But late in the first half, Brewer began to assert himself when twice he willed his way to a 50-50 ball in the box for a dangerous shot on goal. First, he slid across the turf to punch a left-footed shot at the net that required an excellent save by Webster Groves senior goalie Trevor Mihill. Then, in the final 18 seconds, he was the first to get a touch on a 50-yard free kick and scooted a shot inches wide while tumbling to the ground.
“There was definitely some frustration,” Brewer said. “We knew (Webster Groves) was a good team and it’s never fun going down a goal, but I think it definitely came down to our heart in the second half.”
In the 52nd minute, Clayton broke through when freshman Max Vuong duplicated the pass made by Percival, sending a 35-yard pass downfield that checked up like a pitching wedge on a forgiving green. Stapleton beat Mihill to the ball and blasted it into the net to tie the score 1-1.
“(Max) has hit those balls to me all season and with (Clayton) having three backs instead of four, we were able to exploit that on the weak side pass,” Stapleton said. “I just had to put it away against the goalie.”
Stapleton was not finished finding the twine. Off a corner kick, the ball caromed to senior Freddy Taussig, who settled it and directed it to Brewer in the penalty area. Brewer sidestepped one defender, then served a perfect pass in between defenders to Stapleton, who crunched it off the inside of the post and into the goal to give Clayton the lead with 16 minutes and 30 seconds to play.
