By PAUL GOTHAM
PENFIELD, N.Y. — Steve Mihalitsas connected on a pair of second-half goals, and No. 2 Pittsford Sutherland erased a halftime deficit to defeat No. 3 Honeoye Falls-Lima in Section V Class A Boys’ Soccer semifinal action, Tuesday night.
Mihalitsas took a service from Sam Fagan inside the 18-yard box and cut back to the middle third of the pitch before letting go with a right-footed strike that found the back of the net.
The goal snapped a one-all tie with 24:29 remaining in the contest. Sutherland had a lead it did not surrender.
56’ Steve Mihalitsas gives Sutherland its first lead of the night. 2-1. pic.twitter.com/I19zepVThE
— Paul Gotham (@PickinSplinters) October 25, 2023
“He stepped in and played some striker for us this year and has done a good job,” said Sutherland head coach Sean Hopkins. “We didn’t play a ton of guys tonight, and he was a guy that came in and really gave us good minutes.”
Less than four minutes later, Charlie Ryan beat an HF-L defender along the right flank and pushed the ball into the 18-yard box for a shot. Mihalitsas gathered the rebound and connected on his eighth goal of the season.
59’ Steve Mihalitsas nets his second goal in three-plus minutes. Sutherland 3-1. pic.twitter.com/NX1C9W7uSM
— Paul Gotham (@PickinSplinters) October 25, 2023
“Scoring two goals is huge for him,” Hopkins said. “We needed that out of him. That’s awesome.”
Lucas Gould converted on a corner kick to give HF-L a lead heading into the first half.
“I jinxed us,” Hopkins said with a smile. “I looked today to see when was the last time we were losing. It was when we played Aquinas. How many weeks ago was that? I just wanted to think in my head, are we going to know what to do if we go down a goal.
“We didn’t change anything until the second half. I did move Sante (Castillo) into a more midfield role out of the back. Once we scored, we went back to normal, and let the kids played. They figured it out.”
HF-L (13-4-1) had won six of seven heading into Tuesday’s semifinal.
“The boys just came out and were really working hard and frustrating Sutherland,” HF-L head coach Mike Merrill said. “In the end, Sutherland is just an exceptional team. Keeping them out of the net proved to be very difficult in the second half. Hats off to them. They just have some really good players out there that put you on your heels and make it tough. I’m very proud of the way our boys played and stuck in there.”
Zach Bennett provided the equalizer for Sutherland in the 46th minute. Zach Woods picked up an assist on the play.
46’ Zach Bennett gets the equalizer for Sutherland. Assist goes to Jack Woods. pic.twitter.com/wtgLwFsvM7
— Paul Gotham (@PickinSplinters) October 25, 2023
It looked like Sutherland would take the lead four minutes later on a penalty kick, but HF-L keeper Sawyer Ferraro denied the opportunity.
“The PK miss, yeah it stinks,” Hopkins said. “We figured out a way without it. We’ve been in that situation before. We’ve talked about it many times. You just got to keep going until the last minute because good things will happen. And they did.”
Sutherland will make its fifth straight appearance in the finals and ninth in the past 11 years. The Knights have won four sectional titles during that stretch under Hopkins.
Sutherland will face top-seeded Aquinas in the championship. The two teams met in mid-September. Aquinas took a 5-2 decision. Sutherland (13-4-1) dropped to 2-4-1 after that setback. The Knights have won 11 straight since then and outscored opponents 40-3 during that stretch.
The Class A championship is scheduled for a 5 PM start time, Friday at Spencerport.
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