St. Francis de Sales will bid for its second straight Division I boys district soccer title on Saturday, when the No. 4-seeded Knights take on Northview in a 2 p.m. title match at Springfield Community Stadium.
Those two teams advanced to the D-I final with wins in Tuesday night's semifinals at Springfield.
St. Francis (11-6-1) took its third tournament win via shutout, blanking host Springfield, 2-0, in the first semifinal, and Northview's Wildcats (11-5-2) got through with a 4-1 victory over St. John's Jesuit in Tuesday's second semifinal.
“We run a possession-based game,” Knights coach Mike Kern said. “Hat's off to Springfield. They've got some good athletes. I told the boys the entire week that this wouldn't be an easy game.
“I feel like we did a good job of building up, and we controlled the middle. But we need to work better at finishing. If we want to get a [positive] result on Saturday, it's got to be better than this.”
St. Francis scored its first goal when Knights senior forward Jack Karban won a race to the ball with Springfield freshman goalkeeper Logan Goodrick.
Karban got a shot off from 18 yards out with Goodrick getting just a piece of the ball, which trickled across the goal line 16:42 left in the first half.
Karban, down on the field as the ball rolled in, was about the last to realize what had happened.
“I honestly didn't think it was in,” Karban said. “I went down and at first I saw it rolling. I felt my body start to cramp up, and I thought it got saved. Caleb [teammate Trent] came over to me and said, 'Get up. We've got to celebrate.' I didn't see it go in. When he told me that, I was ecstatic.”
With 2:07 left in the half, Springfield (11-6-1) had its best scoring chance when senior forward Zaier Dar broke in alone toward the Knights goal. But St. Francis sophomore keeper Ben Baker dashed out to meet Dar before a shot could be taken, preventing the potential tying goal.
Springfield (11-6-1) managed to stay within that one-goal deficit over the next 50-plus minutes until Knights senior forward Caleb Trent notched an insurance goal from 25 yards out with 6:05 remaining.
“Our game plan was to stay compact and try to deny them space and opportunity on the ball,” Springfield coach Adam Sloan said of facing the favored Knights. “We've understood all year that our counter attack is some that might be able to keep teams off balance.
“So, it was just executing the plan, and understanding it was going to be 80 minutes. As long as we could hang around, and frustrate St. Francis, we could make them win the game instead of giving them the game. I think we accomplished that.”
In the second semifinal between No. 5 seed Northview and No. 6 seed St. John's (9-6-3), the Wildcats prevailed after the two teams tied 1-1 in regular-season play back on Sept. 8.
“The team played well tonight,” Northview coach Tony LoFiego said. “We knew they were coming with some long balls. We had to defend well and play tough, and stick to our strategy — keep possession when we had it — and finish our opportunities. The guys came through tonight.”
Northview struck first on a free kick. From 50 yards out, Wildcats defender Kevin Tetreau sent a high-arcing kick that was perfectly placed over the cluster of bodies in front of the goal and just above the reach on Titans goalkeeper Ziad Moya with 16:25 left in the first half.
The Titans were then stunned just nine seconds into the second half, when Wildcats forward Josh Tussing fired a shot past St. John's backup keeper Benjamin Zetocha for a 2-0 advantage.
“What a way to start the half,” LoFiego said. “We tried to keep the guys motivated at halftime and get them out ready to go. Right from the kick, Josh Tussing had a great goal. That's the way you want to start the half. It put us in the right momentum to win the game.”
The 2-0 deficit seemed to deflate the Titans.
“There was quite a scrum in there and the ball goes in the back of the net, and that took the wind out of our sails,” St. John's coach Greg McElroy said of the first Northview goal. “It was a 'Here we go again' kind of an attitude.
“Then, obviously to give up a goal in the second half nine seconds in, was absolutely a kick in the gut to really almost put the game out of reach at that point. We were scrambling after that.”
The Titans finally broke through on a rush when Jack Pelton scored from close range with 10:23 remaining to get St. John's within range to tie the game.
But Northview forward Brendan Wishart restored the Wildcats' two-goal lead by converting on a break with 5:10 remaining
“We were just in a tough spot and someone had to finish it off,” Wishart said of his team-high 19th goal of the season. “I wouldn't say we were better, we just were able to finish our chances when we got them, and we stood strong until the end. It feels great.”
Shamus O'Neill added the final goal for Northview with 11 seconds left.
“As we tend to do in these postseason games, we generate opportunities and we don't finish them,” McElroy said. “In the first half, we had some really good quality chances to finish, and unfortunately we didn't.”
First Published October 26, 2022, 2:01 a.m.
