VIDEO, PHOTO GALLERY: Sanzone brothers help Wildwood shut out Pennsville

By BRIAN CUNNIFF

WILDWOOD — One Sanzone brother scored a beautiful goal, the other made a critical late save to highlight a victory by the Wildwood High School boys soccer team Thursday afternoon.

Daniele Sanzone’s bending strike midway through the second half gave Wildwood the lead and his brother Alessandro’s save at the left post with two minutes to play kept Pennsville from equalizing as the Warriors posted a 1-0 victory at windy Kaitlin M. Anzelone Memorial Field.

Daniele Sanzone, a sophomore, scored the match’s only goal with just over 20 minutes remaining. After gathering a long corner kick by teammate Kelan Miller in the left side of the penalty area, Daniele touched the ball around a Pennsville defender and blasted a shot toward the far post. Helped by a wind blowing the ball toward the goal, his shot bent around the Pennsville goalkeeper and nicked the inside of the right post before falling into the side panel of the goal.

“I thought it was a great strike,” Wildwood coach Steve Dehorsey said. “I’m happy for him because he’s been at sweeper for the majority of the year before we moved him up. He got a good opportunity and was able to score a phenomenal goal.”

Wildwood did well with the lead to see the game out, but the Warriors did suffer through an anxious moment with two minutes to play. A few seconds after an initial shot struck the post, a second Pennsville chance from six yards was sent in on goal but Alessandro Sanzone, a junior, was alert to make the stop.

Pennsville never threatened again.

The victory served as a bit of revenge for Wildwood, which played a man short for much of the game at Pennsville earlier this season after one of its players was issued a second yellow card in a 3-2 loss in extra time.

“We played with 10 men in the second half and still had opportunities to win that game but we ended up losing in overtime,” DeHorsey said. “So today was kind of a redemption day for us.”

Wildwood, which at times has as many as five freshmen and a couple of sophomores on the field at once, improved to 5-11-1.

“We’ve had a lot of growing pains, a lot of mistakes, but hopefully we’ve learned from them,” DeHorsey said. “Today was our best possession game. Now we have to work on what to do when we get the ball in the final third.”