By TIM IRVING
Hilton boys soccer coach Mike Ellicott and Brighton coach Adam Hiller are long-time friends and their teams always play tight games.
“We always laugh, it’s 2-1 or 1-nil. They’d conceded a total of five goals all season and we’d also conceded five goals all season.”
That all went out the door 15 minutes into the first half as the Cadets rallied from 4-3 down at half to top the Bruins 6-5 in overtime.
Brighton pressed the Cadets early and just over nine minutes into the game, Will Kelly got loose at the right side of the box and put the Bruins up 1-0.
Two minutes later, Anthony Inglese sent a free kick to the top of the box, Logan Matthews fired the loose ball through a crowd to equalize.
Three and a half minutes later, Alec Smith’s shot was stopped but bounced right to Cody Cavuoto and the senior knocked it in, just the start of a big night.
The score stayed 2-1 Cadets until, with 9:25 to go in the first half. Kelly hit a free kick inside the right post to tie the game again.
1:10 later, Cavuoto knocked in a rebound and the score went back to one-goal, 3-2.
Brighton’s leading scorer, Chase Alexandre, hit a free kick that bounced free to Daniel Barraclough-Tan for the rebound and the tie again.
Minutes later, Alexandre drew a foul and immediately pumped the free kick in and the Bruins led 4-3 at the half.
Ellicott said of Hiller, “We have our kids play similar styles of play and we both agreed, neither team executed the game plan, in any way, shape or form.”
Three minutes in, a long ball was played to Jonathan Resnick, who headed the ball across the front of the goal to Cavuoto and his third goal of the game tied it at 4-4.
“He’s super dynamic. We love what he brings to the table and the last two years since he’s been on varsity he’s been our top goal scorer, “ Ellicott says of Cavuoto. “I think he knows there are times in the game when he needs to pick it up a bit.”
Three minutes later, with Alexandre putting pressure on the Cadets goal, Isaac Wing trailed the play and knocked in the rebound and the score moved to 5-4.
The track meet continued as Cavuoto got in alone on Bruins keeper Cal Oberst, who came out to try and knock the ball off of Cavuoto’s foot but that’s all he got, Cavuoto’s foot. Smith converted the resulting penalty kick and the game was tied.
The skies opened up from there and the rain and wind slowed the scoring, leaving a 5-5 tie heading into overtime.
1:20 into the first extra period, Ian Smith sent Cavuoto in alone for his fourth goal of the game and a 6-5 win for the Cadets (6-0-1).
“We had a really tough game with Penfield on the weekend, tied them 1-1, “ Ellicott said. “The fun thing about the non-divisional games is, there’s points available but you don’t have the traditional rivalry, so it’s not as tense and it does become naturally a bit more open.”
No rest for the Cadets, who travel to Fairport on Friday for a big Class A match-up. Brighton travels to Spencerport on Thursday.
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