Huntingtown not so vs. Friendly

Shutout pushes boys soccer into semifinal round

Friday, Nov. 6, 2009

Twenty-eight shots on goal to be exact and at least 13 hit the upper or lower posts.

The good news was the Hurricanes were able to put a bunch in the net as well with a 7-0 shutout over sixth-seeded Friendly from Prince George's County in the Class 3A South regional quarterfinal on Tuesday.

Huntingtown (10-4-1 overall) will host 10th-seeded Chopticon at 6:30 tonight in a regional semifinal contest. Chopticon knocked off second-seeded Crossland, 2-1, in another 3A quarterfinal on Tuesday.

Senior David Lavoie posted a hat trick and an assist on the night to lead the Hurricanes to a playoff-opening win after receiving a bye in the first round.

"I got to play midfielder this week instead of defense and I wanted to show that I could play that position," Lavoie said. "I just wanted to win. Friendly wasn't the strongest, but they kept fighting and we took advantage of the opportunities we got and turned them into shots. If we keeping passing and playing well like we are capable of doing then we will go far [in the playoffs]."

"We switched David to a different position and it paid off for the team," Huntingtown head coach Chris Morgan said. "We are going to see how that goes the next few matches. We just want to keep the boys ready and focused, playing tighter defense and working the ball around."

After a foul called inside the box senior midfielder Justin Boblitt scored the first goal for Huntingtown in the fourth minute of game, followed by a Lavoie header two minutes later off a corner kick that Matt Ray placed perfectly by the net, giving the Hurricanes an early 2-0 lead.

Ray added Huntingtown's third goal in the 11th minute and Mike Supanick notched the next goal 18 minutes later to up the lead to 4-0 at halftime.

"I think we played the best we could today," said Friendly head coach Anthony Arrington, a 2001 Friendly graduate who played goalkeeper in his high school days. "The effort was good. The guys played hard, we just lost to a better team. Huntingtown passes well, triangles well and did everything you need to do to win a soccer game. Their first touches were excellent, ours were average. When you play a team like Huntingtown, you can't be average. You got to be excellent and we weren't that tonight. Hats off to them in the playoffs."

After a Lavoie penalty kick three minutes into the second half, Gino Iannone scored the Hurricanes sixth goal, thanks in part to a Lavoie assist, in the 60th minute.

Lavoie capped the night off six minutes later to score his third goal of the game.

Friendly goalkeeper Skyler Rutherford finished with 13 saves.

"He is actually is low Division I, Division II prospect and I've coached him since eighth grade," Arrington said. "He's an excellent kid, we have diamonds in the rough like that in our school. He's a little raw around the edges, but we are going to get him there."

ajmason@somdnews.com