CLAYTON — The host Clayton Greyhounds came up with one of their better efforts of the boys soccer season Wednesday night, pulling away for a 5-1 victory over conference rival Lafayette at Gay Field.
The Greyhounds improved to 10-4 overall and to 5-0 at the top of the Suburban Conference Red Pool standings. Suffering its first loss in six games, Lafayette fell to 10-3 and 2-2.
"We came in with a plan and every single guy on the team did what they needed to do for us to be successful,'' Clayton senior Sam Leonard said. "Defensively, the guys in the back did a great job of shutting them down and that really helped open things up for us at the other end."
Fellow senior Wole Adeoye agreed: "Lafayette's a great team with a bunch of quality players, so we knew to have a chance against them, we'd have to play well all over the field. And that's what we did. Tonight, we got the complete effort we needed."
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Adeoye led the way for Clayton with a hat trick while Leonard scored the other two goals.
"We came in looking to keep things rolling in the conference and that's exactly what we did,'' Clayton coach Brendan Taylor said. "We challenged our guys, knowing that we'd need big efforts all over the field, and that's exactly what we got."
Clayton's Leonard opened the scoring about 8 minutes into the match, converting a tap-in after being set up by fellow senior Adam Turner.
"Adam's strong run made the play; all I had to do was knock it in," said Leonard, who leads his team in scoring with 10 goals and 5 assists.
Clayton added to its lead with about 5 1/2 minutes to play before halftime when Adeoye was taken down in the penalty area. He converted the penalty kick and Clayton took a 2-0 lead to the break.
"From the start, you could see that Clayton really wanted this one,'' Lafayette coach Ryan Butchart said. "They came out on fire and played with passion, especially in that first half. Huge credit to them, but I didn't think our standard of play was acceptable at all."
The Lancers showed some life at the start of the second half. Less than 7 minutes in, junior Nathan Null broke through with a strong run. But Clayton goalkeeper Sam Rotskoff came up with the stop.
Midway through the half, Lafayette cut into the lead. After receiving a pass from defender Sam Kalish, the Lancers' Andrew Dillard cut in from the right wing and scored with a low shot, making it a 2-1 game.
But Clayton regrouped quickly and closed out the night strong. After coming up with a steal near midfield, the Greyhounds' Leonard played a through pass for Adeoye, who converted to stretch the lead to 3-1 with about 12 minutes to play.
The lead went to 4-1 when Leonard scored from a nearly impossible angle on a scramble following a corner kick with just over 6 minutes left. Matt Hurst assisted on the play.
"I didn't see an opening for a pass and I always have confidence in my shot,'' Leonard said. "I hit it as hard as I could and it found the net."
Then, with just over 3 minutes to play, Adeoye finished off his hat trick with a near-side shot after receiving a pass from Hurst.
"We had a great game to beat a quality opponent,'' Adeoye said. "A lot of things fell in place for us tonight, but we don't want this to be the highlight of our season. As happy as we are right now, we know we have to keep working and stay hungry if we hope to finish the season strong."
The loss provided some questions for Lafayette.
"We were beaten by a team that deserved everything it got tonight," Butchart said. "But for a group as talented as this one, there's no excuse for just 25 minutes or so of consistent soccer. We expect 100 percent effort for 80 minutes and just didn't get that tonight. In my opinion, we didn't see the fight we expected, especially in that first half. And honestly, that's unacceptable."