Petro Klish (#14) breaks between two Kingston defenders to score the game's first goal. (
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Owen Kelly (#11) drives the ball toward the Tigers' net in the first half.
Connor McSherry (#9) had two goals and an assist in the game.
Mason Yamamoto (#29) scores the last goal of the game from just outside the box.
Tuesday, October 29 at Hudson Sports Complex in Warwick
On a dreary Tuesday afternoon, Oct. 29, the Crusaders took on the Kingston High School Tigers in the semifinal round of the OCIAA Section 9 tournament.
The game was held at The Hudson Sports Complex in Warwick because of construction work being done on the new multi-purpose athletic field at the high school in Central Valley.
The #2 seeded Crusaders entered the game with a 9-3-3 record while the #3 seeded Tigers stood at 6-5-2. The Crusaders beat the Tigers in their first meeting of the year 2-1 in overtime and the two played to a tie when they met two weeks ago.
On Tuesday, the Crusaders jumped on the Tigers from the start. Connor McSherry led Petro Klish with a perfect pass. Klish split between two defenders and scored two minutes into the game to give the Crusaders 1-0 lead.
Six minutes later Owen Kelly’s hard shot rebounded to McSherry who put it in the net for a 2-0 lead.
Half way through the first half Jesse Schwartz threaded a nice pass through the middle to Mason Yamamoto who banged one past the Tiger goalie to make the score 3-0.
Finally, Crusaders goalie Paddy Gillen launched a free kick from the top of the box, Klish leaped up near midfield and headed it forward to McSherry who broke in alone and scored to make the half time lead 4-0.
The Crusaders didn’t let up in the second half.
Klish took the ball, beat his defender down the left side, hit a hard cross to the middle and Eric Shippee homered it into the net for a 5-0 lead.
The Crusaders made it 6-0 when Shippee hit Yamamoto with a quick pass as he weaved his way through the Tiger defense.
The Crusaders' 6-0 victory put them into the Section 9 finals where they were scheduled to face the #1 seeded Newburgh Free Academy Goldbacks on Thursday night in Middletown.
- William Dimmit