A star is born just in time to save top-seeded Fleetwood in Berks boys soccer tourney
By Jason Guarente — MikeDragoSports.com senior correspondent
Oscar Flores stood in the light rain that was still falling and marveled at what his freshman teammate just accomplished. It was a playoff debut for the ages.
“Look at him right now,” Flores said, gesturing toward Davin Millisock. “A star.”
Millisock scored twice in a three-minute span of the second half and rescued his top-seeded team from danger in the Berks boys soccer quarterfinals. Fleetwood edged No. 8 Brandywine Heights 3-2 at Tiger Stadium Saturday night.
Fleetwood (13-5) will host No. 5 Oley Valley in the semifinals Tuesday. Seventh-seeded Exeter will travel to No. 3 Tulpehocken in the other semifinal.
Everything was going fine for Fleetwood until a gut punch late in the first half.
BCIAA boys soccer tournment bracket
Brandywine’s Josh Sterner and Jaeger Smeltz scored 93 seconds apart to give the Bullets a 2-1 lead. The sketchy weather conditions made a comeback seem even harder.
Millisock restored order when he sent home a shot from about 30 yards to pull Fleetwood even 3:55 into the second half. The game-winner shortly followed.
“One of the best teammates I’ve ever played with,” Flores said. “I just see him improving more and more.”
Millisock sat in the bleachers many times and watched great Fleetwood teams from the past. The 5-3, 108-pound wing pictured himself being on that field.
“A little bit,” he said. “But not like this.”
Or maybe not this soon.
Coach Keith Schlegel said he knew from Day 1 that Millisock was going to play a prominent role right away. Freshman strikers are rare at Fleetwood but these were rare circumstances. The Tigers lost almost all of their scoring to graduation. They needed someone to put the ball in the net. Any age or any size.
“He’s been there all season for us,” Schlegel said. “He simplified everything and scored tons of goals in practice. His teammates were cheering him on the first day and every day after that.”
Five minutes after Millisock scored the go-ahead goal, he nearly made it a hat trick. A nice save by Adam Lichtenwalner stood in the way.
Flores had his own moment of magic when he took Owen Shoemaker’s cross and blindly headed it into the far right corner in the first half. It was the game’s first goal and Flores’ sixth of the season.
“I think that was a once-in-a-lifetime thing,” he said. “Just flick it and hope for the best. It went in.”
Brandywine (13-6) was making its first county playoff appearance since 2009 and was a dangerous draw coming out of Berks IV. Smeltz scored his ninth goal and Sterner had his eighth. A diving save by William Maurek in the final 10 minutes kept the Bullets from tying it.
Millisock said he wondered how he’d fit in as a ninth grader joining a program with so much tradition and recent success.
“I wasn’t sure if I’d be treated differently because I’m younger,” he said. “But they accepted me right away. Everyone is like a family here.”
Millisock’s craftiness with the ball and ability to finish were impossible to ignore.
“That’s something we needed,” Flores said. “We lost a lot of players last year. He stepped up. He belonged.”
Then, in Millisock’s first playoff game, a star was born.
