In fact, the midfielder had just one assist in the Hillbillies’ 16 regular-season games.

But on Tuesday, in a winner-take-all Section VI Class B2 prequarterfinal, with the end of his high school soccer career staring him in the face, Hall was at his best.

Hall had two goals and an assist as No. 7 Fredonia pulled away from No. 10 Springville for a 5-2 victory on a wet, blustery afternoon at Fredonia High School.

“It finally showed up on the scoresheet. He’s played well throughout the course of the year,” Fredonia head coach Jim Rush said of Hall. “To his credit, he kept working and kept plugging away. Today was as good of a time as any to get off the schneid.”

A Springville defender attempts to steal the ball from the Hillbillies’ Jayden Yerico. OBSERVER Photo by Ashleigh Brown

The win sends the Hillbillies into Thursday’s quarterfinals where they’ll meet No. 2 Royalton-Hartland, a 9-0 winner over No. 14 Silver Creek/Forestville in another Tuesday prequarterfinal.

“I’ve done a little bit of research. They have a player who has scored 34 goals,” Rush said of Royalton-Hartland’s Peter Martillotta. “They did well in their league and it’s a good league. We’ll look at some of their scores and go from there. I’m sure they’re far from a one-man team.”

Playing with the wind in the opening 40 minutes, Fredonia actually fell behind 1-0 early before rallying for a pair of goals to take a 2-1 lead into halftime.

“We gave up that one early, but we responded,” Rush said. “Nobody was hanging their heads; we were OK. Falling behind wasn’t ideal, but we responded.”

The Griffins took a 1-0 lead early when Travis Keem fought off the Hillbillies’ Jack Pietro before neatly chipping a shot over Fredonia keeper Andrew Cowan.

Fredonia’s Sal Tabone and Springville’s Jackson Crone rise up to win a corner kick during the first half of Tuesday’s Section VI Class B2 prequarterfinal at Fredonia High School. OBSERVER Photo by Ashleigh Brown

The hosts answered back quickly. With possession inside the box, senior Jayden Yerico touched a ball to Hall, who curled in a right-footed shot from the top of the 18-yard box to tie the game.

“The seniors were talking about it before the game. It’s survive and advance. As long as we have one more goal at the end of the game it doesn’t matter. I was happy with the effort,” Rush said. “To see (Hall) have success and everybody piggy-back off of that was good to see.”

Hillbillies leading-scorer Sal Tabone put his stamp on the game later in the half when he received kick, tapped the ball past the Springville goalkeeper and buried a shot just in front of a defender for the go-ahead goal.

“I told them at halftime, we weren’t going to be able to just boom it down the field,” Rush said of the change in wind direction. “It does change it a little, but we wanted to play to feet and move the ball fast. We wanted to exploit some things.”

After halftime, Fredonia got an important two-goal lead as Hall worked down the left wing and sent a ball toward the near post.

“He had opportunities. Maybe a little bit snake-bitten,” Rush said of Hall. “He really knocked the door down today. You have to give him a lot of credit for that.”

Tabone slashed in front of his defender and deflected the ball into the net just before the Griffins’ goalkeeper arrived to make it 3-1.

“If we are leading by two goals, we don’t rest on our laurels at all,” Rush said. “Teams are desperate. We have to be ready for anything. We might be in that situation down the road. When it’s win or go home, play until the final buzzer.”

A little later, Hall added his second goal of the game when he sent a high shot into the wind from nearly 30 yards out that somehow found its way behind Springville’s keeper before floating over the crossbar to make it 4-1. Tabone was also credited with his second assist on the play.

“It got up there, but it was so perfectly placed the wind was able to wreak havoc a little. It worked to our advantage,” Rush said. “We told our keeper to hold his line. You want to take two steps in, but take a step back so you can come to the ball. You could see the keeper was in no-man’s land.”

The Griffins answered when Braden Steiner scored on a header off a Keem corner kick, but the Hillbillies benefited fro an own goal late as a Springville player attempted to clear a ball to safety but couldn’t keep it out of the goal.

Action got a little chippy late as Keem and Yerico earned matching yellow cards — Keem’s second of the game resulting in an ejection — before Springville’s Jackson Crone picked up a red card leading to his own ejection, but cooler heads prevailed with Fredonia knowing it has a quarterfinal game to play Thursday.

“To our credit, they kept their composure. That showed the maturity that they have,” Rush said of his players. “We understood that we want to be successful moving forward. They kept their heads and everybody had each other’s back.”