Published: September 28, 2008 01:28 am      

Clay scores twice as Central tops Berea

RICHMOND — Madison Central’s boys soccer team finally got what it was looking for out of senior Vince Clay.

Clay scored the final two goals Saturday to lead the Indians to a 4-2 victory over district rival Berea Community at Memorial Field.

“We’ve been waiting for this from Vince all season long,” Central coach Jeremiah Duerson said. “Vince is a super athletic kid who has wheels like no other. He found the back of the net tonight. Players show up in good games and that’s what Vince did tonight.”

Neither team had much luck for the beginning of the first half, until Central sophomore Stephen Will-oughby got the ball from junior Gordo Horn and was able to put the ball in the back of the net with 14:49 left. Horn got a goal of his own from 30 feet out, putting the ball into the top right corner of the net 13 seconds later.

“The saying goes in soccer, ‘Goals come in pairs,’” Duerson said. “It can go either way. That’s why we have the five-minute rule. It’s just natural — you score one, you’ll have a good chance to score another, either because they picked it up or they dropped it down because they got scored on. We got two in a matter of 30 seconds, which kept us in the game.”

However, Berea fought its way right back into it, getting a goal by junior forward Max Leetz with 12:47 left in the half off of a throw-in by junior forward Chase Riddle. The Pirates were able to tie it up three minutes before the half, when senior midfielder Silas Montgomery got a penalty kick.

The second half was all Central.

The Indians had a chance at a look at the goal four minutes into the half when Clay had a shot that ricocheted off the left post. However, he finally got past Berea goalkeeper Jay Callahan with 18:33 left off of an assist by Horn. He got his second goal with 4:20 left from the left wing.

“I felt like both times, we came out each half flat,” Berea coach Casey Poynter said. “It was a little odd because we played a lot of long balls and that was not our gameplan. We played too fast-paced of a game. I felt like that would have worked to our advantage if we had practiced for that, but we didn’t and we got ourselves in bad combination play. We had two forwards against four defenders, so those weren’t good odds.”

Horn nearly added another goal just before Clay’s score, but it was blocked by a tremendous effort from Berea junior defenseman Jan Matzerath. Poynter said Matzerath is one of the best defenders for the Pirates.

“Jan’s just a good defender,” he said. “He knows how to cut the angle. He’s played a lot of soccer in Europe, for his whole life. He always knows how to get himself in the right position.”

Berea fell to 10-4-1 on the season and will have a week off before Marion County visits Duerson Field at 7:30 p.m. Saturday. Poynter said he is still looking for that motivator for his team.

“I think we can play a lot better than we played tonight,” he said. “I’ve seen it in games this year. We’ve got to get more motivated. I think districts would probably do that to us. We’ve got to take it a little more seriously.”

Central improved to 6-5-1 on the season and will travel Monday to London to take on North Laurel. Although Duerson said he thought his guys rose to the occasion Saturday, he said his guys still have a lot of soccer left.

“We’ve got a tough stretch coming up,” he said. “We hope we’re peaking at the right time and then putting it all together and hopefully, shock them, win the district and then shock the region. Our guys are capable of that, we just have to believe we can do it.”