TROY – Eli Noonan scored twice, Brayden Litteken had a goal, and Colby Wheat netted a hat trick as the Triad Knights defeated the Sacred Heart-Griffin Cyclones 6-0 Tuesday night in the IHSA Class 2A Troy (Triad) Regional semifinals.
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The third-seeded Knights hosted the sixth-seeded Cyclones, who made the trip down from Springfield and saw their season end at 9-10-4.
It was a chilly and windy Tuesday night, but the Knights had a hot start.
Noonan broke the scoreless tie just six minutes into the game. Wheat grabbed his first of the game in the 12th minute and added another before halftime to give Triad a 3-0 lead after 40 minutes.
Noonan and Wheat would each score again in the second half, as did Litteken, to get to the final of 6-0. Brayden Kelly had two assists.
The Knights move on to the regional final on Saturday, October 25, at 2 p.m. They’ll host the second-seeded Highland Bulldogs, who needed overtime to beat seventh-seeded Civic Memorial in the other regional semifinal by a score of 3-1.
That game was played first on Tuesday, causing the Triad-SHG game to start about a half hour late.
Triad split its regular-season meetings with Highland. Both teams won on the road. The Knights won 4-2 in Highland on September 9, and the Bulldogs won 3-0 in Troy on September 25.
Triad, Highland, and Waterloo all shared the Mississippi Valley Conference title with matching 8-2 records in the conference’s final season.
Second-seeded Waterloo hosts third-seeded Mascoutah in a regional final on Saturday in the top half of the Mascoutah Sectional.
The winner between Triad and Highland will take on the winner between the top-seeded Althoff Catholic Crusaders and the fourth-seeded Carbondale Terriers in the second sectional semifinal on Wednesday, October 29, at Mascoutah.
It’s a tough path through the Mascoutah Sectional, with five of the remaining eight teams having 15 or more wins.
Looking around at teams like Althoff Catholic (22-2-1), Highland (20-6), Carbondale (18-1-1), Waterloo (15-3-2), and Chatham Glenwood (15-3-5), and it’s clear to see that there is no easy way out.
The Knights improved to 14-6-1 after Tuesday’s win. They’ve now won six of their last seven. Five of those wins were shutouts. Tuesday was Triad’s 11th clean sheet of the season.
Highland ended its regular season with a 2-0 loss at Waterloo, but has still won seven of its last nine games with four shutouts.
