Aaron Maynard

CHAMBERSBURG — The bottom line?

It was a victory, and a win in the Mid Penn Commonwealth.

“We found a way to win, so that’s a positive,” Chambersburg boys soccer coach Corey Grove said Saturday morning after his team eked out a 1-0 verdict over Central Dauphin.

“But that might have been the worst game I’ve been a part of in Chambersburg soccer. We were terrible. The only good things were that we scored a goal and the defense held the zero — but even that was frantic.”

The Rams (3-5) held a wide margin of possession in the first half and produced several good scoring chances they couldn’t finish. For the game, CD out-shot the Trojans, 14-9, and had plenty more great chances.

But goalkeeper Garrett Carter made eight saves and the defense did just enough to hold the Rams at bay.

The only goal came with 14:05 left, when a deep ball was sent into the CD end. Aaron Maynard nodded the ball over onrushing keeper Eric Axtman and forward Andrew Quach was in the right spot to get to the ball and redirect it into the empty goal.

Maynard said, “I saw the keeper was coming out, so I was just trying to get it past him to our guy.”

Central Dauphin had at least two other chances before the game ended, but Carter saved one shot and a free kick deep in the Trojan end was cleared out in the final 15 seconds.

Grove said, “We played our best game of the season Thursday (4-0 win vs. State College), and now this. There might have been one time we connected four passes in a row today, and Thursday we had a string of 12 straight. We didn’t play our game.”

After a first half dominated by the Rams, Chambersburg (5-2-1, 4-1 MPC) at least evened out the possession more in the second half, with Emmanuel Hewitt doing some good things down the left wing.

Maynard said, “We had a little more energy in the second half, but this was not our best game. We were sloppy all over the field.”

“As frustrated as I am, I’m sure their coach is frustrated more,” Grove said. “They outplayed us, but missed a lot of chances.”

Chambersburg 1, Central Dauphin 0
Central Dauphin           0     0     —     0
Chambersburg              0     1     —     1
Second Half
Ch — Andrew Quach, asst. Aaron Maynard, 66th minute
Shots — CD 14, Chbg 9. Corner kicks — CD 3, Chbg 2. Saves — CD 4 (Eric Axtman), Chbg 8 (Garrett Carter).