ORWIGSBURG — Cam Greenawalt knew the easiest way to take pressure off a young defense was to give his team plenty of goal support.
The Blue Mountain senior forward delivered with his best game in an Eagles uniform.
Greenawalt scored a career-high four goals, including two from 25 yards out, to give the Eagles a 5-3 victory over Lehighton in Wednesday’s Schuylkill League Division I opener at the Eagles’ Nest.
Greenawalt and junior forward Jon Benner constantly harassed the Indians’ back line — which is just as green as Blue Mountain’s — to force turnovers in the offensive third and prevent Lehighton from cleanly breaking out of its own end.
“I think me and Jon still need to work better together, but coming back from losing basically our whole defense, I thought we had to put more goals on the board,” Greenawalt said. “Our defense is young, but I wouldn’t rather have anyone else back there.”
That being said, Blue Mountain’s defense did pretty well. Kyle Reppy, Jayden Foose, Ryan Brooks and Jake Woleschok primarily made up the Eagles’ back four Wednesday. In front of them, holding midfielder Angus Fortune — a transplanted defender — shut down Lehighton play designer Zach Christoff.
Mitch Yeakley, another new starter in the midfield for Blue Mountain, held off the Indians’ Dan Baka, making Lehighton’s only early strategy to cross with no one in the box.
“They’re a lot further along than I expected,” Blue Mountain coach Rob Burcik said. “We knew we were going to have troubles (on
defense) and they’d be young, but they’re much further along.”
Neither team got more than a few good chances on goal until Greenawalt broke through with his first of the game in the 37th minute. Benner forced a Lehighton turnover near Greenawalt, who slid to knock the ball past Lehighton keeper Tyler Dietz from 15 yards out.
Greenawalt then added to his tally in the 43rd minute after taking a ball from Benner down the left side, shifting the ball to his right foot and curling his shot in off the far post from a sharp angle 25 yards out.
Blue Mountain (2-1, 1-0 D-I) appeared in charge after a dominating spell of possession, but some hard work by Lehighton’s Zeka Elkhyati in the box drew a penalty in the 55th minute. Indians’ sharpshooter Joe Marks, last season’s league-leading scorer, drilled his shot to the bottom left corner to cut the Eagles’ lead to 2-1.
But Benner pulled Blue Mountain away again three minutes later. He took a pass from Yeakley at the top of the 18-yard box with his left foot and switched to his right to beat Dietz.
Then the goals came in bunches. Marks scored again in the 70th minute on a chip shot in the box past Blue Mountain keeper Aaron Albertini to make it 3-2.
Greenawalt’s prettiest goal of the night came in the 72nd after he turned away from a defender 10 yards out of the box and unleashed a screamer that deflected off Dietz’s hands and into the top-right corner of the net.
“I was looking for the pass right away but as soon as I got the ball, I saw there was an open shot,” Greenawalt said. “I’d like to say that it was all skill, but it was partially luck.”
Yeakley set up Greenawalt’s final goal on a short corner from the right side. Yeakley held the ball up on the end line and delivered it through the 6-yard box, where it passed a few legs before falling perfectly to Greenawalt for a 5-2 lead.
Baka headed in Pat Lawler’s corner in the 78th minute for the evening’s final goal.
It was a bit of deja vu for Lehighton (1-1, 0-1). The defending Schuylkill League champions lost both regular-season meetings to Blue Mountain last year before beating the Eagles in the final.
“Like I said in the preseason, we have some work to do on the back end,” Lehighton coach Dave Yob said. “We have some things to work on. We know that. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.
“We’re in the same position as last year,” Yob added. “We’re 1-1 after losing to (Blue Mountain). We’ve just got to sure up some things and show that we can score.”
Game Summary
Lehighton (1-1, 0-1) 0 3 — 3
Blue Mtn. (2-1, 1-0) 1 4 — 5
BM — Greenawalt (unassisted), 37:00
BM — Greenawalt (Benner), 43:00
Leh — Marks (PK), 55:00
BM — Benner (Yeakley), 58:00
Leh — Marks (Kleintop), 70:00
BM — Greenawalt (unassisted), 72:00
BM — Greenawalt (Yeakley), 75:00
Leh — Baka (Lawler), 78:00
Shots on goal: Lehighton 5, Blue Mountain 14. Corner kicks: Lehighton 5, Blue Mountain 3. Saves: Lehighton (Dietz) 9, Blue Mountain (Albertini) 2.
JV: Blue Mountain 5-0