The 26th-seeded Delaware Hayes boys soccer team finished with a flourish, pouring in five second-half goals on the way to a 6-2 win over 40th-seeded Westland in the first round of the Division I district tournament Tuesday night in Delaware.
The Pacers looked to be in for a battle early on as the Cougars played from in front for most of the first half.
After a wild bounce off a shot from one of his teammates fell to his feet, Westland’s Jose Aguirre sent a cross through the box — a cross a Hayes defender got a piece of before it deflected into the back of the net to give Westland a 1-0 edge less than five minutes into the action.
From there, though, it was pretty much all Pacers.
Hayes got back to even when Chaz Sakala collected the ball on the far sideline, dribbled toward the corner and sent a perfectly-placed cross to Isaiah Clark, who was wide open on the edge of the box. Clark did the rest, depositing the ball into the back of the net with a nice finish to knot things 1-1 in the 21st minute.
Things stayed that way until early in the second half, when the Pacers, who were clearly the aggressors down the stretch, scored the first of what turned out to be five second-half goals at the 33:58 mark. After a series of corner kicks, Hayes broke through on the third of the half when Peyton Fowler headed one into the net.
The Cougars answered off the ensuing kickoff — Faysal Ali slipped behind the Hayes back line and beat Pacer keeper Caiden Owens less than a minute later — but the Pacers closed things out with four unanswered goals to seal the deal.
The game-winner proved to be one of the prettiest as Sakala sent a pass out wide to K.C. Howard, who then took a couple hard dribbles back toward the middle of the field before flicking a cross to an open Fowler just in front of the back post. Fowler took care of the rest, drilling the ball past Cougar keeper Sergio Omelas from the doorstep to make it a 3-2 game with 23:56 left.
Sakala scored shortly after that to double the Pacer advantage before Fowler and Joe Mennona scored in garbage time to seal the deal.
Next up, Hayes will travel to eighth-seeded DeSales in Thursday’s second round.
Also: Olentangy Liberty 9, Marion Harding 0; Olentangy Orange 4, Reynoldsburg 0; Big Walnut 2, Hilliard Bradley 0.
FROM MONDAY
Buckeye Valley took control with a trio of first-half goals, then slammed the door with three more in the second to cruise to a 6-0 win over visiting Horizon Science Academy in the first round round of the Division II district tournament Monday night in Delaware.
The Barons opened the scoring summary when John-Paul Seliskar converted a penalty kick in the 11th minute. Kaiden Coup scored off a feed from Timmy Ragiel five minutes later and, after Vander Webb found the back of the net, BV found itself up 3-0 midway through the first half.
Jack Kaiser made it 4-0 off another assist from Ragiel before Kaiser and Wesley Frymyer smoothed out the scoring summary.
Buckeye Valley’s Treyden Williams had three saves while Horizon Science keeper David Mejia finished with five.
With the win, 12th-seeded BV will take on third-seeded Bloom-Carroll Wednesday tonight in Bloom-Carroll. First kick is set for 7 p.m.
