Mooney gains district final with 3-1 victory over Poland

Kiki Willis scored all three goals for the unbeaten Cardinals.
By JOHN BUTERA
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
STRUTHERS -- Behind three goals from All-American Kiki Willis, the Cardinal Mooney High boys soccer team defeated Poland 3-1 Monday in a Division II district semifinal at Tri-County Sports.
"Poland came ready to play and a lot of our players live in Poland, so that's made this rivalry escalate," said Mooney coach Len Krispinsky. "Plus our one sweeper was still out with a red card so we had to move some guys around.
"Things turned out well, though."
The Cardinals (17-0-1) play Canfield at 7 p.m. Thursday at Tri-County Sports for the district championship.
Missed first opportunity
Poland had the game's first chance to score but came up short on a penalty shot at 28:19. Then Mooney's offense started to click, as the game's action began to stay mostly around the Poland goal.
Twice within a minute, Mooney missed shots on goal and only a nice stop of Willis by Poland goalie John Aldan stopped Mooney from grabbing the lead at 22:44.
The shutout was short-lived however as Willis -- on D.J. Myers' sixth assist of the year -- scored at 20:44.
Willis would again come up big at 7:43 when he got Aldan to come way out front on a one-on-one matchup. Christo Frangopoulos found him for his team-leading 25th assist to give the Cardinals a 2-0 halftime lead.
Poland (11-7) did manage a breakaway shot just before the break, but Jeff Seddon thwarted the effort with a diving save.
Willis again broke away at 7:55 with the score that sealed the verdict. Willis has outscored the rest of his team 46-44 this season.
"I really wasn't that comfortable when we got up 2-0," Willis said. "That wasn't enough of a cushion. But we did step it up and continued to play our game."
Bulldogs lone goal
Poland got on the board when Max Pearce scored on an assist by Mike Gett to make it 3-1 at 4:08.
"Overall, it was as good a game as it should have been," said Poland coach Chris LaBatte. "We had plenty of opportunities and we outshot them 5-4 in the first half but it came down to three simple breakaway goals. Kiki put his away and we couldn't find the back of the net with ours."
Mooney, which won last year's Div. II state championship, has gone 34 straight games without a loss (33-0-1).
"As a team, we're starting to peak," said Krispinsky. "I'm hoping it's at the right time. Right now these kids are taking one game at a time. Getting there is half the fun."
Still, a repeat is on the Cardinals' minds.
"Our team's been talking about it ever since the season started," Willis said. "We're very confident right now."