Sailors capture sectional title again

Down 1-0 at home in the first half to No. 5-seeded Norwalk, playoff-tested Vermilion never got rattled, scoring six unanswered goals in a 6-1 Division II sectional title victory on Oct. 19.

The No. 1-seeded Sailors (15-1-1) advance to face Ontario or Clear Fork in a Clyde District semifinal at Clyde High School on Oct. 23.

“We’ve been in this situation before,” Vermilion senior forward Zack Kelly said, who has 88 points on the year. “We realize to just relax and play our game. I think that’s what we did. I’m proud of the boys.”

The “been there, done that” confidence should help carry the Sailors a long way into the tournament,

and it’s why panic never kicks in.

Perhaps the biggest play of the night was Vermilion’s first goal, coming two minutes before halftime off the foot of forward Riley Baxter, his 14th of the year, to carry some momentum into the half.

Once the second half began, Vermilion’s talent overwhelmed Norwalk — specifically the duo of Kelly and senior Logan Penton, scoring two goals each. Kelly scored two minutes into the half, where he ripped the ball away from a Norwalk player and coasted to an easy goal past goalkeeper Miguel Vazquez.

After Justin Stask struck a goal in front of the net, Kelly scored again, receiving a corner kick from Penton to take a 4-1 lead in the 55th minute. Penton scored the next two Sailors goals, including a perfectly placed one-timer in the 68th minute.

“Logan is literally the backbone of the team,” Kelly said. “He and CJ Koller are two fantastic players and without them, I wouldn’t have 37 goals. Those guys are everything to this team.”

Vermilion outshot Norwalk, 14-6, and for most of the game, displayed a crisp attacking third, showing patience with the ball and a solid 1-2 touch. Norwalk’s defense was leaky — and Kelly & Co. pounced on every opening.

“When you come flying up through a tackle, you tend to get yourself out of position, but we teach a lot to cover, cover, cover and then step on their mistake,” Vermilion coach Kurt Innes said.

“I thought we did a good job with that tonight and for most of the season.”

“We realized their defense had a lot of gaps and we started to exploit them a lot,” Kelly added. “And our energy picked up because we didn’t want to go home so fast in the tournament.”

Innes, in his third season, said before the season that the Sailors had lofty goals, and a second straight sectional title is one goal they can now check off.

“It’s huge, man,” he said. “I told the guys at the beginning of the year that we have a lot of goals to accomplish.

First goal was to win a conference championship, and second goal a sectional championship. Breaking down accomplishing your goals piece by piece. We knew coming in as the No. 1 seed that we’re going to get everyone’s best shot. These past two years have been program builders.”