Any soccer fan knows that a 2-0 lead means nothing regarding a match’s outcome, and that was the situation at halftime when Nazareth led Whitehall on Saturday night at Whitehall.

“One of the first things we talked about at halftime was the fact that they have possibly one of the best coaches in this area, and he was gonna try to find a way, and I knew he would come up with a game plan,” said Nazareth head boys soccer coach Gerry Petrozelli.

And Petrozelli was right.

“We thought we could control the midfield, especially on second balls, so our plan was, instead of letting them have the ball, we said let’s get up and pressure them so we can get the ball in their own half and keep them there, keep them on their heels the whole game,” Whitehall head soccer coach Chris Bastidas explained, “and then, fight for that ball, play through the midfield, be able to change the point of attack quickly, and get crosses in.”

Whitehall forward Ziyad Atiyeh took a shot in the 50th minute that rocked the crossbar before his penalty kick put the Zephyrs on the scoreboard, trailing 2-1.

“After their goal, I told the guys we need to calm down, just play our way, and we did, and luckily, we prevailed in the end,” said Nazareth keeper Nolan Booth whose Blue Eagles won, 3-1.

Chances came and went for the Zephyrs for 30 more minutes.

Another shot by Atiyeh was knocked down by Booth as he dove to his left, and shots by Gio Mazzola and Seth Marsteller just missed, along with a header by Elie Khalil.

“Their goalie kept coming up with nice saves when he needed to,” said Coach Bastidas. “The defenders were getting little deflections. We were right there. We were playing really well against a very, very good team.”

And it continued.

A penalty kick by Atiyeh, and two more shots by Mazzola just missed.

“They switched to these long balls over the top, using their size, and what we said was, we have to hold our shape,” said Coach Petrozelli. “We have two center mids get behind the ball, so that every time, we have someone helping there for that initial bounce off their heads for the second goal. Credit to him, his strategy was working in the second half.”

Then, in the 73rd minute, Nazareth’s Sam Netzley launched a shot from 30 yards out that put the match away.

“That goal definitely helped and calmed us down a bit and we ended up in their half more after we got that,” Booth said. “Back line played great today. Apart from their one goal, everyone defensively played great, even the midfielders. Sam Roberts, Liam Allen, they did great tonight. Center backs, fantastic.”

Cole Hilarczyk scored Nazareth’s first two goals, the first on an assist by Salem Joeseph, and the second on an assist by Allen.

Said Atiyeh, “We really needed to win this because we don’t have a big win. I don’t know, but how we played, I’m satisfied with it, and we should be able to go forward from here. I wish I would’ve scored my other goal before [the penalty kick], but it was still good to score that, and it gave us momentum.”

Coach Bastidas was equally pleased with his Zephyrs who took 16 shots on goal.

“We were down 2-0 against a good team, and instead of being like, oh man, we came in at halftime and were like, we can play with this team, score a goal against this team, and get pressure on them,” he said. And our effort was there, our heads stayed up, we put a goal in, and you could feel the energy in the stadium, and it felt like we were going to score again. I was proud of that and how they kept fighting and trusting the formation and the position they were putting themselves in.”

The Blue Eagles, whose season record was 8-0 after winning at Whitehall, had 12 shots on goal.

“We turn the ball over to our guys and then transition as well as anybody in the league, and our quick one, two, three touches were getting the ball dangerous. That’s what I really like,” Coach Petrozelli said. “Now, there’s times when I want them to slow up a little bit because we’ve got the lead, let’s relax, but at the same time, you want them to keep trying to get the goal.”