REDDING — A slow groundball caught the Titans off guard Saturday and sixth-ranked Joel Barlow went on to uphold its home-field advantage to trump No. 14 Sheehan 3-1 and advance to the CIAC Class L boys soccer semifinals.

With less than seven minutes left in the first half of a scoreless game, the Falcons' Brandon Wohl threw the ball in from the far sideline near the corner. The toss landed in the center of the goal box, where Ryan Ogiela sent a quick pass to Dylan Stone, who lightly knocked his shot toward the right post. It was a dribbler that diving Sheehan keeper J.J. Comeau had his hands on. However, as he covered the ball up, it squirted out and into the goal for a 1-0 lead.

"Our guy got a just a piece of it and never got a good shot, but that put the goalie out of rhythm," Barlow coach Paul Winstanley said. "Sometimes when the ball comes to you off rhythm, its tougher to get it."

Barlow keeper Cody Hickok finished with five saves on 10 shots. A freshman who has been playing goalie for only 10 weeks, Hickock made two spectacular saves in the waning moments of the first half to preserve the one-goal lead. On the first, Hickok finger-tipped the ball over the crossbar. Then seconds later, he snagged a shot out of the air with two hands.

The Falcons controlled the game throughout the first half until they put that first goal on the board. Then the Sheehan defense began clearing the ball, something it could not do previously, and the Titans' offense came alive.

"We might have laid back a little and thought the game was over already," Stone said of the switch in momentum to the Titans. "And we knew that in the second half we had to pick it up. And we did."

Roger Lehman added an insurance goal on a corner kick by Ogiela in the 56th minute. Ten minutes later, Scott St. Cyr added another score on a rebound off the crossbar from an original shot by Chris Liotta.

"I've got six seniors who have been around," including Zavaski and Cullis, "and I thought their leadership would bring us through, but that goal took a lot of wind out of our sails," Stephan said.

The Falcons (13-3-2) will face No. 2 Seymour or No. 7 Pomperaug on Tuesday or Wednesday. In October, the Falcons topped Pomperaug 2-1 in Redding.

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