St. Joe boys advance to regional finals in soccer

The St. Joseph Academy boys soccer team has become something of a playoff juggernaut, racking up two shutouts in three days and blazing a path through school history.

On Friday, the Flashes blanked Master’s Academy 5-0, bringing the team’s total to eight unanswered goals this week.

The win vaults St. Joseph (13-4-1) into the elite eight level of the playoffs, two levels further than the school has ever reached before.

But coach Josh Braun says he’s not seeing the pressure that usually comes with high expectations.

“I felt like we were more relaxed tonight than the last game,” Braun said. “The guys continued to be persistent. It’s tough for high school kids to focus for long periods of time, and I’m always in their ear talking about staying consistent and focused for the full 80 minutes.”

The first half of the game was a defensive battle that saw very few shots from either team. But the Flashes never lost that focus and came out in the second half with a new strategy and bolstered confidence.

“None of us have had the opportunity to play in an environment like this with a bunch of fans watching,” sophomore midfielder Matt Volk said. “As the second half went on, our nerves calmed down, and the coach talked to us and gave us a new strategy … and I felt that helped us a lot. That’s where most of our goals came from.”

Volk assisted on the first goal of the game, passing the ball to junior forward Kyle Vrban, who sent the ball careening into the goal about 10 minutes into the second half. Volk scored a goal of his own just six minutes later to pad the Flashes’ lead.

Senior midfielder Will Jones scored the first of his three goals on the night with about 15 minutes remaining in the game, and that, Volk said, was the beginning of the end for Master’s Academy.

“Whenever a team gets down, it either does two things: It either pushes them to work harder, or they give up,” he said. “And with a score like 3-0, it’s kind of hard to push through it.”

Jones scored easily on an absent keeper with a little less than eight minutes on the clock.

Then scored the final goal of the night with a little more than three minutes to go off a free kick.

Despite Jones’ banner night, Braun said he was pleased to see three different players score.

“If we’re doing that and moving the ball and making intelligent decisions, it’s going to set up multiple people at different times during the game,” Braun said.

“Even though Will scored three goals, and they were three fantastic goals, it definitely was a team effort.”

Volk led the offensive effort with five shots, one goal and one assist. Blake Benedict and Anthony Safadi contributed with four shots each. Jones took three shots, scoring on each one, and had one assist.

Keeper Rudy Wolfharth recorded two saves from a largely ineffective Master’s Academy squad.

The Flashes advances to play Lafayette. St. Joe will host the regional final at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

“Every step we take is St. Joe history,” Volk said. “It’s a lot of pressure. But I think our team can take it because we’re so close.”