TROY, Ill. • On night when leading scorer Jon Huelsmann was held without a goal, the Waterloo soccer team still had enough firepower to post an impressive victory.
The Bulldogs (22-2-1) got a pair of first-half goals from Eric Wright on the way to a 5-0 victory against Marion Tuesday in the semifinals of the Class 2A Triad Sectional. Waterloo will play in the championship game at 5 p.m. Friday against Chatham Glenwood.
Chatham Glenwood defeated Triad 2-0 in the other sectional semifinal.
Waterloo quickly set the tone, scoring the game's first goal just before the three-minute mark in the first half. Huelsmann, who has 34 goals, made a crossing pass to Wright, who beat Marion keeper Josh Mieldezis from point-blank range.
With 24:33 left in the half, Wright scored on a header off a crossing pass from Daniel Gardner.
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"We got three of our goals off crosses, and we usually don't finish with that high a percentage (of goals), but tonight we did," Wright said. "There was about a 10-minute stretch in the first half where we started to long-bomb, and it wasn't working, but we got back to our passing game and once we do that, we have success."
The Bulldogs made it 3-0 with 7:25 to play when Cole Schaefer scored on a header off another crossing pass from Gardner.
"We knew we had the wind in the first half, so we wanted to get something out of it," Waterloo coach Chad Holden said. "We played very well in both halves. Our defense did a great job and got the shutout, the midfield got the ball out wide and our forwards put it away."
Gardner and Dan Amann added second-half goals to finish off the rout.
"People probably thought Jon Huelsmann had a quiet game and they marked him pretty well, but we've got other weapons," Holden said.
Marion (16-8) had a few more scoring chances in the final 20 minutes, but Waterloo goalie Austin Woodcock was seldom challenged as he earned his 15th shutout.
"They play a really simple game, and that's how I prefer to play," said Marion coach Bart Orso. "We didn't utilize our passing game today. We were a bit panicked in the beginning, and they came out extremely skilled and controlled the ball."
While Waterloo's offense was in high gear from the opening whistle, Triad (16-4-5) never quite got going against Glenwood, which scored a goal in each half.
The Titans (14-5-2) took advantage of a Triad miscue to take a 1-0 lead with 15:57 remaining in the first half. Knights goalie Robert Jones collided with defender Nicholas Mucho, and Connor Carnduff booted the ball into a wide-open net.
Carnduff also got Glenwood's second goal, scoring from 15 yards out with 24:24 to play in the second half.
"Miscommunication cost us the first goal, but we had the wind in the first half and didn't do a lot with it," said Triad coach Mike Villa. "I thought we got outhustled as well as outplayed."
"With the wind, we put a lot of pressure on them in the second half," said Glenwood coach Jay Lipe. "We didn't get a third goal, but the kids played real well. We finished our chances and live to play again on Friday."
Titans did an especially good job of defending Triad's Troy Wiesemeyer, who had 17 goals and nine assists.
"We wanted to make sure we could keep him in front of us, and we were fortunate to not let him get in behind where he would have a chance to score," Lipe said.
