By JOHN HARRIS

sports@vindy.com

CANFIELD

Salem’s water torture gameplan seemed poised to spring an upset in a Division II boys soccer sectional final until Canfield junior R.J. Thomas exploded for two goals in the second half to ignite the Cardinals’ 3-1 win Saturday night at Bob Dove Field.

Canfield (10-6-1) will now host Poland on Wednesday in the district semifinals in a rematch of last year’s district final won by the Cardinals.

For the first 55 minutes against Salem, a Canfield win seemed dubious as the visitors sat back in a defensive shell and waited out the Cardinals.

The strategy played right into Salem’s hands.

“It was very hard to score,” Thomas said.

Facing a scoreless tie at halftime, Canfield coach Phil Simone explained to his players what they were doing wrong.

“They had a lot of numbers back there. They were trying to bunker a little bit and see if they could get a counter attack on us. It was tough to break down that bunker,” Simone said.

“Every time we would send the ball, there were two or three on every one of our guys.”

Canfield’s first goal was set up when senior Tanor English made an aggressive run and was knocked down by a Salem defender inside the 18-yard line, setting up a penalty kick. Thomas drilled a goal in the upper right corner — the upper 90 — for a 1-0 lead with 25:31 remaining.

Less than a minute later, Salem responded with a penalty kick after one of its players was fouled inside the 18 — senior Connor McKee did the honors — to make it 1-1 at the 24:35 mark.

From there, Canfield took over the game.

Junior co-captain Sam Accordino made a strong defensive push and fed Thomas on the right side. Thomas parlayed his quickness and strength to create space against two defenders and ripped a shot past goalie Bryce Oller for a 2-1 lead with 18:47 to play.

“Coach told us to stop cutting the ball,” said Thomas, who leads Canfield with 13 goals this season. “On the second goal, instead of cutting it, I just shot it.”

English concluded the scoring when he took a pass from junior Justin Montazeri and beat Oller at the 9:43 mark.

“We were patient,” Simone said. “They had to push up and we got a third one.”

Third-year Salem coach John Schuster said his players gave everything until they had nothing left to give.

“They possessed the ball a lot better than we did,” said Schuster, whose team finished 11-5-2. “As the game went on, we were overwhelmed a little bit.

“It wasn’t the outcome that we wanted, but I’m pleased with how my guys played. They played the whole game, whistle to whistle. That’s all I can ask.”