By STEVE BRICKLER
HILTON, N.Y. — Junior midfielder Ryan Mathis scored four goals, and top-seeded Fairport overcame a somewhat sluggish start to defeat No. 5 WOIS/Edison/Franklin/SOTA, 8-0 in the Section V Boys’ Soccer Class AAA semi-finals, Tuesday night at Hilton High School.
Fairport dictated play from the start but was denied on some near misses either wide or over the top of the net. Freshman goalie Bereket Lucien Tremblay turned away some promising Red Raider opportunities as well. Fairport finally broke through in the 13th minute when Jackson DuBose received the ball on the right flank, beat his defender and dribbled towards the near post before slotting the goal on the ground to the far post for a 1-0 Fairport advantage.
Despite continued heavy pressure, including six corner kicks, Fairport was unable to extend its lead until the 31st minute when they earned a free kick on the endline, just outside of the Griffins’ 18-yard box. Mathis converted on his first goal of the night by curling the ball into the upper far corner of the net for a 2-0 margin. With less than a minute remaining in the half, outside back Timothy Donner sent a ball from about 40 yards out on the right flank towards the far post, hoping to find a runner on the back end. The ball instead found the back of the net to give Fairport a 3-0 halftime lead.
“We started a little slower than we had hoped,” said Fairport Coach Bill Teasdale. “We definitely created opportunities early on, we just weren’t finishing.”
In the second half, the Red Raiders scored three goals in the first 10 minutes. Less than three minutes in, Mathis connected on his second goal by taking advantage of an errant Griffin clearance at the top of the box and ripping a shot past Tremblay. Four minutes later, Gian Carlo Maronian hit a screamer from nearly the same spot for a 5-0 Fairport advantage. In the 50th minute, Mathis collected his third goal by one-timing a cross delivered by Zachary Buys from the left flank into the upper right corner.
Mathis completed his 4-goal night by turning on a chipped ball just outside the box and hitting a low, hard skimming shot underneath Tremblay. Christopher Brown completed the scoring for Fairport after making a long 30-yard run off the dribble and slotting the ball in for the final margin.
“The result was what we hoped for, it just came a little slower than we hoped,” said Teasdale postgame.
With a spot in the AAA final set, Fairport had to wait for the result of the McQuaid/Rush Henrietta matchup that followed their game. “Two good teams, both will give us a battle whoever it is. It should be an exciting game.”
Fairport improved its record to 9-4-2 while WOIS/Edison/Franklin SOTA close the season with a 4-14 record.
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