It seemed the Wildcats had a chance with just 5 minutes, 30 seconds to play when a Mifflinburg player got the ball near the goal line and shot a slow-roller toward the far left post.

It may have only lasted a few seconds, but with Williamsport’s Sam Radulski next to the near post and the far post wide open with no defender near, the ball seemed to take forever to roll to its destination. Williamsport fans in attendance breathed a sigh of relief when they saw the ball go just wide by a foot or two out of bounds, negating a chance at an equalizer.

It was the only true threat Mifflinburg had as Williamsport defeated the Wildcats in their season opener at Balls Mills, 1-0.

Defensively, Williamsport didn’t yield much to Mifflinburg. The Wildcats recorded just three total shots, only one of which was on goal. And that shot on goal came in the first half.

“We want to keep the ball because an opponent can’t hurt us if they don’t have the ball. I still think we got a little away from that. We’re looking for things, but again, I go back to it, it felt like we were forcing it in both halves,” Williamsport coach Lee Kaar said. “It felt like we were forcing it in beginning of first half and end of game here rather than just composure, see what they’re giving us and attack that way.”

Williamsport’s best chances to score came in the first half. With 16:30 to play until halftime, Owen Kaar had a direct kick from 20 yards out and sent it high toward the right post, but Mifflinburg goalie Kanon Keister came up with a great finger-tip save to block it and keep it scoreless. But just six minutes later, the Millionaires finally struck and broke the tie.

Kaar sent in a great pass to his left to Zach Lake, which Lake was able to perfectly head to his left past Keister for the game’s lone goal to put the Millionaires ahead, 1-0, with 10:15 left until halftime.

“Zach’s a beast. We need a couple more kids willing to just go get the ball and go win it. It was a good cross, good placement by Owen and the finish, go up and get it,” Lee Kaar said. “I don’t want to say it was textbook, but it looked very simple. Before that, you see Zach constantly moving, trying to shake his defender. You see other people moving to try to create some space for him. Good play, that’s definitely the set pieces we worked on, especially this last week.”

Williamsport almost put in a second goal with 15:20 to play in the second half when the Millionaires’ Jett Johnson got the ball from eight yards out and fired a nice high look that just narrowly missed being a goal.

Williamsport fired nine shots on goal throughout the game, but the key was the fact Williamsport constantly possessed and prevented Mifflinburg from mounting counter attacks and shifting the momentum. Rarely did Mifflinburg get a breakaway or throughball past Williamsport’s defense. While Mifflinburg’s three shots came from inside the 18, none were closer than 15 yards out.

But Kaar pointed out a few things Williamsport can improve upon as the season gets rolling.

“I don’t think they gave us a serious run at a defensive scare. The issue was we came down and we ended up, whether it was the last 20 minutes of the first half or last 20 minutes of the game, we were kind of forcing things,” Kaar noted. “They worked so hard in training and doing things with what we wanted to do like getting the ball wide, getting into the half space, moving the defense side to side and then we came out here … Great effort, great intensity, I loved it. Great communication, but we’re not putting some of that hard work from practices, training sessions onto the pitch.

“I was pleased with the fact we had intensity and we were able to keep the pressure and keep the ball in our offensive half of the field the majority of the game to be honest,” Kaar continued.

The Millionaires head to Mifflin County on Saturday.

Williamsport 1, Mifflinburg 0

W-Zach Lake (Owen Kaar), 10:15.

Shots: M 1, W 9. Corners; M 1, W 6. Saves: M 7 (Kanon Keister), W 1 (Sam Radulski).

Records: Williamsport (1-0). Next game: Williamsport at Mifflin County, Saturday.