Fordham Prep coach Pete McNamara said Dylan Cope is a magician with a soccer ball at his feet. The only problem is that the junior forward has missed most of the season with a chronic groin injury.
“He’s kind of a special player who has so many moves in his repertoire that sometimes he tries to use them all,” McNamara said. “His skill his very good, his reaction is very quick. Coming off the bench with someone like him is fantastic.”
Cope displayed that skill in the 53rd minute of a scoreless draw against Xavier in the CHSAA Class A intersectional quarterfinals Sunday afternoon, playing a perfect corner kick to Nihad Musovic, who headed in the game’s lone goal at the far post.
“We’ve been missing that perhaps all year,” Musovic said. “Dylan has such quality, but he’s been injured. We practice that every practice, we do that over and over until we get at least a string of five or six goals. It’s just routine now.”
Fordham Prep, ranked No. 3 in the city by The Post, advances to the semifinals for the eighth consecutive year and will take on No. 5 Archbishop Molloy Tuesday at Belson Stadium on the campus of St. John’s University. St. Francis Prep and Iona Prep meet in the other semifinal.
A year ago, the Rams upset Iona Prep in the quarterfinals at Maritime College, but Musovic didn’t play. He ruptured his spleen in the previous round against Holy Cross. A year later, though, the senior forward made the most of a rare scoring chance on a windy afternoon.
“We’re used to wind, but I wasn’t here to play Iona last year,” Musovic said. “It’s hard, nearly impossible. You pass the ball and it would be going the other way. The second half we just stayed in their half and kept trying to score, kept trying to push the envelope. Finally we got the one to go in. It was the one to go in.”
McNamara said he’s used to seeing Musovic’s ability in the air in the midfield and in the back, but he hasn’t seen it too often in the attacking third.
“You heard the snap and the fact it was in the back corner there, it was just a really good goal, an exciting goal,” McNamara said.
Fordham Prep (13-1-3) had a dramatic win in the Archdiocesan final on penalty kicks Wednesday against Iona Prep and McNamara was concerned about a letdown.
“I thought we were a little bit flat after Wednesday’s game,” he said. “We talked about it, tried to manage it, but still it’s the playoffs and we were a little tense.”
Xavier (9-5-3) had a few quality chances early in the second half, the best coming from Eddie Sullivan, but the ball rolled just wide of the net.
“We missed two clear shots and the first chance they had to put the ball in during the second half, they did,” Xavier coach Joe Balsamo said. “The last 10 minutes I was expecting more from my team, but they gave up. It’s part of the game. With the wind, it was very hard to play. I’m proud of what we did this season.”