By JOHN LIKANJE
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Sophomore Caden Kress’s first career varsity goal proved to be the game winner as the McQuaid Jesuit Knights defeated the Aquinas Institute L’il Irish 4-1 in the opening round of the Catholic Cup at Wegmans Stadium, Friday.
McQuaid controlled the game for the entire first half as their defense consisting of Jeevan Deol, Ryan Brown, Jacob Leone, and Carter Duncan clamped down on Aquinas. With their defense doing their part, the Knights’ offense went to work on Aquinas’ defense.
Senior Phineas Brauer scored his first goal of the season on a header off a free kick from fifty yards out to put McQuaid up 1-0.
Tim Brown had four shots while Dan Malloy had two shots to put pressure on the L’il Irish defense. Unfortunately for them, Aquinas goalie Kyle Pero was on top of his game during the first half, accumulating three saves while being the vocal leader of the defense.
Early action McQuaid at Aquinas. Dan Malloy’s redirect of a Tim Brown sails just over the bar. pic.twitter.com/rA78M3hwbz
— Paul Gotham (@PickinSplinters) September 14, 2018
Jack Forsythe and Aiden Kopacz were the bright spots for Aquinas on both sides of the ball as they harrassed McQuaid on defense and pushed the ball up the field on offense. Aquinas’s consistent attack finally paid off as four minutes into the second half, sophomore Adam Holt put a rocket right past McQuaid goalie Carter Duncan to tie the game and rack up his first goal of the season.
VIEW MORE SUE KANE PHOTOS HERE.
It seemed as if Aquinas had all of the momentum until Caden Kress sucked the life out of them.
With about twenty-four minutes to go in the game, Kress connected from twenty-five yards out that tipped past Pero’s hands and snuck into the back of the net for a 2-1 McQuaid lead.
Carter Duncan of @McQuaidJesuit robs John Gatti of a sure marker. 18 to go Knights lead Aquinas 2-1. pic.twitter.com/4mskt6GvCJ
— Paul Gotham (@PickinSplinters) September 14, 2018
“It feels great, especially against Aquinas,” Kress said in a postgame interview about scoring his first career varsity goal. “We wait all year for this game and that puts the cherry on top, scoring against Aquinas.”
From there, McQuaid immediately seized momentum and got back their defensive itensity that had carried them in the first half. Aquinas tried their best to get momentum back, but senior John Marangola sunk the final dagger into their hearts as he scored on a corner kick from Isaiah Miller with seventeen minutes left to put McQuaid up 3-1.
44’ Adam Holt intercepts a clearing attempt and drills the back of the net. @McQuaidJesuit 1 Aquinas 1 pic.twitter.com/3yNTlwD6I8
— Paul Gotham (@PickinSplinters) September 14, 2018
For Marangola, it was his first goal of the season. Senior Ryan Ford also scored his first goal of the season for McQuaid. Knights’ coach Nino Pilato was very impressed with his team after the win.
“I told the guys at halftime that they had to do a better job of controlling the midfield and I think after they (Aquinas) scored, we started to win more balls in the middle of the field and controlled it from there.”
McQuaid advanced to the championship game where they will play Canisius Saturday night at 6:00PM.
Leave a Reply