Buffaloes keep rolling in playoff opener
Callahan scores two of team’s five goals, with three coming in game’s final 11 minutes
Playing the aggressor in the second half, Clemens produced four goals and sealed a 5-0 victory against Johnson in a Class 6A bi-district playoff Thursday at Blossom Athletic Center.
Senior forward Caleb Callahan scored twice with teammates Hayden Sharp, Cristian Govea and Karsten Gunia each adding goals as the Buffaloes improved to 22-0-1.
“The first half, we were kind of testing the waters,” Callahan said. “In the second half, we started to notice that any time we played down the line, they would commit so many players toward the front post that we were able to switch it up so quick and just punish off of that.”
The Buffaloes next face Austin Bowie, which prevailed over Cedar Park Vista Ridge in penalty kicks on Thursday.
Clemens outshot the Jaguars 18-5. The Buffaloes allowed just one shot in the second half.
That stout defense enabled Clemens to step off the aggression in the second half. The Buffaloes quickly flipped the field to produce quality scoring opportunities.
“That was something we were going to implement in our game plan because we knew they were going to sit back a little bit and try to be compact and stop us from playing in through them,” Clemens coach Myles Salas said. “Coming into the game, we wanted to make sure we were a little more direct and expose the space before they were able to get back and defend.”
The game was scoreless through the first 21 minutes before Callahan beat two defenders and calmly slotted a left-footed shot from about 10 yards to the bottom far corner of the net.
That 1-0 stood until the early part of the second half when Sharp picked off a loose clearance and scored at the 38:24 mark.
Over the next 28 minutes, the Buffaloes dictated play but didn’t score.
The aggression eventually paid off with three goals in the final 11 minutes.
Dalin Burris worked the ball along the left side from mid field toward the goal. Govea finished his cross for a score with 10:32 left. Callahan tallied his second goal with 4:32 left. Gunia finished it off by working thorough some tough traffic to finish with 2:52 remaining.
“The way we were pressing hard on the field gave us opportunities in the final third when we won the ball,” Salas said. “The fact we were always constantly putting them under pressure wore them out and gave us opportunities.”
Callahan said the Buffaloes can work off that late scoring spree moving forward.
“It’s very good to get numbers going in the beginning of playoffs to get the ball rolling, get snowballing to get everybody hyped up,” Callahan said. “It will get us prepared for the second match, (which is) a good matchup against Bowie.”