Ilyas Abdi scored in the first half and Tommy Silk added a goal in the second as second-seeded Waynflete defeated sixth-seeded Sacopee Valley 2-0 in a Class C South boys’ soccer semifinal Saturday.

The second-seeded Flyers (13-2-1) will host the regional final Wednesday against fourth-seeded Monmouth Academy.

Waynflete scored its first goal 12:58 into the game. Abel Alemayo’s shot ricocheted toward Abdi, who collected the rebound and calmly redirected it into the net.

“We just talked about a ball hitting the crossbar a couple days ago in practice, about how you anticipate that it may not go over and might bounce back into play, and to put yourself in a position to finish off the play,” said Waynflete Coach Brandon Salway. “(Abdi) did that. He made a nice play and didn’t try to crush it. He just placed it into the back of the net.”

Silk then scored on a loose ball early in the second half.

“I reminded them at halftime that Sacopee is a dangerous team and has very good players up top with the potential to quickly score a goal and make it 1-1,” said Salway.

“We didn’t want that. We weren’t going to sit on a 1-0 lead and try to protect it. We wanted to stay aggressive and get forward. (Silk) had a nice finish at the other end.”

The two goals were the result of a strong offensive showing – one that generated a lot of possession on Sacopee’s end of the field.

“We were more connected today,” said Salway. “At times we have been playing a little too individual, and we play up to the strikers and they don’t have a lot of options. We’ve really been stressing the last couple of practices to get up and support the strikers and play off of them, and today was a pretty consistent performance. We had a lot of opportunities.”

Willy Burdick, Jack Meahl and Alemayo anchored a stout defensive performance in support of keeper Milo Belleau’s 11th shutout of the season. Waynflete surrendered just two shots in the win.

“The defensive guys played terrific,” said Salway. “Willy and Milo are kind of the leaders back there, but Abul and Jack played a great game. They played very simple and tried to keep everything in front of them. They backed each other up and there was really good communication.

“We stress that they keep their feet and stand offensive players up, not always try to win it but make them make a play to get past you. We played smart but simple.”

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