By PAUL GOTHAM
For three games Evan Pirnie felt a weight upon his shoulders.
After Monday’s performance, consider the load lifted.
Pirnie connected on a pair of goals, and the Hilton Cadets defeated the Greece Arcadia Titans, 3-1 in non-league action.
“It’s good to get back to scoring,” the senior attacker said. “It was two or three games running that I hadn’t played well. I hadn’t gotten a goal.”
Pirnie took a Joshua Ranke cross and tucked it in the short corner for the go-ahead goal in the 52nd minute as Hilton improved to 6-1-0 on the season.
“It’s just what we want,” Hilton head coach Mike Ellicott said of Pirnie’s fourth goal of the season. “It’s about exposing the weak side defender by making a run around the back, and Evan was just in the right place at the right time.”
Ranke made a rush to the end line along the left side before finding Pirnie for the redirect from just outside the six-yard box.
“If you engage that defender and draw him out on the strong side, the weak side guy usually gets caught watching the ball and watching how the play develops in front of him,” Ellicott explained. “Then the forward comes in from behind. At that point you’re in the peripheral view.”
The play started in the middle of the field where Justin Artilotta took possession, weaved through a pair of defenders and sprung Ranke along the flank.
“He made some crucial plays in that buildup,” Ellicott said of Arilotta. “He’s a little guy playing a big man’s role. He’s just so silky and tricky on the ball. He’s the guy you want to find feet. It’s hard to say. If they don’t win the ball off him, they’re going to take him out or they’re going to lunge in, and they’re going to miss it. Something productive is going to come from him having the ball at his feet. We like that.”
Pirnie got Hilton on the scoreboard in the 12th minute when he won a ball in the Arcadia end of the field and went in uncontested on Titan goalkeeper Joe Esposito.
“We’ve been working for the past couple weeks just pressing the opposition’s defense,” Pirnie stated. “We know that when we’re on defense, we don’t like that. The press always works. If we see one bad pass or bad touch, we got to jump on it. It worked out that time.”
Pirnie slotted a shot in the left corner to beat a sprawling Esposito.
“It was really important for him to get that monkey off his back,” Ellicott said of his player. “Big, big night for him to get two goals.”
Arcadia’s Tyler Lewandowski opened the scoring in the fourth minute. The junior attacker running the left side took a lead from teammate Chris Collili , cut back into the 18-yard box and went opposite side netting for a 1-nil Titans lead.
“We were just a little flatfooted and gave them an opportunity right down the middle which is unlike us,” Ellicott noted. “We’re usually pretty good at closing things in the middle.”
The goal was Lewandowski’s fourth of the season.
“He’s a sniper, a great player,” Ellicott said of Lewandowski. “We tend to have a good M.O. on shutting down the other team’s star player. It was just a momentary lapse.”
Noah Malta scored in the 80th minute for the final margin. Arilotta assisted on the play.
Hilton took 11 corner kicks in the contest while Arcadia had zero.
Hilton has outscored opponents 8-2 in the second half this season.
Hilton hosts a 6:30 p.m. kickoff against Webster Schroeder on Wednesday.
Arcadia fell to 3-3-2 with the loss. The Titans host a 4:30 p.m. start on Wednesday against Gates-Chili.
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