The Mars boys' soccer team had won three PIAA playoff games by a goal, including two in overtime. But the Planets' luck in close games ran out yesterday afternoon.

Palmyra shut down Mars' offense and recorded a 2-0 victory in the PIAA Class AA championship game at Hersheypark Stadium in Hershey, Pa.

"They did a very solid job on us defensively," Mars coach Chris Knauff said. "Their whole team defended very well."

Mars (21-4-1) had been shut out only twice this season. Hampton did it, 3-0, in the regular season, and by Center, 1-0, in the WPIAL semifinals.

"They limited our scoring opportunities and our possession time," Knauff said. "We're a team that usually likes to build our attack with a bunch of passes and work it up the field. We couldn't do that and it threw us off our game. They just outplayed us."

The game looked like it would be scoreless heading into halftime, but Palmyra (24-4), a District 3 school just 3¹/₂ miles east of Hershey, got a goal from Brett Jankouskas with 27 seconds left in the half. Kyle Schneider got the assist.

"That goal was tough to take, but I don't know if it really affected the momentum," Knauff said. "Our team has been a resilient team. They've been down before. We just didn't play a very good second half. I'm not sure it was that goal that really did us in. We just couldn't get any rhythm the entire game."

Jankouskas struck again, scoring an unassisted goal with 10:58 left to play to make it 2-0.

Palmyra goalkeeper Ryan Zellner had to make only two saves. Joe Haefner made six saves for Mars.