Central beats Northeast in soccer

Nuri Bokreta remembered Central's tough two-goal loss to Northeast in last year's PIAA District 12 Class AAA championship boys' soccer game.

As a sophomore, he had spent time on the injured list with a stress fracture of the right leg and played just a bit at the end of that title game.

So he had special motivation when the Lancers met the Vikings in the Public League opener for both teams yesterday.

And Bokreta came up big.

He scored both of his team's goals in a 2-1 triumph. And in dramatic fashion, the goals came within two and a half minutes of each other.

His first goal came with 141/2 minutes left to play and broke open a scoreless game. Bokreta found himself alone in the middle of the field, about 25 yards from the goal.

After dribbling in, his shot got past the outstretched arms of Northeast goalie Tim Freiling. His second goal was a rebound of his own shot that bounced off Freiling's hands.

"They lost a lot of people" to graduation, Bokreta said. "But they have their goalie back, and he's probably the best in the Public League. He's tall, so you can't shoot over him. I knew I had to go low on him."

Freiling finished the game with 10 saves. He also drew praise from Lancers coach Fred Brannon, who watched the goalie make several spectacular saves in a nine-minute stretch to open the second half.

The Lancers (2-1) peppered Freiling with nine shots during that stretch.

"My hat's off to him," Brannon said. "He's their equalizer."

Freiling, a senior, plans to play football or baseball in college, although he has not decided where. He is a kicker for the football team and catches for the baseball team.

Andrew Zminchak made things interesting when he scored for the Vikings (0-1) with 4:49 left to play. Central then slowed the pace down and ran out the clock.

Central 0 2 - 2

Northeast 0 1 - 1

Goals: C–Nuri Bokreta 2. N–Andrew Zminchak.

Saves: C–Andrew Weslowski 0. N–Tim Freiling 10.