Confident Hornets knock out Gap, advance to finals

FISHERSVILLE — Hanging around with 2007 Group A runner-up Nelson County in a 3-2 regular-season finale loss pushed Wilson Memorial’s confidence level into the stratosphere.
Tuesday’s 9-2 Shenandoah District semifinal win over Buffalo Gap rocketed the Green Hornets’ Region B aspirations to the moon.
Despite the Clarke Countys, George Masons and a possible rematch with the Governors standing in Wilson’s way in next week’s regional tournament, the Green Hornets are sure they can hang.
“We’re really confident, we got really good fundamentals,” said junior Josh Miller. “We got a lot of people that can score.”
Miller is right on that account. Against Gap, the Hornets saw seven different players put in nine goals, including a pair each from Miller and senior Matthew Thomas.
It began early with Philip Congleton’s marker less than two minutes in.
Eight minutes later, Ronald Hall corralled Thomas’ shot off the right pipe and sent it in to give Wilson a 2-1 lead.
Less than three minutes later, Sam Bowman looked more like a basketball forward than a futbol midfielder as he dribbled the ball along the end line and angled a shot past Gap keeper Tommy Dillard to give the Hornets a 3-2 lead.
That would be all the Hornets needed to host the title game Thursday against Stonewall Jackson, a 3-2 winner over Riverheads in Quicksburg on Tuesday.
Wilson added four more goals in the first half to pad its lead — including Quinton Knott heading in his own rebound for the score and a 5-1 lead with 15:50 left to play.
“We had beaten them 8-1 and 7-0, so we anticipated we’d be able to come out quick,” said first-year coach Kyle Congleton. “I teach the boys to play every game, so they did and they came out pretty quick.”
The second half saw things get testy on the pitch, with two yellow cards issued to the Hornets and some pushing and shoving going on. Nothing new for Wilson, which faced the same type of punching bag play against rough-and-tumble Nelson County.
It was also something the Hornets expected in a Shenandoah District tournament match. And then some.
“It was a good physical match,” Kyle Congleton said. “A little more physical than we had anticipated, but give it to Buffalo Gap, they did not give it away.”
Gap could only push in two first-half goals — a Josh Roby dribbler past a lackadaisical Hornet defense and Dexter Wimer’s laser with 5:55 remaining in the half.
The Wilson defense recovered in the second half, shutting down Gap and holding the Bison to only three shots on goal and no markers.
“They started talking really well after [Gap] scored the two goals,” Miller said of the defense. “It’s really hard to beat those four in the back because they play really well together.”
NOTES: The rough play in the second half earned yellow-card bookings for Wilson’s Jacob Slaght (21:12 left in the match) and Evan Underwood (under two minutes to play). … During injury time in the first half, Wilson managed three attacks and held the ball on Gap’s side of the field.