Comets Rise to the Moment in 6-4 Thriller Over St. John’s Prep

Some games tell you whether a team can score, and others tell you whether a team can answer. On Saturday afternoon, on the historic Danielsen Field pitch, the Comets had to provide answers to those two chief questions all afternoon. Down early. Tied again. Pushed again. Tested defensively. Forced into a track meet against a St. John’s Prep team that refused to go away, and every time the game demanded something bigger, a Comet stepped into the moment.

Hillcrest outlasted St. John’s 6-4 in its biggest test of the young season, moving to 2-0 behind six goals, 18 shots on frame, several critical saves, and a growing collection of players who are beginning to look comfortable carrying much larger roles. That may be the most important part of the win. This is a Comet team replacing leadership, reshaping responsibilities, and asking players to become more than they were a year ago. Saturday, they did.

Junior captain Will Selvig spent much of the afternoon under pressure in goal as St. John’s fired 15 shots toward the Comet net. Hillcrest’s defense bent at times, but Selvig repeatedly kept the game from getting away, making several key saves in moments when one more Johnnie goal could have changed the entire afternoon.

Four minutes into the game, with Hillcrest already trailing 1-0, Selvig lined a free kick deep in his own defensive end and drove the ball behind the St. John’s back line. Ben Skaug gathered it cleanly and calmly rolled the equalizer into the back of the net. From Goalkeeper to goal scorer, with one strike of the ball, Selvig set up the equalizer.

St. John’s answered almost immediately, scoring again off a corner to regain the lead, and Hillcrest spent the rest of the first half fighting its way back. Three minutes before halftime, Jakob Vindenes was taken down inside the box. Noah Edvardsen converted the penalty with a dart to the lower left corner. The ball found the net, and the teams traded volleys that closed a frantic 40 minutes with the scoreboard reading 2-2.

When the half opened, the Comet opened up the game. Marco Salazar put Hillcrest ahead just one minute into the second half off a Skaug assist. Four minutes later, St. John’s capitalized on a defensive mistake and tied it again. Three goals apiece with momentum hanging in the balance, wrestled out from midfield attack to defensive stand. That is when Myles Selvig went airborne.

After a tough clear that rolled out the end line, the Comets stepped in for the corner. Christopher Thorbjeornson curled a corner toward the far post, dropping the ball into exactly the place where a teammate had to rise and take it. Selvig rose, and for a moment, he seemed to stay there. Above the traffic. Above the defenders. Suspended long enough to meet the ball cleanly and drive a beautiful header into the back of the net. It was the kind of goal that changes the noise around a field. The pass was right. The timing was right. The moment was enormous. Hillcrest led 4-3 off a dream play that will be on repeat for the Comets this season, but St. John’s still would not go away.

Five minutes later, the Johnnies punched through the middle and tied the game for the fourth time. What followed was 12 minutes of tense, attacking soccer with both teams searching for the goal that might finally break the other. Hillcrest found it.

At the 71-minute mark, Pedro Pereira attacked down the right side and delivered a nearly perfect cross into the box. Vindenes met it in the air and buried the header for a 5-4 Comet lead. This time, Hillcrest did not give it back.

With only 30 seconds remaining, Edvardsen finished the afternoon emphatically, attacking up the left sideline and beating the St. John’s keeper at the near post with a hard strike that turned a one-goal nail-biter into Six goal exclamation point from five different Comet scorers off eighteen shots on goal. Time ran out with the Comets rowing on the sideline to a 6-4 victory.

Nearly every time Hillcrest needed an answer throughout the game, somebody provided one. Charlie Eggiman supplied several of those moments defensively, making key stops at center back to slow a St. John’s attack that repeatedly threatened to break through. Will Selvig handled the rest, surviving 15 shots and making the saves Hillcrest needed when its team defense left him exposed.

The Comets did not play perfectly. They gave up four goals. They surrendered two scores off corners. They made mistakes that a good opponent punished immediately, but they also showed something that may matter far more in November than perfection in August. They responded.

Skaug responded after the opening goal. Edvardsen responded before halftime. Salazar responded coming out of the break. Myles Selvig rose, literally and figuratively, when the game needed a defining play. Vindenes delivered when the score was tied late, and Will Selvig kept standing behind all of them, making the saves necessary to give Hillcrest another opportunity to attack.

Hillcrest, now 2-0, travels to Melrose on Thursday for a doubleheader with the Lady Comets. The JV Comets also remained unbeaten Saturday with a 3-2 victory over St. John’s Prep.