AUBURN — This year’s St. Dominic Academy boys’ soccer team hasn’t quite perfected the fine art of finishing scoring opportunities. Not like some of its championship predecessors, anyway.
That’s OK. When you embrace possession and defense the way the Saints do, one goal is usually enough, as it was in Wednesday’s Western Class C quarterfinal against Mt. Abram.
Barely.
No. 4 St. Dom’s cashed in what was ruled an own goal midway through the first half, then fought off a furious flurry by No. 5 Mt. Abram late in regulation to secure a 1-0 win.
“That’s been our issue all year. I felt like we dominated possession and forced them to make a lot of bad decisions, and that really helped us,” St. Dom’s coach Marty Bressler said. “We just have to shoot more and work on crashing.”
St. Dom’s (13-1-1) will travel to No. 1 Hall-Dale for a semifinal either Friday or Saturday. The Bulldogs have handled the Saints twice, dealing them their lone regular-season loss before repeating it with greater ease in the MVC championship.
Junior striker S.J. Park was the closest man to the ball when it trickled past Mt. Abram goalkeeper Tristen Dyer with 20:38 remaining in the first half.
Mt. Abram (11-4) mustered only one shot on goal against St. Dom’s keeper Ben Sawyer for the first 60 minutes. The Roadrunners owned play as desperation set in, however, peppering Sawyer with eight shots, requiring seven saves.
“They don’t finish well, and technically they didn’t finish tonight. We knocked it in. But they’re relentless and they put pressure on you,” Mt. Abram coach Mark Lopez said. “We had one collision in the back that cost us a goal, and if not for that, we’d still be playing for another 20 minutes maybe.”
Colin McCarthy-Edwards had the Roadrunners’ best look at the equalizer. He broke into the left side of the scoring box uncontested after a play-on call from the official.
His shot bounced off Sawyer’s hands and caromed against the near post before the goalie smothered it.
Chris Daly also had a direct kick sail just wide left of the cage past a diving Sawyer. But many of the Roadrunners’ late chances were long-range shots or glancing headers that couldn’t find a seam past Sawyer.
Mt. Abram posted each of its regular-season wins by three or more goals. The Roadrunners hadn’t been shut out prior to the playoffs. The Saints and their ownership of the ball kept the visitors on their heels.
“We were switching fields, passing quickly,” Park said. “We kind of wore them down. They were exhausted.”
“They play such a controlled style, and we knew they would,” Lopez added. “We ended up chasing the ball. We don’t see that. We saw it two months ago (Sept. 16, a 2-1 loss).”
Cam Stewart’s shot from the perimeter produced the Saints’ game-winner.
Two defenders converged on the ball and collided. With the Saints bearing down, Dyer tried to sweep it wide with his forearm.
The ball rolled across the end line. Chris Roy, the official closest to the play, ruled it an own-goal. Park also said he got a foot on it at the last second.
“Great things happen when you crash. We had three people there, so it could have been any one of the three that put it in,” Bressler said. “It’s always good to go up relatively early.”
Three fruitful possessions late in the half were a sign of things to come for the Roadrunners. Cal Dixon’s header off a free kick was the only serious scoring bid.
Otherwise, defense reigned. Sol Fast, Art Ryan and John Hart were sensational for Mt. Abram. Calvin Stewart, Chase Hainey and Justin Curtis consistently cleaned up the back and middle thirds for St. Dom’s.
“I think even their counterattacks late in the second half, if they had steam they could have done something with it,” Bressler said. “We were very fortunate to control the pace of play and really it take it to them.”
Mt. Abram bids farewell to eight seniors. St. Dom’s said goodbye to 14 after the 2012 season, leading some to assume that another playoff run was out of reach.
“We knew that we were going to win this game. We came out pretty hard,” Park said. “Hall-Dale, we already played them twice and we lost both of them. We’re hungry. No one expects us to win.”
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