WINTER HAVEN — Christian Cornejo scored three first-half goals to lead All Saints to a 6-2 victory over Hobe Sound in a Boys 1A Region 2 soccer quarterfinal Wednesday at Jahna Field on the campus of All Saints.
Cornejo headed in the left corner-kick of Caden Maldonado at 26:55 to give the Saints the early 1-0 lead.
Wasting little time, Cornejo hustled to the net and rebounded in Bryan Santos’ shot at 22:57 and the Saints led by two.
At 18:18 Maldonado’s crossing pass from the right side was headed in by Cornejo for his third consecutive goal and All Saints was on its way to a big win, leading 3-0.
Maldonado scored at 16:45 with an assist from Santos providing the Saints a four-goal lead.
Pine got on the scoreboard when Luke Denny’s shot beat Jackson Gurr at the 14:53 mark.
Jake Fasking was later awarded two penalty kicks and scored both times for the Saints, bringing his season total to 18.
The senior Cornejo, who is playing forward for the first time in high school, is enjoying the move up from defender and midfielder as he has scored 24 goals for the season. Cornejo will attend the University of Pennsylvania in the fall.
“We really played well,” said coach Nigel Boardman.
"We established ourselves early and really controlled the tempo of the game. I am happy as we have advanced further than we have in the past.
"Our goal is the state tournament, so we are looking forward to Saturday.”
With the victory, All Saints advances to the regional semifinals Saturday, where it will host Melbourne Holy Trinity Episcopal, which was a 2-1 winner over Lakeland Christian School.
With the loss, Lakeland Christian (14-5-1) concluded its season.
The Vikings trailed 2-0 at the half and did score in the second half to narrow the margin to one goal, but were unable to earn the tying goal.