The University Heights Academy Blazers took the first step Monday night towards a tenth straight 2nd Region All A Classic boys soccer championship. The Blazers broke open a close match with three goals over the final nine minutes of the first half on their way to an 8-0 win over Lyon County at Givens Field.
It look a little bit for the UHA offense to hit its stride, but when it did, the Blazers quickly settled the issue.
Freshman Jack Conrad got things started for the Blazers. Conrad put one into the left side of the net from right in front of the goal at the 14:20 mark to give University Heights the early 1-0 lead.
Just over six minutes later, Hugh Sisk drove down the left side of the field and then crossed a shot across the face of the goal into the net to extend the lead to 2-0.
Over the final nine minutes of the half, the Blazers then effectively put this one away. At 31:00, Cal Given scored the header off a pass from Ryan Luckey, making it 3-0. A minute later the Blazers struck again when Jack Cavanah took a pass from Lincoln Hauret and nudged the lead out to 4-0.
The end of the half scoring blitz finished up at the 38:00 mark when Lincoln Hauret found the net to push the Blazer lead out to 5-0.
In addition to the offensive flurry late in the half, the story of the first half was the Blazer defense, which did not allow Lyon County a shot on goal in the first 40 minutes.
UHA got right back to work in the second half as Lincoln Hauret scored his second goal of the night just 40 seconds in to make it 6-0. Hauret then finished his hat trick at 52:40, scoring off a corner to push the lead out to 7-0.
The game ended on a breakaway for the Blazers at 65:30. Caidence Gibson appeared as if he was about to score the game-ending goal, however a Lyon County defender made a play on the ball, but the bad news for the Lyons was that the play on the ball ended up being an own goal to end the match at 8-0.
For the night, UHA outshot the Lyons, unofficially, 23 to 1. Lyon County goalie Will Dunning had seven saves.
University Heights (2-0) now moves on to the All A regional semifinals Tuesday night at Givens Field where they will take on Caldwell County. The winner of that match will take on Fort Campbell Thursday night at Lyon County.
Lyon County (0-4) will travel to Muhlenberg County Friday night.
