By Roger Gordon

Correspondent

Field controlled the game from start to finish Oct. 15 in a Division IV sectional final at home against Fairview Park Fairview.

The halftime score of 1-1 was not indicative of that, however.

“We started off a little bit slow, but then 15 to 20 minutes into the game we started to pick up the pace of our play. Fairview had some big kids, but we didn’t back down from that,” head coach Evan Young said. “At halftime we went over some things we needed to do in order to win the game.”

The result?

A 4-1 victory for the Falcons in upping their record to 14-4 mainly due to the Ethan Flores-Soler Show.

The junior midfielder/forward scored all of his team’s goals.

“Ethan came out just firing in the second half,” said Young. “His goals were all quality goals. He was all over the field in both halves. He just doesn’t give up. Every day he comes out and plays his hardest.”

Assisting two of Flores-Soler’s goals was junior forward Nathan Fulks, and assisting oneof his goals was senior midfielder Gavin Phillips.

“Nathan is usually our big goal scorer,” said the coach, “but he realized, ‘Maybe I’m not the one to score all the goals tonight, maybe there’s another player who needs to score other than me.’ He made two really good passes. Gavin works really hard for us.”

Field will play at Beloit West Branchon Thursday at 7 p.m. in a district semifinal.

KENT ROOSEVELT

Head coach Garyn Daniels’ Kent Roosevelt team was fully healthy for the first time in three weeks.

It showed in the Rough Riders’ 7-3 triumph — ignited by a 4-0 halftime lead — Oct. 18 at home over backyard rival Streetsboro in a Division III sectional final, which upped their record to 8-7-3. They will travel to Gates Mills Hawken Oct. 23 at 7 p.m. for a district semifinal.

“We were able to put our best attacking lineup on the field,” Daniels said. “The goal was to press high and create opportunities in front of the goal, which we were able to do. Streetsboro was very organized as they always are, but our guys up front really let their abilities show an take people on one-versus-one and do what they do best.”

Pacing Kent Roosevelt were sophomore striker Callaghan Knapp, junior winger Isan Roberts and senior center midfielder Simon Hassler. Knapp scored two goals and had an assist, Roberts had two goals and Hassler dished out two assists.

“Callaghan has just been absolutely on fire this year,” said Daniels. “He’s recued us in several games where his late goals have pulled out ties. He’s had at least three game-winners. His freshman year, he got a chance to play some varsity, and he went out and played some Club and got better. He’s been one of our — if not the best — player this year up top. He’s a very clinical finisher. I couldn’t be prouder of his work ethic also.

“Isan has been one of our best attackers since his freshman year. He’s one of our do- everything-out-on-the-wing guys. He defends well, he takes people on, he uses both feet, he definitely wants the ball up high. He starts a lot of our attacks on that left-hand side just from winning the ball. He’s a great tackler on the ball. I’m definitely very impressed. He came back a lot stronger his junior year from his sophomore year. He’s hard to be pushed off the ball.

“Simon is our engine. We know Simon is going to be the guy who gets everyone organized, is going to be the guy who finds the ball. He’s been that way for the last three years for us. He is just somebody who has an abundance of energy, and he’s someone I know all the guys look to, especially when they need someone to pick them up. He’s our heart and soul in the middle of the field.”

ROOTSTOWN

A glitch in the system had third-seeded Rootstown hosting fourth-seeded Columbia

Station Columbia on Oct. 18 in a Division V sectional final.

The Rovers were able to withstand their tough first-round opponent in a 3-2 win in which they led 2-0 at the half, but found themselves knotted up late in the game. That’s when junior forward Zach Pastor scored the winning goal – his third of the game for a hat trick – with just more than three minutes left to improve the home team’s record to 12-4-1.

“Zach played a real intense game,” head coach Charlie Voth said. “He found a hole working on the left side working one-on-one on the fullback and halfback and found a pathway and took three low, hard shots to the far post and nailed them.”

According to Voth, the game was fierce from start to finish.

“It was a real tough game, it was fast and hard fought,” he said. “We played really well. The defense played well, and our offense was just clicking. Columbia had some good boys at center mid. Most of the game was played around the midfield because the defenders on both sides did well.”

Junior Bryson Scarlett assisted on one of Pastor’s goals, while classmate Noah Zager was outstanding at goalkeeper with four saves, three of them off very good shots..

“Noah kept us in the game,” said the coach.

Rootstown will host Orwell Grand Valley on Thursday at 7 p.m. in a district semifinal.

WATERLOO

When Waterloo head coach Brian Spence was studying tape of Kirtland the week before the two teams’ Division V sectional final Oct. 16, he was thinking positively.

“I was like, ‘Wow, we maybe could play with this team. I thought we had the speed to do it,’ ” he said.

Turns out that, by accident, Spence had been studying tape of the Hornets’ junior varsity team.

“We got into the game,” he said, “and lo and behold … we realized the mistake. It was fine, though, because we kind of got a good idea of how Kirtland played, and it worked the way we kind of thought it would.”

The visiting Vikings were still administered an 8-0 beating, finishing with a final record of 5-12-1.

“The first 10 minutes of the game we were fine, 0-0,” said Spence. “We were making good runs on Kirtland, we were breaking through, we were transitioning well, we were running with them. I felt like, ‘Okay, we can do something here’.”

When Kirtland scored on a remarkable corner kick that snuck into the net — by the near post no less — that got the Hornets going, resulting in a 6-0 halftime deficit for Waterloo.

“That was a wicked shot,” the coach said. “All year, we’d been such an emotional team; we’re up, we’re down. That corner kick put us on the downward spiral.”

Spence believes his team was much more talented that its record indicates.

“We had six one-goal differential games, and we lost five of them. Between 5-12 and 12-5, it’s really not that big a difference,” he said. “It was the little things, and we kind of just fell off on those little things. Overall, we’re a pretty young team. We’ll have basically everybody back next year. We also have seven eighth graders coming in.”

SOUTHEAST

Head coach Curtis Ahrens was well aware that his Southeast team was a heavy underdog heading into its Division IV sectional final Oct. 20 at Canton South.

Thus the Pirates’ 6-0 defeat at the hands of the Wildcats was not exactly a shocker. The visitors wound up with a 3-12-2 final record.

“We knew what we were up against,” Ahrens said. “Canton South had two extremely talented players up top; we knew they were going to get their goals, and they did. They’re a league above.

“We were happy to be in the sectional finals and have an opportunity to play for districts. We had a gameplan. Our boys did everything we asked them to do. They did a great job with what we had. We knew coming in this year we were a little short-staffed with numbers and experience, but these guys got a lot of experience and a lot of game situational stuff. Most of our players are coming back next year, too. If we can come in in August the way we finished this game, we’ll be sitting in a good position. If the kids put in a little bit of work in the off-season, next October should be looking really good for us. We’re really excited about next season.”