BOB ETTINGER
MADISON TOWNSHIP — Comfort can go a long way for an athlete — and usually does.
The Mentor boys soccer team showed a lot of comfort in a tough situation and used it for a 3-2 shootout win over Madison in a Division I district semifinal at Madison on Wednesday.
Mentor will play at Mayfield (who beat Brush, 5-1, on Wednesday) for the district championship on Saturday at 7 p.m.
The Cardinals outshot the Blue Streaks, 4-2, in penalty kicks after the teams battled to a 2-2 tie through 110 minutes — 80 in regulation and 30 in two overtime periods.
“(Penalty kicks) are the lousiest way to end a game,” Madison coach Chris Mullan said. “Those are part of what we do at practice. We were confident.”
Mentor, shooting first, took a 1-0 advantage when Nick Canala hit the back of the net. Goalkeeper Zach Moscons then guessed right and stopped a shot by the Blue Streaks’ Brandon Grubb.
Brandon Lindros then planted his shot in the net just before Moscons again made a save, this time on a shot by Madison’s Merritt Furpahs, and the Cardinals (11-7-1) held a 2-0 advantage in the shootout.
“(Making the first two shots and stopping theirs) usually helps,” Mentor coach Brady Dean said. “It’s huge.
“We do practice them a lot. At this point in the year, (a match) could go to a shootout. At one point in practice we made something like 10 in a row and Zach had stopped three or four in a row.”
“It takes a whole lot of confidence (to make those saves),” Moscons said. We practice every day at it. I had a lot of confidence in our shooters, they have a lot of skill. I’m proud of the team.
“My job is to save the penalty kicks. I pulled it out for us. The shooters did the same.”
“Our first two were really worn down,” Mullan said. “We didn’t have so many subs. Merritt played with cramps (in his legs).
“We didn’t strike (the shots) well and they did. When you don’t set the tone, bad things happen. They were more comfortable over the ball than we were.”
The Cardinals took a 3-0 lead when Nathan Simko’s shot went into the back of the net.
Eric Gavorski made it 3-1 when he tallied and Cody Sanders followed a miss by the Cardinals’ Keith Nedrah by making his shot to draw the Blue Streaks to within one, 3-2.
But Andrew Preis put an end to the match when he made Mentor’s final shot.
“We practice PKs every day,” Preis said. We’ve got a good five shooters. We knew (Moscons) would come through and the shooters would come through.
“There was a lot of pressure on my shoulders, but it wasn’t like we’d lose because of it. Walking up (to the ball), I tried to keep the game out of my mind. If I’d have missed, it would have been horrible. I was confident I could put it away.”
“He was 4-for-4 on those during the regular season,” Dean said. “He missed one last Saturday. We put him back in tonight. He hits it a ton. If the goalkeeper isn’t right on, it’s in.”
Mentor took a 1-0 lead on an unassisted goal with 10:26 to play in the first half. The Blue Streaks knotted the score at 1-1 with 6:12 to go when John Fedor chipped in a rebounded miss.
But the Cardinals answered when Canala scored off an assist from Chris Jordan just 12 seconds into the second half.
“We wanted to play well the first two minutes of each half,” Mullan said. “That was just a good soccer play gone bad (for us). We just weren’t mentally aware of what could happen. The ball found a puddle and that was that.”
The Blue Streaks scored the equalizer when Brandon Grubb’s corner kick found the head of Eric Gavorski who passed it to Fedor’s head. Fedor put the ball in the net to knot the score, 2-2, with 24:53 remaining in the game.
“We got to practice things like that late in the season,” Mullan said. “We practiced driving the ball to places. Earlier in the season, the Brandon-Eric connection was more noticeable. (Brandon and Eric) put it in position for us to score.”
