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RFH 2010

HCS Mauls Old Forge 5-1

Fri, Oct 29, 2010

The HCS boys soccer team used finesse and ball control to blow past a strictly physical Old Forge team 5-1 tonight. Next up is McGraw mostly likely Tuesday or Wednesday at a neutral site.

HCS Mauls Old Forge 5-1

The HCS boys soccer team scored early and often in its 5-1 drubbing of Old Forge tonight under the lights of Hamilton's stadium field in the second round of the Section III Class D playoffs.

Hamilton will face third-seeded McGraw early next week on a day and at a neutral site to be announced most likely on Sunday. McGraw beat Otselic Valley (6) 2-0 to advance.

A cold rain fell as the game started but it seemed to evaporate just 50 seconds into the game as Sam Owens drove home a quick, strong goal. He was assisted by Drew Thompson and Sam Riley.

However, Old Forge scored at 33:54 to make it 1-1 and suggest a wide-open shoot-out might be on tap.

While, a number of shots found the back of the net after that, they all came off the feet of Emerald Knights. Here's what followed:

+ at 29:25 in the first half, Devon Askew faked his way past an Old Forge defender to make it 2-1;

* at 24:06 in the first half, Sam Riley and Drew Thompson collaborated to make it 3-1. Thompson carried the ball most of the way down field and set it up for Riley to muscle it past the Old Forge goalie;

+ at 15:19 in the half, senior Dan Kraynak (in photo) used power and speed to score what may have been one of the most impressive goals scored by an Emerald Knight this season. Kraynak picked up the ball at about midfield, streaked up the outside, cut between two defenders, faked by one and left-footed it past a sprawling OF goalie.

+ and at 12:52 in the first half, with what seemed to be the entire HC squad crashing the net, Riley found the ball and ended the scoring and Old Forge's chances of extending its season.

"We did exactly what we wanted to do," said HCS Coach Brian Latella. "We started fast, scored quickly and set the tone early. We had one mistake on defense but we came back and scored four unanswered goals."

Latella praised the play of Thompson, saying he controlled the play both on offense and defense for the Knights in the first half. He also praised Askew for Hamilton's second goal, which put HCS back in the lead.

It was shortly after the start of the second half that things began to unravel Friday night. A frustrated Old Forge team went from being physical to being unnecessarily so, but officials said "play on". Then, after it was too late, officials started fishing yellow cards out of their pockets, and the game ended more with a whimper than a bang.

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