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Schools

Rebels Roll to Opening Day Win

Abundance of offense for Howell in victory over Middletown South.

One Game into their season, The Howell Rebels boys soccer is showing they will be anything but boring this year.

After a back-and-forth twenty-five minutes of play, the Rebels (1-0) turned on the jets, scoring four un-answered goals from four different players to down the rival Middletown South Eagles, 4-0 on the road Thursday afternoon.

Brandon Kolchynski opened the scoring for Howell mid-way through the first half. On what appeared to be a broken play, the junior defender rocketed a loose ball 35 yards, with perfect placement, to the upper right hand corner.

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Howell then added three goals in the second half from Chris Hill, Tom Cafiero and Drew Lyon on their way to a run-away win over their A-North rivals.

“The win is real big,” Howell head coach Rich Yuro said, “Because these aren’t teams that we’re going to be fighting with, so it’s good to get off the mark.”

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Despite the Eagles hanging with Howell for the first part of the game, the Rebels made sure that there was no doubt as to who was the better team, wearing down their opponents throughout the game.

The second goal of the game came when sophomore Kevin Kappock -- younger brother of former Rebel Billy -- kept play alive with a header that landed at the feet of Hill, who had no problem turning around putting the ball in the net.

Lyon, who controlled the midfield all game long, launched his first goal of the season on a free kick later in the second half, knocking it off the post and in.

Junior Nick Anello, who was impressive all day long, set up Cafiero for the Rebel's final goal with a touch pass along the right side of the 18-yard-box. Cafiero did the rest, placing the ball between the near post and keeper.

“We’re all about controlling the pace of the game and making them face us and counter-attack us,” Yuro said, “They didn’t seem like they had a deep bench so once the second half came, they kind of broke down.”

Junior Luke Weber was strong in net for the Rebels, tallying his first clean sheet on opening day.

The defense in front of Weber was impressive, including Kolchynski, Randy Stout and Kevin Campfield.

Paul MacLean had a strong game for Howell, offensively, as he worked well all day long with Hill.

“We shot the ball well today,” Yuro said, “All pre-season long we were struggling to put the balls in the net, so it was nice to see some shots go in today.”

Howell will be back in Middletown Saturday morning, when they take on the North Lions at 10 a.m.

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