Dazzling debut

Canton freshman Budlong spearheads Chiefs' title-winning effort in Balconi

  The vast majority of high school soccer players go through their entire careers without netting a game-winning shoot-out goal.
  It only took Canton's Bobby Budlong three games to complete the feat.
  The Chiefs' fabulous freshman broke a 4-all penalty-kick deadlock in Saturday's Balconi Invitational soccer tournament final by sliding a shot past Salem back-up goalie Dan Adsit to secure Canton's 3-2 victory.
  The PK wasn't Budlong's first impact on the game. He also assisted on both of Canton's earlier goals.
  "Bobby is one of those rare players that comes through a program and contributes right away as a freshman," said Canton coach George Tomasso. "Bobby did a great job of distributing today. It was a fitting ending for him to begin his career at Canton High School by scoring the fifth penalty-kick goal that wins a championship."
  Budlong's heroics were made possible moments earlier when Canton senior keeper Kai Walther's went horizontal to stop a missile off the foot of Salem's Alex Trammel.
  "It's all about looking at what they're about to do," said Walther, talking about how he prepares for penalty kicks.   "It's about looking at their feet and just going with your gut instinct. You dive and see what you can do with it."
  Walther said Saturday's success will provide the Chiefs with a boost of early-season confidence.
  "It's a big achievement for us," he said. "It was one of our goals for the season. We're really happy about it right now."
  Despite the loss, Salem coach Ed McCarthy was upbeat about the effort put forth by the Rocks, who played the day without All-State keeper Sasa Miskovic and played most of the final without Scott O'Connor, a dangerous offensive threat.
  "It was definitely an interesting game," said McCarthy, whose team captured last season's Balconi title. "I think a little bit of fatigue set in for this one. Canton scored early on to put us in a hole, but I'm glad it happened early as opposed to late because it gave us time to come back."
Mitch Pasuniak staked the Chiefs to a 1-0 advantage mid-way through the first half off an assist from Budlong.
  The Rocks knotted the game at 1-all with 11:30 to play in the opening stanza when Evan Antich buried the ball in the back of the net after securing a slick pass from Sal Savage.
Salem seized its lone lead of the afternoon with 2:30 left in the half when Trammel scored off a pass from Brendan Quinn.
  Canton senior captain Yusef Bazzy registered the equalizer from Budlong with 27  minutes left in regulation.
Tyler Winningham, Bazzy, Jon Dugan, Connor Ferguson and Budlong converted penalty kicks for the winners while Lachlan Savage, Dan Martin, Sal Savage and Antich did the same for Salem.

Ed Wright can be reached at [email protected] or (734) 453-1980.