AUSTINTOWN — Austintown Fitch boys soccer coach Dan Conley put it so aptly following his team’s Division I sectional first-round game against the Mayfield Wildcats.

To paraphrase: If you don’t give up any goals, you never lose.

Wednesday, the Falcons did just that in a 1-0 victory over the Wildcats. This was a Fitch team that had not shut out any team this season prior to this playoff contest.

“We knew our speed and skill up top is tough to match,” Conley said. “We knew if we engaged their center backs off the ball to make them think off the ball, that was our best shot at getting offensive chances. We did a very good job at doing that. I thought we did a good job of finding our target man. Our target man would file back, and we would find combination plays. That was how we found much of our offense.

“Do I think we are going to bury those in our next game? I think we will. We’re not going to miss like we did tonight. Their goalie made some plays. I think our game plan was to engage them off the ball. We didn’t want to beat the one-on-one on the ball. We wanted to beat them off the ball.”

Both teams were well-balanced most of the night as there were 26 shots on goal by both teams.

Mayfield coach Sean McNamara said when one of their key players slipped on defense, Fitch’s Carlo Walters and Andrew Lescsak took advantage.

Conley wanted to play the ball deep in Wildcat territory. They saw its opening. The Falcons took advantage — scoring with 21:59 in the half after Mayfield goalkeeper Andrew Ferenac had denied the Falcons (8-7-1) 4 minutes earlier.

“With that first goal, we knew if we got the ball in dangerous areas their defenders were a little suspect off the ball,” Conley said. “So, we wanted to play in the dangerous area. We did that. Carlo played the ball to Andrew. The defense kind of let the ball go through. Andrew beat the defender and had a great shot on goal.”

Ferenac kept Fitch off the scoreboard for the rest of the game with 14 saves despite some good shots on goal by the Falcons. Conley felt Ferenac played big in the net for Mayfield and made it difficult for Fitch to get anything past him.

“He’s a good keeper,” McNamara said. “He keeps us in the game. He kept us in this game. With one nil, we always have a chance. If they would have got that second goal, it would have been good night.”

Mayfield (6-10-1) never could find that one shot it needed as it was some near miss opportunities such as a shot that hit the top crossbar that kept them off the board in that first half.

“Looking at their size, I thought it was going to be a major factor,” McNamara said. “It wasn’t. We seemed to control them well. Our keeper played well. He made some key saves. Unfortunately, we didn’t test their keeper. Their keeper did very well at corners. He controlled the first six. We should have changed it up.”

Still, the Wildcats had 11 shots on goal, but it never seemed like they could find that extra pass to give themselves a higher percentage shot on goal.

“I thought we might get back into it if we created enough chances, but our technical execution in the final third didn’t merit anything on goal,” McNamara said. “We never really got a chance on goal. We never really tested the keeper. It was just down to our players not executing in the final third. I think they controlled the midfield. I don’t think we played the midfield well at all.”

Mayfield had a final chance to tie, but the Falcons’ defensive setup in the final stages of the game again denied the Wildcats.

“Our distribution once again from free kicks wasn’t good,” McNamara said. “I thought in the final end, the free kick we had, I thought their defensive wall did tremendously well coming up to attack the ball. Nico Marella, who shot the ball that was on the flame. That was a good shot.”

For the Falcons, they bent but never broke behind the play of goalkeeper Jamie Sorrells who finished with three saves.

“We bent a couple of times out there,” Conley said. “I think when the bell rang, he answered it every single time. He played a heck of a game. I’m proud of him.”