Hatch, Colina each score twice, send Eagles into regional final

BOWLING GREEN — Liberty-Benton was well aware that Edison came into Wednesday night's Division IV boys regional soccer semifinal averaging eight goals per game.The Eagles were more than up to the challenge.Liberty-Benton, ranked No. 5 in the state by MaxPreps, made defense a priority and hit on enough chances on offense to post a decisive 5-1 win over the Chargers at Bowling Green High School."That was our main concern," L-B coach Aaron Troyer said. "It doesn't matter who you play; if you're scoring that many goals you're dangerous."We wanted to slow the game down a bit, just not open ourselves up and let them make it a fast-break game."The Eagles, who have allowed only 10 goals in 21 games, led 2-0 at halftime and added two more goals before Edison finally broke through.Senior Alex Davidson scored on a free kick from the top of the box with 19:20 to play. He somehow got the ball around L-B's wall to score his 60th goal of the season and the 101st of his career."He's good. He practices it," Edison coach Nate Leimeister said. "Alex is a phenomenal player. I was glad to see he put that in the back of the net. He can put English on it. It spins, it's crazy what these guys can do."Liberty-Benton had two big weapons up front in Aiden Hatch and Jairo Colina, whose size and ball skills took a toll on the Chargers.Leimeister saw film of the Eagles (18-1-2) and was impressed when he saw them in person."Better than expected," he said. "They're faster, possess better, just a well-coached team. Lot of talent there, too."Hatch and Colina each had two goals for the Eagles, who will return to the regional finals Sunday in Marion. L-B lost in the Elite Eight last year in a shootout."They work well off each other," Troyer said of his two main weapons. "It's hard for teams to focus on one because we have two that are as good as you get. There's always one that has a chance to create things and then we have Taden (Troyer) on the right with his speed. It's a real good combination."Hatch scored the first goal on a header following some chaos in front of the net with 16:11 left in the first half.Edison, going into the wind for the first 40 minutes, hung in there until Colina blasted home a goal with his left foot just 2:32 before halftime."It felt big. It put some extra breathing room for us," coach Troyer said. "It felt like the goal was coming. Early on we couldn't get it. One-nil going into halftime when you felt like you had the majority of the chances, you don't feel great about that. You'd feel like you left some meat on the bone. That second one set us up for the second half."That deficit proved to be too much for Edison, which finished its season 19-1-1."It was tough to give that up and it was tough coming out in the second half," Leimeister said. "We had good looks at times but couldn't put it in the back of the net. Their back four were tough. They didn't mess around; they cleared it and won a lot of second balls. They were big and fast to the ball."Hatch scored early in the second half, followed by another Colina goal two minutes later to give the Eagles a commanding 4-0 lead with 33:28 to play."We saw them on film, but when you see (Colina) in person and his touch and presence and awareness on the field… and Hatch, the speed down the line — he makes all the right moves and cuts," Leimeister said.Brody Thomas finished off the scoring for Liberty-Benton with 3:36 to play.The five goals were the most given up by this season by Edison, which couldn't match L-B's firepower."We were really concerned with their speed," Troyer said. "Davidson has 59 goals, now 60. It's unbelievable. We just wanted to make sure we didn't open ourselves up too much. It felt like we did what we were supposed to do and we finished our chances and get to move on."