Owen Rowlands waited until the closing seconds to decide the Wyoming Valley Conference Senior boys soccer all-star game on his home field.
Wyoming Seminary’s Rowlands scored with nine seconds remaining Thursday night, lifting the Black over the White, 2-1, at Nesbitt Stadium.
“I was just happy,” said Rowlands, who hopes to play in college. “It was just a perfect way to end your high school career.
“I couldn’t ask for anything else.”
Rowlands shared the field with many players he first started playing with around the Wyoming Valley as 6- and 7-year-olds.
“It’s been a long time playing with a lot of these guys, so it was nice enjoying my last game with them,” Rowlands said.
White led 1-0 before two Wyoming Seminary players scored in the second half.
Thomas Iskra scored with 35:20 remaining in the game, which featured 45-minute halves.
Michael Bufalino from Dallas scored with 2:44 left to give the White its 1-0 halftime lead.
The winning Black team was made up of players from Wilkes-Barre Area, Wyoming Area, Crestwood, Holy Redeemer, Nanticoke and Wyoming Valley West in addition to Wyoming Seminary.
Jefry Campos Paz, Anthony Carino, Evan Corcoran, Musa Conteh, Myles Dewey and Amir Samadian gave Wilkes-Barre Area six players in the game, matching Wyoming Area for the most from one Black team.
Wyoming Area’s players were Daniel Elkin, Hayden Foland, Kendall Heck, Braiden Kostik, Dylan Kostik and Casey Noone.
Tyler Furetti, Connor Herron and Anthony Letteri were the Crestwood players.
Aiden Gilbert joined Iskra and Rowlands as the Wyoming Seminary players.
The rest of the Black roster was Holy Redeemer’s Ayden Langdon and Nathan Stilp, Nanticoke’s Dylin Atherton and Thomas McRoberts and Wyoming Valley West’s Jonathan Cardona and Donnell Green.
The White team featured nine players each from Dallas and District 2 Class 3A champion Tunkhannock, along with players from Lake-Lehman and MMI Prep.
Brandon Banks, Jace Chopyak, Zachary Crahall, Lucas DeRome, Ricky Hoyes, Alan Lisman, Eddie Maier and Steven Straka joined Bufalino as the Dallas representatives.
Nick DeMarco, Mark Holovacs, Connor MacBain, Shane Macko, Aiden Paduck, Tyler Pietrowski, Max Shelhamer, Brady Slacktish and Owen Stretch were the Tunkhannock players.
Lake-Lehman’s Michael Battin, Eric Hanley, Cole Kaiser and Bo Voelker and MMI’s Wagas Aarain and Caden Pease completed the White roster.
“It was for fun,” Rowlands said. “It was kind of sad because it was the last game for a lot of guys, but it was also joyful because it was fun to be out here with everyone.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was created from the reporting and photo of Ben Magnotta.
