With 28:13 remaining, the when was answered.

Southwestern senior Connor Young set a school record with his 39th goal of the season as the top-seeded Trojans beat No. 5 Akron 9-0 in a Section VI Class B2 semifinal Monday night at the Fran Sirianni Athletic Complex.

“It needed to be done tonight. We didn’t want to carry on the rest of the season with that hanging over us,” Southwestern head coach Jason Deering said of the goal record. “We have other stuff we want taken care of this season. Get that out of the way now … and move on.”

With former record holder Chase Stevenson in attendance, Young scored three goals in the first half and three more after the break to send Southwestern into Friday’s 5 p.m. championship game against No. 2 Medina at West Seneca East High School.

Connor Young and teammate Seth Vaughn celebrate Young’s milestone goal. Photo courtesy of Shelly Phillips

“Medina is going to be a championship game. If we do what we do, even better than this, we’re going to be able to win that game,” Deering said. “Medina has gotten as far as they have because they are a good team. They play decent schools up there. … They’re going to want to win that game as much as we do. We better show up.”

As they have so many times throughout their illustrious careers with the Trojans, Young and fellow senior Seth Vaughn connected for three of their team’s nine goals.

The Trojans dominated play for the entire 80 minutes, breaking through for the first time in the 12th minute when Young connected with Vaughn, who took one touch to his right before scoring to Akron goalkeeper Sam Reagan’s left from about 15 yards out for a 1-0 lead.

Young scored his first goal of the night and 114th of his career in the 21st minute when he took a throw-in off a bounce from Chase Hartnett, headed it to a better spot to the right of Reagan and blasted a volley into the middle of the goal for a 2-0 lead.

In the 23rd minute, Young did most of the work by himself, dribbling in from 35 yards away, beating two defenders along the way, before scoring with his left foot to the far post to make it 3-0.

Southwestern’s Connor Young (6) attempts to get by Akron’s Leo Pecora (13) during Monday’s Section VI Class B2 semifinal at Charles A. Lawson Field. Photo courtesy of Shelly Phillips

“Usually Coach takes me out after a couple of goals,” Young said. “Tonight he said he’d leave me in a little longer.”

Young tried to connect with Vaughn for his second goal of the evening in the 35th minute, but his pass was just behind Vaughn inside the 6-yard box and instead found Isac Pope on the back post for his second goal of the season.

“That’s about what we wanted,” Deering said of the result. “We wanted to get some things taken care of that we managed to get taken care of.”

With 2:37 remaining in the first half, Vaughn connected with Young to complete his hat trick and make it 5-0.

“Everything about what they’ve done has been fantastic,” Deering said. “The way they look for each other, they do them … it’s been fantastic to watch.”

Young clearly came out for the second half with the season record in mind, hoping to get it out of the way before Friday’s final. It quickly became apparent that would happen.

In the 44th minute, Grey Kidder fed Young for his fourth of the night and just over a minute later, Young tied Stevenson’s mark of 38 goals with a fairly long run that ended with him beating Regan under his diving attempt along the Charles A. Lawson Field turf.

“My whole life, I’ve been working toward our team goals,” Young said. “This is just a side benefit.”

Not long after Young’s fifth goal, Regan shouted “watch No. 6, he’s gonna shoot.” In the ensuing seven minutes, Young had two of his best opportunities of the night, hitting a goalpost and a crossbar.

“Finally, when I needed to score, I couldn’t score,” Young joked. “But I got it done, so that was awesome.”

Inside the 52nd minute, Vaughn fed Young for the final time as he made it 8-0 with a shot that glanced off Reagan to break Stevenson’s six-year old record.

“Seth’s always been the quiet hard worker. He never gets the glory he deserves,” Young said. “I’m glad he was connected in that play.”

“My brother was on that team,” Young added of his older brother, McKay, a teammate of Stevenson’s in 2018. “All I remember was saying ‘I want to be like Chase someday.'”

NOTES: Freshman Wilson Genareo scored the final Southwestern goal in the 77th minute. … Tate James, Jameson Sauder and Anthony Bellardo were credited with additional assists for the Trojans. … With his six goals Monday, Young is now up to 119 for his career, good for fourth all time in Section VI history, breaking a tie at 113 with Tonawanda’s Jake Kunselman and Wilson’s Andy Wright. North Collins’ Adam Teijeira holds the all-time Section VI record with 148 goals, scored from 1991-94.