SOUTH CHINA — Sam Wilkinson collected himself and his thoughts as he stood in front of John Bapst keeper Bach Nguyen just a handful of minutes into an Eastern B prelim game Saturday afternoon.
The Erskine sophomore knew exactly where he wanted to put the ball.
“I always have a plan when I take one,” he said. “Right on the left post.”
Wilkinson didn’t miss as he ripped a shot past Nguyen just 3 minutes, 55 seconds into the game for the first of his two goals. The goal was all No. 4 Erskine ultimately needed on sunny Saturday, but it added a few more in a 3-0 victory to reach the regional quarterfinals.
Trevor Hubbard also scored for the Eagles.
Erskine (12-1-2) will host No. 12 Medomak (7-7-1) on Tuesday.
No. 13 John Bapst finished 3-12-0.
“John Bapst hung around,” Erskine coach Phil Hubbard said. “They hung in there. Hat’s off to them but it’s tough to recover sometimes from an early (deficit).”
Indeed, Erskine put John Bapst away with two strikes in the opening seven minutes of the contest.
Wilkinson got things going when he took a pass and charged toward the John Bapst net, only to get tripped up. He calmly converted the penalty kick to give the Eagles a lead it would never relinquish.
Hubbard made it 2-0 about three minutes later when he took a pass from Ryan Rodrigue and headed the ball past Nguyen.
“It was a great assist,” Hubbard said. “A great pass. Ryan got his head on it and gave it right to me. I was right in front of the net and I just put it in.”
The goal forced the Crusaders to play catch-up the rest of the way.
“It was big,” Hubbard added. “That gave us some momentum that we really needed.”
Added Phil Hubbard: “It was a big goal but we really wanted that third one. We just couldn’t get one past them. We knew the third goal would be key.”
That third goal came with 23:35 left in the second half, when Wilkinson scored off a deflection from in front of the John Bapst net.
“I got the ball at the wing and I didn’t see the cross so I went over the middle for a shot,” Wilkinson said. “I shot it and it deflected off a defender’s leg. It was a big goal.”
The Crusaders never really threatened the rest of the way as the Eagles played tough at both ends of the field.
Erskine outshot John Bapst 23-6.
“We just stuck to what we do,” Phil Hubbard said. “We kept things wide, got off a lot of shots and played how we wanted to play.”
Bill Stewart — 621-5618
Twitter: @billstewartmtm
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