Waubonsie, Metea draw

Waubonsie Valley sophomore Noah Griffith has been in the position of playing super sub before, and it’s a role he relishes.

Taking what he called his “one opportunity,” Griffith scored the Warriors’ lone goal in the 62nd minute.

Unfortunately for Waubonsie, it was unable to keep Metea Valley from answering, finishing in a 1-1 tie in an Upstate Eight Conference Valley matchup Thursday night at Waubonsie.

“I saw the left corner open and I tried to place it there,” said Griffith, who gathered the ball at the top of the box off a corner kick and managed to get it through a sea of defenders. “There was a big scrum in the middle, it flicked off Jack Cordes at the last minute, and we scored.”

It could have been an awkward ending to the conference season for Waubonsie (7-6-3, 2-2-2) had the game ended in a scoreless tie as it appeared headed toward.

“It was a tight game,” Warriors coach Angelo DiBernardo said. “Neither team really created a lot. It was more of a midfield struggle from box to box. We created a few more chances than they did, a couple really good looks, but weren’t able to finish it off.”

Metea (5-6-4, 0-3-2) answered the score with six minutes remaining when midfielder Joel Schmidt got a shot off from 33 yards and it hit the underside of the crossbar and bounced down. Mustangs teammate Nate Donovan ran in and was able to head the ball into the left side of net.

“We came out strong and then sort of lay back and that’s when they came at us hard for about 20 minutes,” Metea coach Josh Robinson said. “Credit to Angelo. That was probably the most a team has dominated us this year, until they got the goal and then it opened up.”

Metea has one more conference game remaining against first place East Aurora.

“It’s nice to get back and get the tie, but we have to stop giving up goals on set pieces so we can win the games,” Donovan said.