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Sandy • Waterford coach George Shirley's pregame message to his team was simple Wednesday afternoon: Don't look past Wendover.

With a likely rematch of last year's state final against reigning champion American Leadership Academy looming, the Ravens scored five first-half goals on their way to a 6-0 win over the Wildcats in the first round.

"They played well against some good teams, and I find it pertinent that we don't overlook any team at this point in the stage," Shirley said. "It's one and done, so we want to make sure we're getting up for every game."

Despite what turned into a dominant performance that allowed Shirley to rest starters for the majority of the second half, Wendover managed the first shot while Waterford was finding its rhythm.

"The first half was a little bit shaky, to be honest," Waterford forward Sean Keough said. "We were a little bit flustered, they were playing boom ball — we always have issues with boom ball — but at the same time we settled in about five minutes, 10 minutes."

In the 14th minute, Keough took possession off a poor Wildcats free kick, breezed past multiple defenders to get inside the 18-yard box and cut across another man to put the ball on his right foot before slotting the opening goal into the bottom left corner.

"I was frustrated that we hadn't scored to that point, and we weren't really testing their back line — there weren't enough balls through," he said. "So eventually I was just like, OK, get the ball, turn, dribble at them."

Cale Lopez got in behind the Wendover defense and chipped the goalie for Waterford's second two minutes later, and the Ravens concluded the final six minutes of the half with a three-goal surge to put the game out of reach.

Waterford could've added four or five more if not for some sloppy finishing, ending the game with 18 shots overall, 11 of them on goal. The Ravens will have their rematch with ALA at 1 p.m. Saturday at American Leadership Academy.