On Saturday, the St. Francis Prep boys soccer team survived a scare, rallying from a two-goal first-half deficit before beating Xavier on penalty kicks in the CHSAA Class A quarterfinals.
But on Thursday , the Terriers didn’t waste any time, scoring three times in the opening 21 minutes in a surprising, 3-0 rout of Regis at Belson Stadium on the campus of St. John’s University.
“I’ve been telling my guys if we come out hard we can do that,” St. Francis Prep coach Franco Purificato said. “We needed to come out hard and set the pace. We’ve been fighting from behind the last couple of games, starting kind of slow. I said it was the first time all year you guys listened to me and did what you were supposed to do.”
St. Francis Prep (10-0-3) advances to Sunday’s championship game to face rival Archbishop Molloy, which defeated Fordham Prep, 1-0, in double overtime.
“Before the game we kept talking about coming out with intensity and coming out hard and the result will show,” Terriers co-captain Frankie Biordi said.
In the biggest game of the year, Biordi played arguably his best game of the season, scoring twice in a one-minute span to stake his team to a 2-0 lead.
“It’s his team and it’s time for him to step up,” Purificato said. “We’re going to the show now and he’s our man. We’re going to put it on his shoulders and hopefully he can carry us through.”
Biordi scored the pivotal first goal from the penalty spot after Regis midfielder Javier Mejia was called for a handball in the box in the 15th minute. It was a goal that set the tone.
“Once we get the first goal it gets easier and easier,” Biordi said. “We just have to keep pushing and keep scoring.”
Biordi added his second goal a minute later and then sophomore Jason Gonzalez struck on a beautiful solo effort in the 21st minute to give the Terriers a 3-0 lead.
“Jason is waking up. He kind of had a sophomore season,” Purificato said. “He didn’t finish well all year and he had a huge game against Xavier. That was probably one of the nicest goals I’ve seen all year, he beat three guys on the ground and the keeper. Beautiful, well done.”
Gonzalez also scored the equalizing goal Saturday against Xavier.
“I saw the ball in the air and I just went and got past the defender, faked the shot and put it in the net,” Gonzalez said. “It gave me a lot of confidence. I feel like I can score whenever I want.”
The two teams met during the regular season with St. Francis Prep edging Regis, 2-1, in a close game. This game surprisingly was over before the end of the first half.
“We picked the worst time of the season to play our worst 30 minutes of the year,” Regis coach Vincent Catapano said. “We came out flat, they came out on fire and it’s a bad combination.”
While St. Francis Prep advances to the Class A championship game for the third time in the last four years, it is the second consecutive year Regis (8-5-3) has lost in the semifinals.
“The bigger disappointment wasn’t losing, but the way we played and the way we lost,” Catapano said. “We got behind early and didn’t give ourselves a chance to win the game. It was more difficult than last year’s game. We just didn’t come to play for the first half.”
