By PAUL GOTHAM
SPENCERPORT, N.Y. — Noah Malta won the argument; Hilton’s Cadets reaped the benefits.
Less than eight minutes into the second half of Tuesday’s Section V Class AA boys’ soccer match, Malta and teammate Tom Callery stood over the ball 25 yards out from the Rush-Henrietta goal trying to decide who would take the free kick.
When the discussion ended, Malta beat the R-H wall to level the match at one. Seven minutes later, Malta connected again and Hilton was on its way to a 2-1 victory and a championship.
“Me and Tom were arguing about who was going to take the free kick,” the senior midfielder said. “I was like ‘Tom back off; I got it.’
“I just tried placing it on target. It turned out perfect.”
The goal was exactly what the top-seeded Cadets (15-2-2/No. 8 NYSSWA) needed.
Trailing at half after R-H converted a penalty kick in the game’s fifth minute, the Cadets looked out of sync.
“We did not respond well,” fourth-year head coach Mike Ellicott said. “We played well, but I didn’t like the way we responded. It was ‘I want to go and get that back for us, now.’ It was too individualistic versus I’m just going to use my friend to help me get up the field.
VIEW MORE CHRIS ROACH PHOTOS HERE.
“It was dumb high energy instead of smart high energy. We’ve taken it to teams this year with smart high energy. It’s been very successful.”
Ellicott pointed to the contributions of Jack and Joey Gombatto during halftime.
“It wasn’t just them, but they were the most vocal of the group,” Ellicott said of the twin brothers. “It was just a laundry list of what we didn’t do, and most importantly what we had to fix because we’ve done it the whole season. It was like one of those kick-yourself-in-the-bottom moments.”
Hilton continued the momentum from there.
48’ Noah Malta levels the match from 25 yards. @HiltonSoccer pic.twitter.com/YQjNGUoN7R
— Paul Gotham (@PickinSplinters) October 31, 2018
“Charles (Barker) played the ball and it went through three people,” said Malta explaining his second marker. “I took kind of an awkward touch, did a little roll and just turned my body and finished it.”
The victory was Hilton’s third over Rush-Henrietta (9-8-2) this season and sixth during the past two years.
“You can’t just look at that record,” Ellicott said of the the sixth-seeded Royal-Comets. “They’ve been in every single game we’ve faced them this year.”
The same two teams met in last year’s semifinal. Hilton came away with a 2-nil victory in that contest. The Cadets needed a man advantage for 42 minutes and an own goal to endure R-H and reach the finals. Like last year, it was a second-half push that made the difference.
“We didn’t have sustained periods of possession in the first half and that’s how we’ve broken teams down,” Ellicott said of Tuesday’s match. “We’ve had teams chase the ball, chase the ball. When they’ve finally tried to get to the ball, they’re puffing and panting. Our second halves have been better halves for us because we’ve worn teams down with the body punches.
“I’ve got to give a lot of credit to the boys. Coach (assistant Brian) Duffy and I had a couple of tactical points, but they came in with the list. They were ready for it. They were fired up. There was a lot of looking each other in the eye.”
After opening sectionals beating Gates-Chili (3-0), R-H knocked off No. 3 seed Faiport (1-0) in the quarterfinals and No. 7 Penfield (2-0) in the semifinals.
“In sectionals, we had seven halves of shutout soccer,” R-H head coach Jake Falci said. “We just needed one more half and that’s the part of it that we can be proud of.”
Tuesday night, though, Falci’s squad lost its center back Peter Breen late in the first half to an injury. The senior did not return.
“That put us in a little bit of a scramble mode to try and figure out how we were going to fill that gap,” Falci said. “I thought we did a nice job of sort of stemming the tide at the end of the first half, but that team is too good.
“You give them a halftime to make some adjustments and that’s what they did. They made some adjustments, put more players forward and sort of flooded the zone. It was just going to be a matter of whether or not we could get our feet under us in that second half, but they put us under too much pressure.”
Cory Meintel converted the PK for Rush-Henrietta.
The championship was the second in four years under Ellicott. The Cadets have been to the finals four of the the last five years.
“I was very proud of them,” Ellicott said. “They were men tonight. There was ownership taken. It was cool to see.”
Hilton will play Clarence (VI) in Saturday’s Far West Regional. A 7:30 PM start time is scheduled at Sweet Home High School.
Leave a Reply