By PAUL GOTHAM
ROCHESTER — Turning defense into offense.
Great defense, that is.
Clinging to a one-goal edge midway through the second half, the Sodus boys’ soccer team got its spark from John Molisani when the junior goalkeeper erased a sure goal. A little more than a minute later, the Spartans doubled their advantage on the way to a 2-0 win at Wilson Magnet.
With 19:20 remaining on the clock, Wilson’s Christophe Roberts let fly with a blast from 35 yards away that looked destined to find its way under the crossbar. That is until an airborne Molisani punched the would-be equalizer over the crossbar.
“That was a great save,” Sodus coach Kevin Hauck said. “He lives for stuff like that.”
The stop came at the end of a sequence which saw Wilson mounting offensive buildup.
“John’s a great athlete,” Hauck added. “He’s one of the best competitors I’ve been around. We almost expect stuff like that him once or twice a game.”
Molisani made 14 saves in the game for his third clean sheet of the season. None better than the denial of Roberts.
John Molisani with the spectacular save for Sodus. pic.twitter.com/rTIePdsEYG
— Paul Gotham (@PickinSplinters) September 24, 2018
“We work on it all the time in practice – the tip save,” Molisani explained. “I thank the coaches for helping me work on it.
“I just got to make my play. I just got to do my part, keeping the team in the game.”
Seventy seconds later, Will Lamar found back of the net for his second tally of the match.
“We just had the momentum coming forward in a counter attack,” Lamar said. “We linked a couple good passes.”
The senior captain beat a pair of defenders for his seventh marker of the season.
“It was a through ball in back and my first touch was between both of them. I think I sorta got lucky on that one. I just hit it with my left and I was lucky it slipped through his fingers.”
Moments earlier, Hauck had shifted Lamar to left side of the field in order to neutralize the offensive efforts of a Wilson Magnet forward. Lamar did that and more.
Christophe Roberts weaves his way through the Sodus defense but rings the post. 30 to play. @wildcats_wilson trails Sodus 1-0 pic.twitter.com/3QFj2MMbEC
— Paul Gotham (@PickinSplinters) September 24, 2018
“Number 15 (Ali Osman) was giving us some trouble,” Hauck noted “That’s why I wanted to bring Will over to that side.He can run for days. He makes them react to him defensively as well so they have to come back to match up with him as well.
“He’s our captain, our leader. That’s the kind of stuff we expect from him as well.”
Sodus improved to 4-4-1 on the season. The win was their third straight. Their last loss coming on turf at East Rochester on September 10th. Monday’s 2-0 win on Wilson’s artificial surface made up for that.
“We played on turf once this year and we didn’t do well,” Hauck stated. “This was a good win.”
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