Staff report
Salisbury’s soccer team won 3-1 in overtime at rejuvenated Lexington on Wednesday.
Lexington was coming off a 1-0 upset of West Davidson and gave the Hornets all they could handle in regulation, but Salisbury (17-1-1, 6-1 CCC) persevered to win its seventh in a row.
“Lexington has added five players, they have absolutely great team speed, and they’re going to be a handful for anybody,” SHS coach Tom Sexton said. “It was physical, but we handled the pressure and played with composure.”
Salisbury’s first goal came off a diagonal pass from David Simons to Michael Mazur. Mazur slid it past the keeper 13 minutes into the match.
Lexington answered 22 seconds, stunning the Hornets off the kickoff.
The Hornets played shutdown defense the rest of regulation, with B.J. Woods, Hanson Saryee, Wes McNeely and Spencer Dixon playing key roles, and Connor Miller making one dramatic save.
Jordy Sanchez, Kenny Bonilla and Paul Kollie controlled the action throughout the the second half, but Salisbury couldn’t find the back of the net.
The key strategic move in OT was Bonilla joining Mazur on the attack. Bonilla scored the game-decider with a header off a cross from Mazur. Then the Hornets put the game away when Mazur pushed a pass to the right post to Bonilla, who sent a shot past the keeper.
“Offensively, we forgot some of our rules, did some uncharacteristic things, struggled to find just the right combination,” Sexton said. “We had to make changes. Then in the overtime we scored two goals just the way we drew them up.”