By PAUL GOTHAM
WEBSTER, N.Y. — Caleb Jones and Cory Jarvis connected for second-half goals as No. 2 Webster Thomas rallied to beat No. 7 Aquinas, 2-1 in Section V Class A Boys’ Soccer action, Tuesday night.
Trailing 1-nil at halftime, Jones leveled the match nine minutes into the second stanza. Cole Hastings assisted on the play.
“Second half was the effort,” Webster Thomas head coach Steve Grose said. “That’s grit. That’s grit out there at its best. I’m so proud of our guys. They showed it all.”
Jarvis followed three minutes later with the eventual game winner.
Grose credited midfielder Boston DeWitte for setting up the goal.
“He steps up on the play and wins the ball. Next thing you know he’s got Cory running free. I knew Cory was going to score. There was no question. That was a layup.”
The win was the sixth straight for Thomas (13-3-1) – a stretch in which Jarvis has accounted for six goals and five assists.
“He got in on one chance, worked really hard and he put it away,” said Aquinas head coach Josh Gleason. “That’s senior leadership right there.”
The rally came after Aquinas pressured Thomas for the first 40 minutes of the game.
“They’re a very good team,” Grose said of Aquinas. “They took it to us the whole first half. I felt fortunate it was 1-nil. It could have been more.”
Grose pointed to the play of Ali Shabani and the Aquinas midfield for the difference in the first half.
“The midfield was giving us trouble. Ali’s a great player and so are a couple of the other guys who are super dangerous. We didn’t man-mark them. It was more of a personal challenge in the positioning stuff. We sat in a couple midfielders in that spot, and that made it more of a battle.
“I knew we could score goals. Our forwards are really good. We had some really opportunistic things that happened and that’s what goes on.”
Shabani set up Nicola Costa to give the Li’l Irish the early advantage.
“In my pregame speech to the boys, we talked about not flinching,” Gleason said. “We talked about this year running toward pressure, not running away from it like we did last season. To Webster Thomas’s credit, they didn’t flinch. We were kinda all over them in the beginning. We scored early. We were taking it to them, and they never flinched. They stuck to their game plan, and they did what worked well for them all season and they found a way to win the game. All credit to Thomas.”
The Titans advanced to play No. 3 Spencerport (13-4-1) in the 2022 Class A semifinals. The Monroe County Division II rivals split a pair of decisions during the regular season with Thomas taking a 1-nil decision on September 7th. Spencerport avenged that loss with a 3-0 victory on September 29th. The Rangers have won six straight heading into Friday’s contest. A 5 p.m. start time is slated at Gates Chili High School. The match is part of a doubleheader with No. 4 Pittsford Sutherland facing No. 8 Greece Athena in the nightcap. Tickets can be purchased here.
Leave a Reply