By PAUL GOTHAM
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Cullen Bock needed some prodding from his coaches.
The encouragement reaped immediate dividends.
Bock connected on a direct kick from 28 yards, and the Wayne Eagles went on to beat the Aquinas Li’l Irish, 2-1 in non-league action from Wegmans Stadium, Wednesday night.
This wasn’t just any free kick, though. With the ball placed on the outside left third of the pitch, Bock struck it with the outside of his right foot. The shot started off frame before ending its banana-shaped arc in the upper 90 of the inside post.
“I saw the goalie was off his line, and I just shot it and hoped for the best,” he said. “I was actually thinking about putting the ball in the box until I looked over at my coach, (Wayne assistant Jay Marino). He gave me the go ahead to shoot that ball.”
The marker was Bock’s first of two on the night as Wayne went on to win its sixth straight game.
“Sometimes we play that far post,” Wayne head coach Tim Mattle explained. “We looked at him and said ‘you’re hitting that in practice, go for it.’ He hit it. It was just an amazing shot.”
The Eagles opened the game on the offensive with Matt Gentile getting an early shot on goal. Less than a minute later, AQ goalkeeper Kyle Pero stopped a point blank opportunity inside the 18 from Bock. Wayne put together back-to-back corner kick chances. To cap it off Pero made a sliding stop in the match’s seventh minute outside the 18 when Bock got behind the Li’l Irish backline.
Early action Kyle Pero turns away this Cullen Bock attempt. pic.twitter.com/Q04erWzOa3
— Paul Gotham (@PickinSplinters) September 26, 2018
“You get little flurries like that and sometimes you might not get it again in the game,” Mattle said. “You hate not to capitalize on it because you might not get those opportunities again, and you think about it a lot.
It looked like the Li’l Irish would start to gather momentum when Bock connected in the 29th minute. Pero didn’t stand a chance.
29’ Cullen Bock snipes the near post to give @WCSD_Athletics a 1-0 lead. pic.twitter.com/mmEIoottQR
— Paul Gotham (@PickinSplinters) September 26, 2018
Bock doubled the advantage less than five minutes into the second half when he chased down a Devin LaDue through ball for his ninth tally of the season.
“This team is a good team,” Mattle stated. “There are a lot of skilled players at a lot of positions and I knew we wouldn’t take our foot off the gas pedal.”
Robbie Beach deflected a clearing attempt into the back of the net for the lone Aquinas goal with 1:17 remaining.
“Tip my hat to Aquinas,” Mattle commented. “They just kept playing. That’s Aquinas. That’s what they do. They bring it. I congratulate them on a great effort.”
The goal was the first Wayne had allowed since September 12th as the Eagles put together four straight shutouts entering Wednesday’s contest. The Eagles (8-1-1) have outscored opponents 37-6 on the season.
Mattle said his team’s defense is a direct result of its offensive skill.
“We can keep the ball from the middle up to the attacking third for a lot of the game just playing possession,” he said mentioning Gentile a member of the Global Premier Soccer (GPS) squad which played in California this past summer and LaDue. “We just got some people who can possess, pass and move the ball around. The ball is not in our defending third a lot.”
Wayne fell 2-0 to eventual NYS Class A semifinalist, Pittsford Sutherland, in last year’s A2 semifinals. They hold down the fourth seed in Class A behind Churchville-Chili, Greece Arcadia and Greece Athena in the current seedings.
Kyle Pero punches away this opportunity. Ryan Welch’s second chance goes high. HALFTIME: @WCSD_Athletics 1 Aquinas 0 pic.twitter.com/MVzq8RAztz
— Paul Gotham (@PickinSplinters) September 26, 2018
Section V announced last week a change to the upcoming sectionals which will see A1 and A2 combined into one bracket.
“This makes our tournament bracket better. We’re going to get more attention. We’re just going to go and play ball.”
Wayne hosts Newark on Saturday. Aquinas (3-6-0) will play at Skaneateles (III) on Saturday.
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