GREENFIELD – Riley Intrator was an offensive force on Wednesday for the Smith Academy boys soccer team.
The junior unleashed four second-half goals as the Falcons pulled away with a 7-2 win over Greenfield in a Schmid League contest.
Despite controlling possession for most of the first half, the Falcons went into halftime trailing 1-0.
“If we’re going to control possession for the first half like we did, we need to score,” Smith Academy coach Jason Duncan said. “We can’t come out of that empty handed.”
A 62nd minute goal from Intrator opened up the floodgates for Smith Academy’s offense. Intrator scored three of his four goals and Cody Brock added another tally in just a seven-minutes span to put the Falcons up 6-2 with just over 10 minutes to go.
“Nice to shake off the 2-2 tie and pull it together and do what we wanted to do when we got here,” Duncan said.
After a slow first half, Smith Academy had to make an adjustment in order to put their offense on display.
“We were passing and we just couldn’t penetrate the back line,” Duncan said. “[Greenfield was] playing a really deep back line so the only adjustment we made was just sitting a forward deeper so that when we got the ball up there they didn’t have another layer anymore.”
Theo Popusoi scored on a header in the 34th minute off a corner to put the Green Wave up 1-0 in the first half.
Logan Graves was assisted by Intrator for Smith Academy’s first goal in the 44th minute. Intrator added another goal just two minutes later off an assist from Matthew Scagel.
Popusoi tallied his second goal of the game for Greenfield in the 53rd minute off an assist from Keegan Doty-Smith that tied the game, 2-2.
Matthew Scagel and Ben Hudzik had two assists apiece, while Intrator, Graves and Wyatt Jeffress each had one assist for the Falcons.
Green Wave goalkeeper Daniel Pena-Chadee had nine saves in net. The pressure was on Pena-Chadee throughout the game as Smith Academy had 16 shots on net and eight corner kicks. Ryan Belina had six saves in net for the Falcons. Greenfield had eight shots on net and five corner kicks.
Brock finished the game off with his second goal for Smith Academy to make it 7-2 with just one minute left.
“Cody got two working man’s goals up there which is nice to see because he puts in a lot of work,” Duncan said.
The Falcons have a young team with five freshmen and two eighth-graders on the roster, and a game like this is a step in the right direction.
“We’ve got a lot of young players and the more games they play the more experience they get. Hopefully the stronger they become,” Duncan said. “[This game] threw a little adversity at them and they overcame it. It’s a good learning experience.”
Smith Academy moves on to play Sabis on Friday.