David W. Smith/Daily NewsGreenwood players celebrate their first goal Wednesday against Danville during the Gators’ 2-1 victory in the semifinals of the KHSAA State Soccer Final Four at Toyota Stadium in Georgetown. Greenwood advanced to Saturday’s state champioship game against St. Xavier. — Click here for a photo slideshow from the game.

GEORGETOWN — Greenwood got it done again. And this time the win meant so much more.

The Gators built a two-goal lead Wednesday before holding on to defeat Danville 2-1 in the semifinals of the KHSAA State Soccer Final Four at Toyota Stadium at Georgetown College.

And just as soon as the game ended, the Gators (15-8-3) turned into heavy underdogs. Greenwood must now try to prevent powerful St. Xavier from winning a third straight state championship.

The Tigers (22-1-1) allowed only their 11th goal of the season in a 4-1 win over Covington Catholic in Wednesday’s semifinal opener. St. X and GHS square off for the state championship at 5:30 p.m. CST Saturday.

On Wednesday night, however, the Gators were just happy to advance.

“It feels great – we just told ourselves coming into Georgetown that we’re happy to be here and everything, but we’re not done,” senior Logan Guess said, moments after jogging across the pitch with his teammates to thank the many GHS fans who made the trip. “We just decided to push through and now we’re playing on Saturday.”

The Gators appeared on their way to an easy win after going up 2-0 just less than two minutes into the second half. But the comfortable smiles on the faces of the GHS players disappeared when DHS found a chink in the armor with a score only four minutes later.

In the 46th minute, defender Blake Hobson gained possession outside his own box and decided it was time to make something happen. The sophomore went straight down the field, beating one Greenwood defender after another, all the way to the Gators’ 18-yard area, where he was finally dispossessed. But Hobson’s work into the teeth of the GHS defense created a deflection out to the right side, where Jake Winkler – the Admirals’ leading scorer – was waiting. Winkler took three steps into the right side of the box and ripped a laser to the left post to make it 2-1.

Suddenly, the Gators were in for a fight.

“Two-zero, as every coach will tell you, is the worst lead in soccer,” GHS coach Scott Gural said. “All credit to the boys for finding a way to keep working and keep their heads about them. They realized that wasn’t the end of the world.”

The next 15 minutes were dominated by DHS. The Admirals kept the ball in Greenwood’s half of the field, putting the Gators under constant pressure.

Danville’s best chance came in the 59th minute, when Tucker Arnett let fly a free kick from 50 yards out into the center of the box. Max Meckes got his head to it and flicked it toward net, only to watch keeper Patrick Conley scoop up his fourth and final save.

It would be the last time DHS seriously threatened to score. Greenwood had a few chances to expand its lead in the final five minutes as Danville’s season faded into the cold November night.

— Click here for a photo slideshow from the game.

“It’s not often that we play a team that can make us cramp – so that’s credit to them and how hard they work,” Gural said. “You could tell they wanted it. Getting down a goal didn’t get their team down. We knew that and there’s only so much you can do for that. The bottom line is you gotta prepare for it on the field.”

The Gators struggled in the first half to find openings as Danville’s offside trap proved tougher to solve than expected. Greenwood got the quick start it was looking for, but only after 16 minutes of hard work.

“We prepared for (the offsides trap) – we prepared a couple things that we thought would work, and a couple of the things we thought would work clearly didn’t,” Gural said. “It’s one of the things I really like about coaching these guys is they’re coachable. The guys tried some adjustments on their own (and it worked).”

Greenwood was called offsides seven times in the first half.

“In the first part of the first half, it was giving us fits,” Guess said of Danville’s tactics. “We worked on it all week in practice. In the second half, we came out and started fighting and found a way around that offsides trap to put another one in.”

Guess – who scored the game-winner in the Region 4 title game, scored in the 3-0 win at Henderson County and notched a hat trick in the 4-1 quarterfinal win at Marshall County – was the early hero once again for GHS.

The captain gained possession just past midfield, turned to the DHS goal and created his moment. Moving toward goal, Guess looked to play a streaking Tyler Daniels down the left half. Everyone at Toyota Stadium saw Daniels, too, so when Guess faked the pass and went right instead, he was left all alone in the box, one-on-one with Danville keeper Byron Hempel.

“I just found a gap to the outside – they were really covering the middle,” Guess said. “They bit on my shot fake, I went around them, far-post shot, back of the goal.”

It took Greenwood less than two minutes into the second 40 to pad the advantage at 2-0 when Skakir Feyzulov found the back of the net. Gaining possession on the left side, the Turkey native moved to center and let loose a strike with his right, banging it off the left post for a 2-0 lead.

“I saw the ball going around the defense, so I ran to it, it was a good ball and their defense was falling,” Feyzulov said. “I just kicked it – it went in. If I didn’t score it, we would have been tied and we could’ve lost in penalties or something,” Feyzulov said. “I’m happy … I’m so happy.”

Feyzulov, a senior, was named Player of the Match.

The Admirals ended their season at 18-4-3.