DIV. II BOYS SOCCER Canfield's wish granted with win over Howland

The Cardinals wanted to play Cardinal Mooney for the district title. They will Thursday.
& lt;a href=mailto:scalzo@vindy.com & gt;By JOE SCALZO & lt;/a & gt;
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
CANFIELD -- The Canfield High boys soccer team doesn't like the easy route. Which is why, when Poland and Cardinal Mooney played Monday night, the Cardinals were rooting for Mooney.
"We don't want an upset," said Cardinals senior Dave Piersante. "We want the hard way."
They got it.
Piersante scored two first-half goals to lead the Cardinals past Metro Athletic Conference champion Howland, 3-0, Monday in a Division II district semifinal.
The win avenged an earlier loss that cost Canfield the league title. Now the Cardinals will look to avenge three straight losses by the defending state champs.
"They want this in the worst way," said Canfield coach Phil Simone.
Series history
Mooney, which beat Poland 3-1, beat Canfield twice last season -- including the district semifinal -- and also beat the Cardinals this season, 2-1. The teams will play at 7 p.m. Thursday at Tri-County Sports in Struthers.
And there's no secret to what the Cardinals need to do.
"We have to shut down Kiki," Simone said, referring to Mooney's standout junior Kiki Willis. "They've got a well-rounded team, but he's the guy."
If they play defense like they did on Monday, they'll have a chance.
Freshman keeper Andrew Turocy made seven saves as the Cardinals out-hustled the talented Tigers, especially in the first half.
"Emotionally, we were ready tonight," Simone said. "We shut down their touch passing game, and getting some early goals definitely helped."
The first goal came early, when senior captain Matt Pietro found a streaking Piersante, who buried the shot past Howland keeper Zack Roscoe with 36:41 remaining in the first half.
Canfield (13-5-0) made it 2-0 when Pietro shot a no-look pass to Piersante on the right side, leaving a wide open shot that he fired into the corner with 15:52 to go.
"I just swung out to the side on both of them and Pietro saw me and flicked it over to me," Piersante said. "I had open shots."
Ending it
Pietro helped the Cardinals put the game away late in the second half on a throw-in to senior Brandon Wolf. Wolf, who has battled back problems all season, jumped up and headed the ball into the net.
"The loss [to Howland] really motivated us because that meant losing the MAC," said Piersante, whose team split the season series with the Tigers. "We were really pumped up because we have 12 seniors and we didn't want this season to end."
Roscoe had six saves for Howland (12-3-3), which won the league for the first time in school history.
"When they have time to look back, I'm sure they'll appreciate what they accomplished," Howland coach George Stevens said of his team. "Tonight they're a little disappointed, but in a few weeks they'll realize how well they played this season."
& lt;a href=mailto:scalzok@vindy.com & gt;scalzo@vindy.com & lt;/a & gt;