Balanced Truckers top Willard to advance

NORWALK — Minus the weather, it was the perfect night. Playing at home for the final time this season, the Norwalk boys soccer team got everything it could have wanted on Monday. Hosting Willard in a Division II sectional semifinal, the Truckers (10-7) scored three times in each half, and assisted four of their goals in the 6-0 victory at Contractors Stadium. Up next for Norwalk — the No. 4 seed in the Northwest 3 district — is a rematch at No. 2 Vermilion (12-3) at 5 p.m. Thursday in a sectional championship match. The Sailors claimed a 2-0 win over the Truckers on Sept. 20 at Contractors Stadium. "I thought we looked to pass and possess the ball a lot more than we have," Norwalk head coach Wes Sellers said of Monday's balanced attack. "We got everybody involved. "We talked at halftime about using both sides of the field, and in the second half we did a lot better job of taking it from the right and swinging it to the left, and because of that, we got a lot more scoring chances." Norwalk opened the scoring in Monday's win over the Crimson Flashes (6-11) with Landon Ferkel finding the back of the net off an assist from Erik Rangel-Negrete. The second goal for the Truckers came from Jose Negrete, which was again assisted by Rangel-Negrete to extend the lead to 2-0. Just before halftime, Rangel-Negrete then scored his 30th goal of the season off an assist from Omar Dominguez to give the Truckers a 3-0 halftime lead. In the second half, Rangel-Negrete's 31st goal was unassisted to make it 4-0. The senior standout also has 12 assists. Kingston Gonzeles then scored an unassisted goal, and assisted Negrete for the final score with just under 20 minutes left. The win was a rematch of a 7-1 by the Truckers back on Aug. 28. With Monday's win, this is also the 21st time in the 32-year history of the boys program that it reached 10 wins in a season. It marks the second straight under Sellers, who is in his fourth season coaching at his alma mater. Past coaches have included Kurt Dreier (1992-97), Bob Cowman (1998-2004), Paul Lamb (2005-15) and Jon Kijowski (2016-20). "It's always a goal of our teams to get to 10 wins," Sellers said. "We'd liked to have done it during the regular season, but we'll take it with the tournament win. "You always want to end your home slate on a winning note, and wash that ugly taste out of our mouth from Saturday (1-0 loss vs. Firelands). So very nice to end on a high note here." In the first meeting against Vermilion, the teams were in a scoreless tie through 45 minutes. A goal off a miscue allowed the Sailors to take the lead off a score from Reagan Massey. He then assisted teammate Alex Werth with 26 minutes left for the second goal. "I'm looking forward to it and I think the boys are as well," Sellers said of Vermilion. "We know Coach (Kurt) Innes will have them ready over there. We played pretty well tonight, and hopefully we can put together two pretty good games in a row and get a win and keep this going." To do that, Sellers said the team will need to find a way to stop Massey and Werth. "They have two main, dangerous weapons in those two," he said. "We'll have to focus on them and try to shut them down as best we can, but really it comes down to us finishing. "It's been an up and down season with us scoring and not scoring," Sellers added. "If we can just find a way to put some in the back of the net, I think we'll be in good shape."