Boys soccer: Amherst takes care of business against Elyria

ELYRIA – Amherst took care of business in the first eight minutes of Wednesday's game at Ely Stadium in Southwestern Conference boys action. Kameron Kadow headed in a corner kick off the foot of Matthew Hammond with 36:20 to play in the first half and Benjamin Thompson followed that up with an open shot from the right side of the net to promptly put the Comets in front of Elyria on their way to a 6-1 win. Amherst improves to 6-2-2 overall and 2-1-1 in SWC play. The Pioneers fell to 2-7-2, 0-4. "We all played a pretty good game, not just me," said Hammond, a junior credited with three assists on the night. "It's a team effort. We all did great." "I think our team was very level-headed," said Thompson, a junior. "I really feel we played to our full potential. Usually, sometimes we're a little scatter-brained on how we're supposed to play but this game, we got our act together." Senior Ty Pinto scored from the right side with 10:24 left in the first hald and junior Jaxon Perez got into the act, taking a pass from Pinto 39 seconds later to put Amherst in full control at 4-0. Hammond finished the first half scoring by popping one in right in front of the Elyria goal. Perez got Amherst's lone goal in the second half off a Hammond assist. "I trust my teammates to make the right decision," said Perez. "I put myself in the right positions, like in the box or right post or top of the box just to create a position for me to score." For the majority of the game, Amherst controlled the action and the ball. The Comets had 20 shots to Elyria's 10. "When we're playing well together as a team, it looks pretty good," said coach Brett Thompson. "Elyria's a tough team and the last four years, actually, they've given us a battle. It's always been a close game so I was a little nervous. They have some very talented players and they're very well-coached. "But, when the ball moves like that and we're finding each other and we're sharing the ball and no one's concerned about being the hero – our leading scorer for the year only has four goals. We really share the ball." Amherst's quick start – to go up 2-0 in the first eight minutes – played a key in the mind of Elyria coach Donovan Belizaire. "We didn't start strong," said Belizaire. "That's been, unfortunately, something that we've got to get over. We gave up those goals and then we got into the game a little bit afterwords. Amherst is a really good team. They've got some size up front that definitely made an impact." Anthony Velazquez finally got the Pioneers on the board by following up Avery Nikolov's penalty kick from about 30 yards away. Amherst's senior goalkeeper Casey Giancaterino initially made the stop but the ball bounced away and Velazquez put it in. Elyria missed on a few great scoring chances. Lex Brunner fired a blazing penalty kick but Giancaterino made the catch and hung on to prevent the Pioneers from slicing the early 2-0 lead in half. Noah Ayala had an open look right in front but Giancaterino smothered it with 16 minutes to play in the game and Velazquez had a chance for a second goal with less than two minutes remaining but sailed it high. "Lex hit the first one and hit a rocket but the keeper held on to it," said Belizaire. "The second one came up a little bit short and it spilled out and gave us an opportunity to clean it up. Anthony Velazquez is a heck-of-a player for us. He's got three conference goals for us." Contact Tim Gebhardt at 329-7135 or timothygeb@msn.com. Amherst 6, Elyria 1 Goals: Amherst – Kameron Kadow, Benjamin Thompson, Ty Pinto, Jaxson Perez (2), Matthew Hammond. Elyria – Anthony Velazquez. Assists: Hammond 3, Thompson 2, Pinto. Shots: Amherst 20, Elyria 10. Saves: Casey Giancaterio (A) 7, Owen Halfhill (E) 6. Corner Kicks: Amherst 6, Elyria 3. Penalty/Free Kicks: Amherst 2, Elyria 8. Yellow Cards: None. Halftime: Amherst 5-0.