Scoring barrage carries Cardinal Newman soccer into another state title match
Will Eudy couldn’t have drawn up a better first half Thursday night.
Eudy’s Cardinal Newman boys soccer team scored six goals and put together a flawless first 40 minutes in defeating Ben Lippen, 6-0, in the SCISA Class 4A semifinals at St. Sebastian Stadium.
The Cardinals move on to Saturday’s championship match and will host Porter-Gaud at 3:30 p.m. The Cyclones defeated Hammond, 3-0, in the other semifinal match. It will be a rematch of last year’ championship won by Cardinal Newman, which will be going for its eighth straight state championship.
Before Cardinal Newman’s boys match, the girls will face Porter-Gaud for the championship.
“We wanted to play our best 40 minutes today, and we did,” Eudy said. “It is a credit to those guys, and now we got to play our best 40 minutes against Porter-Gaud. … I’m proud of our guys for tonight. We took the challenge well, and we did what we needed to do.”
Cardinal Newman (15-6-1) endured a four-game losing streak, including three during its trip to Tennessee in March, and was shut out in all four matches. Since then, the Cardinals have won 11 of their last 12 and scored more than five goals in six of those matches.
“The way we are built to play, if we aren’t scoring, then it is a tough thing,” Eudy said. “We are trying to take the chances when we can. That is one of our big things to create chances and finish them when we can. Tonight, we were in some very opportune times and took our chances well.”
Senior Jasper Westfall led Cardinal Newman with two goals. Ward Hodges, Tanner Battafarano, Jacob Stanek and Kosi Okoye each had one.
Westfall’s first goal and Battafarano’s tally were within a minute of each other to give the Cardinals a 3-0 lead in the 19th minute and extend their winning streak over SCISA opponents. Cardinal Newman hasn’t lost to a SCISA opponent since 2022.
“We killed them in the first 20 (minutes),” Westfall said. “That was the plan for the whole season. And we are doing it now.”
Now, the Cards will get ready for the second match of the season against Porter-Gaud. Cardinal Newman defeated the Cyclones, 2-1, on March 20.
Ben Lippen ended its season at 14-6.
Porter-Gaud shuts out Hammond
Porter-Gaud scored all of its goals in the second half to deny the Skyhawks a trip to the championship match.
Graham Winterfield, Connor Doherty and Ewan McIntosh each scored for Porter-Gaud, which lost to Hammond, 7-4, on April 24.
MJ McLeod had nine saves for Hammond, which finished at 11-6.
