Staff photo / Brian Yauger. Members of the Cardinal Mooney boys soccer team pose with their regional championship trophy after topping Beachwood 2-0. The Cardinals now will play in the state semifinals.

HOWLAND — Before stepping onto the field as a sub, Cardinal Mooney freshman Angel Alvarez was told by coach Matthew Britton to “make a difference.”

Safe to say he did.

About 10 seconds after subbing onto the field, Alvarez capitalized on a golden opportunity, putting away a corner kick and scoring to break a 0-0 tie with Beachwood.

“I told him to make a difference, put your name in lights,” Britton said. “That’s what he was told. I was like, ‘Make this your game.'”

That was all the Cardinals needed, but a minute later, Mooney’s Mason Janis put away the insurance goal to seal the deal for Mooney in a 2-0 victory over Beachwood in the Division III, Region 9 finals on Saturday in Howland.

The win marks the second time in three years Mooney has lifted the regional crown.

“It feels great,” Britton said. “I mean, everyone’s goal at the start of the season is to go for a state championship, so to be 80 minutes away from realizing that goal was a great feeling.

“Especially since last year did not go the way we wanted it to go. We got out early in the stage where we really shouldn’t have, that just fuels the fire.”

Despite being a freshman, this isn’t the first time Alvarez has made a lot happen in a little bit of time. Along the Mooney sidelines, the young forward is developing a bit of a reputation.

“That’s not the first time that that’s happened this year,” Britton said. “He is our super sub. One of the games before, he came on 10 seconds later, scored off a corner kick just like that. He’s a freshman, but the mentality he has and the way he plays is not.”

Mooney had an admittedly slow start, but once they found their footing midway through the first, the offense took over. While they didn’t connect with the back of the net until 10 minutes into the second, the Cardinals spent a majority of the time in the attacking third.

“We started slow, but then about 20 minutes into the game, we found our footing,” Britton said. “We found our rhythm and it was one-way traffic from there.”

The seniors on this Mooney team got a taste of the state level two seasons ago as sophomores. Since then, they’ve been building up a bond and scrapping for a chance to get another shot at the big trophy at the end of the season.

“Like I said, this group has been together for four years,” Britton said. “It’s just the camaraderie of them that they just go out and they play so hard for each other every single day.”

The Cardinals will face Toledo Ottawa Hills in the state semifinals with a chance to return to Columbus on the line.

“We’ve got to stay within ourselves,” Britton said. “We’re going to take one game at a time. We have to set the tempo, we have to make our opponents play our game because as soon as this game started, we played at Beachwood’s tempo. … We just have to keep going and set the tempo.”

byauger@tribtoday.com