Staff report
Salisbury’s soccer team erupted in the second half and earned a 5-1 win over Carson on Tuesday.
Carson tied the match with 1:10 remaining in the first half, and the Hornets (7-0-1) responded with four unanswered goals.
“It was a very good soccer match to watch,” Salisbury coach Tom Sexton said. “Both teams were going after it very hard and very clean. We knew it was going to be a challenging match.”
Kenny Bonilla fed Paul Kollie for Salisbury’s first-half goal.
In the second half, David Simons started the run by sending a diagonal kick from 60 yards out to B.J. Wood. He scored the go-ahead goal.
“At halftime we laid down a very specific game plan: Attack with severity on our right side ó or their left side ó to get balance,” Sexton said. “We got balls in the right corner and executed.”
Wood found Matt Cervantes for the next goal, and Bonilla got the assist on a tally by Matt Marshall. Wood took a cross from Bonilla and headed it in to close the scoring.”The last 20 minutes, we played at a very high level,” Sexton said.
Sexton said keeper Connor Miller kept the Hornets in the game during the first half. Miller made two fantastic saves, had a critical deflection and came off his line well.
“We stayed away from the trainwrecks,” Sexton said.
Simons had one of the best performances of his Salisbury career, and freshman Luke Hutton received praise for chasing down runs by Carson players.
John Grant, Wes McNeeley and Spencer Dixon were solid in the middle.
Salisbury plays host to West Rowan tonight at 7 p.m. in a rematch of the county tournament final.
On Thursday, the Hornets welcome Central Cabarrus to Ludwig Stadium. The jayvee match is scheduled for 5:30 p.m., with the varsity match to follow.