Demons hit the gas to beat Solon, 3-1

Westlake was trailing, 1-0, at halftime but scored three goals in the last 6:11 of the game to surprise the Comets.

Westlake trailed Solon, 1-0, thanks to a goal just before half, but the Demons shocked the Comets with three goals in the final 6:11 to come away with a 3-1 victory on Sept. 2.

Westlake owned the possession and midfield for much of the first half with a few good shots, but could not get anything past the Comets’ goalie. As frustration appeared to creep into the Demons, Solon got off its first and only goal off a deflection by a Westlake defender that was mailed home by a Comet.

“We had chances in the first half. It’s just hard because we had so many small injuries and we’re trying to get some guys some pieces and they just haven’t played,” Westlake coach Mike Besu said. “We’re moving some guys around. Obviously we made some adjustments at halftime and it makes a lot of difference.”

Rolling into the second half with a new look, the Demons looked for a spark

to get things going on offense. But, Solon’s stingy defense was physical and kept Westlake out of the box to force tough angle shots that couldn’t face up.

The clock kept ticking away and still nothing going for the Demons aside from a few decent looks with shots that just went high above the net.

“The problem we were down, so we had to change the style we play. We were playing more direct because we needed to get the equalizer,” Besu said.

“We knew, even though we were down, that we could score a couple of goals and we were very lucky and got a couple goals and won the game.

“That’s a very good team over there. I was telling the boys, they very easy the past few years when we had some good teams.”

Finally getting the gametying goal off the boot of Donovan DuBois from a header by Michael McDiarmid, the Westlake home crowd erupted in relief.

“We started off slow, but the whole season we never give up. We know we’re in it the whole game,” DuBois said. “We gave up a late one before half, but we kept telling ourselves we’re going to get back in here.”

Less than two minutes later, the Demons were at it again with a goal by Cory Dubois from Ameer Salem and all the momentum Solon had worked to get was now powering Westlake.

Adding the icing to the cake, Donovan added his second goal of the night off a header on a corner by Patrick Smith and sent the home crowd away happy.

Westlake is still looking for the right combination of players for faster starts out of the game.

“It’s still early in the season, we’ve only played five games and with the injuries we still don’t have everybody here,” Besu said. “So we’re piecing the guys together and trying to find the chemistry and the combination and everything and against certain teams we will game-plan for their style.”