By PAUL GOTHAM
BRIGHTON, N.Y. — It was the matter of a well-timed long ball.
Will Bowen played a service from the other side of midfield, and Eric Wang found the back of the net as the Pittsford Sutherland Knights outlasted Honeoye Falls-Lima for a 1-nil victory Tuesday night in the Section V Class A2 semifinals.
Wang ran on to the 40-yard lead from Bowen and one-timed his shot for the lone goal of the game.
“We had been possessing the whole first half, swinging it across the back just waiting for an opening,” Bowen said. “The ball came to me. It had a little hop on it, so I looked up and I saw Eric and just hit a volley to him. Thankfully it landed on his foot and he buried it.”
With the win, Sutherland advanced to Friday’s final.
The game was a rematch of the 2017 Class A2 finals. Sutherland also won that battle.
Earlier this month, the Knights outlasted HF-L, 2-0. Tuesday night at Reifsteck Field on the campus of Brighton Central Schools was a different game, though.
“It’s never easy beating HF-L,” Sutherland head coach Sean Hopkins said. “We’ve been battling them for years. They’re a great team. They came at us a whole different way than the first time we played them. First time we played them they kinda sat back and packed it in a little bit. Today it was high pressure on us as soon as we got to about midfield or the 40-yard line. It gave us some trouble because it was different than we expected.”
Adding to Sutherland’s challenges was a sparkling performance from HF-L goalkeeper Brian Reinke. The junior made a series of point-blank stops to keep the Cougars close.
“It was unbelievable,” Hopkins said of the opposing keeper. “He played great.”
Bowen’s pass to Wang proved to be just what the Knights needed. Running in tandem with Sutherland’s leading scorer, Dylan Kladstrup, Wang took advantage of a Cougars’ defense shading toward his teammate.
“We talked about it’s okay to play an early diagonal long ball,” Hopkins explained. “Usually Drew (Kull) is the one who has that on his foot in the back. It just so happened that Will did. He got it in there in the right spot.”
Wang’s goal came with 38:56 remaining in the contest.
“They were playing so hard they kinda got us out of our rhythm,” Hopkins added. “We stuck with them. We kept fighting, found a way to get it done. Survived and advanced.”
Sutherland (No. 9 NYSSWA) will play Wayne (No. 24 NYSSWA) in Friday’s final at Hilton Central Schools.
Leave a Reply