown Area Red Raiders were in town for the Wildcats’ Senior Night. Jake Limani, Charlie Mohler, Brady Kring (captain), Reece DiCasolo, Colin Lentz, and Roman Agostoni (captain) were all honored before the kickoff.
Previously, Greater Latrobe and Uniontown Area faced off for an early season contest on August 29th, where the Wildcats dominated on the road and found a 9-3 win. They hoped to repeat much of the same from the prior game between these two schools.
The Cats opened up the scoring early, with sophomore Nolan Thomas finding the back of the net to give Latrobe a 1-0 lead just two minutes and ten seconds into the contest.
Three minutes later, sophomore Warren Agostoni drilled a shot from 20 yards out to extend the Cats’ early lead.
Roman Agostoni had a couple of great chances that the Red Raiders keeper was able to ward away. After a turnover forced by junior captain Cam Mikulsky and junior Stone Brunton, junior John Massaro found Roman for a wide open shot that he would not squander.
Warren Agostoni saucered a pass to Massaro that left him all alone with the goalkeeper. Somehow, the Uniontown netminder fought off Massaro’s shot with his left foot to keep the score 3-0 in favor of Latrobe.
Immediately after, Kring blasted a shot from 25 yards out that found the keeper’s hands. After a foul committed by Uniontown, Roman Agostoni took a free kick that rang off the goalpost before senior Colin Lentz sent the ball wide and out of play.
With under 10 minutes remaining in the first half, Warren Agostoni was able to spring his brother Roman on a breakaway. Roman easily beat the keeper for his second goal of the game to give the Cats a 4-0 advantage.
Goalkeeper Reece Dicasolo faced his first challenge of the night with just under 7 minutes to go in the half when he had to beat a Red Raider in a footrace to the ball. DiCasolo was able to slide on top of the ball and clear it out of danger, where the Warren to Roman connection struck again for Roman’s third of the night.
In the 35th minute, Roman put on the burners to turn himself loose and slid the ball into the back of the net to tie the all time scoring record at Greater Latrobe with his fourth goal of the game.
Uniontown was desperate to get their offense going, but the tough Greater Latrobe defense kept turning them away without fail. DiCasolo had high praises for the back end of the Wildcats squad, “My defense took care of me all night,” he said.
The Cats would string together a few more low danger chances, and play keep away with the Red Raiders, content with taking their massive lead into halftime. Greater Latrobe was heavily outshooting the opposition to go along with more corner kicks and time of possession. The Cats would go into the break, up by a score of 6-0.
Greater Latrobe would open up the second half with possession off the kickoff. Sophomore Jacob Stephenson would send the ball back to Roman Agostoni, who laid it back for Kring, and the half was underway.
Less than a minute into the second half, Mohler was awarded a throw-in, where the ball eventually found its way to Warren Agostoni. Warren beat his defender along the far side of the field and shot across his body to give Greater Latrobe a 7-0 lead to start the half off with a bang.
With a running clock in effect, the Cats took the opportunity to begin emptying their bench to get some valuable experience for the players less frequently played.
Another minute and a half later, Greater Latrobe was back on the attack. Roman Agostoni found himself spinning out of pressure and passing the ball off to his brother Warren, who would give Roman a return feed that Roman would use to score the record breaking 53rd goal of his high school career. The record previously belonged to his older brother Nolan, who is a senior on the Washington & Jefferson Men’s Soccer team. It was all business for Roman however, collecting the ball he scored the record-breaking goal, throwing it to the bench, and heading right to midfield through a herd of congratulatory teammates to line up for the next kickoff. “It was nice to break my brother’s record,” Agostoni said, “And it was really special to break it with this team.” His fifth goal of the evening would be his last, as he was pulled from the game shortly after.
Six and a half minutes into the second half, Brunton found Warren Agostoni through several Uniontown defenders. Agostoni was denied on his first shot, but kept with it, and floated over the goalkeeper’s head for the hat-trick.
Late in the 50th minute, Massaro found himself working off a Red Raider defender. Massaro found space and launched a shot towards the goal that the keeper knocked down. Amid the scramble in front, Warren Agostoni pulled the ball free and shot it into the yawning cage for his fourth goal of the night, giving Greater Latrobe a 10-0 lead over Uniontown with 29 minutes remaining.
The thumping was yet to relent. Junior Eli Toth had a shot blocked by a Red Raider defender. The bounce found the right foot of Warren Agostoni, who buried his fifth of the night, the same amount his brother scored. The Cats 11-0 lead was the largest they’d had all season.
With just under 15 minutes remaining, Uniontown would finally catch a break. After a Wildcat foul, the Red Raiders cleared a free kick into Latrobe territory, where they would make a push, and beat junior goalkeeper Mitch Horner for their first, and only, goal of the game.
With the clock winding down, the Cats made one final push where freshman Levi Porvaznik would flip one past the keeper as time expired. The Senior Night final score would be Greater Latrobe 12, Uniontown Area 1.
