DOVER – Jake Ross already had unmatched speed.
On Saturday, in the final game of his high school soccer career, the senior found an extra gear.
Ross scored the first goal and assisted on the second as Salesianum earned its 12th DIAA Division I Boys Soccer championship in the last 13 years with a 4-1 victory over Charter of Wilmington at Dover High.
“We talked about it before the game, get the early goal and have momentum,” the West Virginia signee said. “Don’t stop. It’s 80 minutes, end of the season. It’s my last 80 minutes of high school soccer.”
Ross and 10 fellow seniors made it a special afternoon for the top-seeded Sals, who finished 16-2.
“We talked about not wasting any minutes,” Sallies coach Scott Mosier said. “There’s 80 minutes left, so we just wanted to go and go and go every minute. As the leader of the team, [Ross] personified that. The other guys follow that, they feed off that.”
ON THE GRIDIRONSt. Georges stunner highlights Friday Delaware high school football playoff roundup
The third-seeded Force (14-3), making their second appearance in the championship game, earned the first scoring opportunity. But Matt Capretto’s low shot skidded inches wide of the far post in the second minute.
Sallies got on the board 10 minutes later, as Ross somehow found space in a scramble in front and booted it home.
Sals goalkeeper Zachary Bittner made a solid save on Capretto’s hard shot in the 14th minute, and the champs quickly turned it into a counterattack.
Ross showed great hustle in diving to keep the ball inbounds in the corner. When it quickly came back to him, the senior’s perfectly timed pass to the front of the goal found the foot of junior Gianluca Marroni for an easy 2-0 lead – still in the 14th minute.
“I missed the first ball, but don’t give up on the play,” Ross said. “I was able to keep it in, and great finish by Gianluca.”
Salesianum pushed its lead to 3-0 in the 60th minute, as senior Brandon Ibarra-Sanchez unleashed a sharply bending corner kick that found the net just inside the post.
“Really I just went on full in, full confidence and took the whole shot,” Ibarra-Sanchez said. “Looked in the near corner, near post and it went straight in. … Pretty happy about that.”
Mosier was pretty happy, too.
“We put a lot of work in on those corner kicks,” the coach said. “We went from being really bad at set pieces to being pretty good. … Especially with the wind blowing, we knew he was going to be able to hook it pretty good.”
Charter countered to avoid the shutout a minute later, with sophomore Davin Lysik scoring off a rebound.
The Force continued to press forward, but the Sals’ back line held and Sallies senior Paris Pappas scored into an open net in the 72nd minute for the final goal.
Contact Brad Myers at bmyers@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter: @BradMyersTNJ
