HIGH SCHOOL SOCCER Pietro's goal lifts Canfield past Irish

Given another chance, Matt Pietro punched in a goal to give the Cardinals a 2-1 win over Ursuline.
By BILL SULLIVAN
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
STRUTHERS -- With just over five minutes remaining in his team's soccer match and the score tied 1-1, Canfield High sophomore Matt Pietro missed a direct kick from about 20 yards out.
Given another chance to win it, Pietro found the back of the net.
With 24 seconds remaining, Pietro beat a defender to his right and sent a shot from about 15 yards out off another Ursuline player for a 2-1 victory.
"The ball was coming at me," Pietro said. "I thought it was going to get ahead of me too quick because the ground was a little moist. I just turned and kicked it and hoped it went in."
Nice try: After the ball was shot, an Ursuline defender dove in a valiant effort but it caromed off his body to give Pietro a team-high 10 goals.
"I thought it was going in but he [the Ursuline defender] just helped it out a little bit," Pietro said.
Ursuline (9-6-1) is seeded third in the Division II tournament which begins next week while Canfield (9-4-3) is the fourth seed.
By ending the regular season with a non-league match against a quality opponent, each team had a chance to prepare for the tournament while resting key players with minor injuries.
Injuries: Last year at the same point of the season, the teams played to a 2-2 tie. In this match, two Ursuline starters and a Cardinal regular sat out with their recent injuries.
However, while the game may have lacked in tournament drama or league play intensity, it saw plenty of chances by each team.
Twice in the first half Ursuline junior Nick Royer broke free for shots stopped by Canfield goalie Mark Kime.
Kime also dove to stop a point blank shot by Ursuline's P.J. Graves late in the first half.
"We were all over, we just couldn't get a break," Ursuline acting coach Harry Leith said. "You have to finish your chances when you've got them.
"You have to put them away. We had unbelievable chances. If you don't put them away that's what happens -- they'll come up and bite you in the end."
Ursuline coach Lou Fusillo missed the game due to the recent death of his father-in-law.
Pakula scores: Canfield outside midfielder Mark Pakula scored his ninth goal of the year with the game about 10 minutes old, and that lead held up until the Irish rallied to tie it early in the second half.
With about 27 minutes to go, Graves stepped into a few Canfield players and scored his 18th goal from 15 yards out. With each team using substitute goal keepers in much of the second half and some players out of position, it would have been easy to play for a stalemate the rest of the way.
It may also have been pointless to show too much in a game that seemed to mean so little.
Not so.
Objective: "We never play not to lose, we always play to win," said Canfield's first-year coach, Phil Simone.