Boys district soccer: Highland cruises to win over St. Vincent-St. Mary

GRANGER TWP. — The ninth-seeded Highland boys soccer team cruised in its postseason opener Wednesday with a 3-0 victory over No. 51 St. Vincent-St. Mary in a Division III, Northeast 1 District quarterfinal. Sophomore Hoyt Pylypiak (goal, assist) and senior captain Max Gargano (2 goals) led a patient attack that focused on ball control over significant aggression against the Fighting Irish. Defensively, the starting back line of captains Alex Hedden and Devon Kolda, along with fellow senior Conner Haney and sophomore Henry Sauer, led the Hornets (12-3-3) to their sixth clean sheet of the season. Jack Petersen, who played the first half before being relieved by Joshua Gaydos, stopped the only shot on goal Highland faced. "The first playoff game we came out here to set a mentality," Pylypiak said. "We want to show them who we are and go far. We're not here to participate, we're here to win." Highland will face No. 13 Canfield (11-2-4) in a district semifinal at North Gateway Tire Stadium next Thursday. The Cardinals defeated Ellet, which was seeded 53rd out of 53 teams, 8-0. Canfield tied Aurora 1-0 and beat St. Vincent-St. Mary 6-0 during the regular season. Despite holding a 13-1 lead in shots on goal and a 10-1 advantage in corner kicks while controlling most of the action against the Fighting Irish (1-17), whose only win came against Woodridge while being outscored 91-5 on the season, the Hornets know they have to be dialed in to make their goal of a long postseason run a reality against stiffer competition. "We still have to work on our mentality," Haney said. "Today we were playing slow possession. We can still work on applying more pressure, moving the ball upfield more quickly and just picking our head up more. "Overall, I thought we played really well tonight." Pylypiak opened the scoring with his third goal of the season just under seven minutes into the game when he went into the middle of the St. Vincent-St. Mary defense and fired a shot from the box past starting goalie Will Morehouse. Morehouse saved seven of the 10 shots he faced before giving way to senior Nathan Rich, who saved all three shots he was challenged with in the second half. Highland seemed content to work with the 1-0 lead for most of the first half until Gargano slid a shot to the lower-left corner with 8:32 left in the first half. The Hornets closed the scoring just over two minutes into the second half when Pylypiak found Gargano for his Medina County-leading 16th goal of the season. "I got a really good ball played to me (on my goal), and when the ball is there, the ball is there," Pylypiak said. "I just have to make the most of the opportunities. Getting those reps and giving our guys opportunities in the middle there to get the ball in the net is how we're going to win." The Fighting Irish's best chance came when the Hornets were called for a foul in the box with eight minutes left in the game, but Toma Haggiac's penalty kick sailed high and wide right. "Communication is our key, for sure," Haney said. "If we don't communicate, there's going to be people running on our back line. As long as we keep our communication up, we're solid." Contact John Urchek at jurchek@medina-gazette.com. Highland 3, St. Vincent-St. Mary 0 Division III, Northeast 1 District Quarterfinal ST. VINCENT-ST. MARY 0 0 — 0 HIGHLAND 2 1 — 3 First H — Hoyt Pylypiak, 33:03. H — Max Gargano, 8:32. Second H — Gargano (Pylypiak), 37:41. Shots on goal — St. Vincent-St. Mary 1, Highland 13. Corner kicks — St. Vincent-St. Mary 1, Highland 10. Saves — Will Morehouse (S) 7, Nathan Rich (S) 3, Jack Petersen (H) 1, Joshua Gaydos (H) 0. Records — St. Vincent-St. Mary (1-17), Highland (12-3-3).