LAKEVILLE — A hard driving rain and gusting winds that lasted the entire game made for less than ideal playing conditions, but it would have taken a lot more than that the slow down the No. 3-ranked Class 1A Bethany Christian Bruins in Thursday night’s high school boys soccer regional semifinal at Newton Park.

Bethany netted two first-half goals and added three more after intermission for a 5-0 win over the Boone Grove Wolves.

“I’m 40 years old and I’ve been playing or coaching soccer for 35 of those years. I played in college in the snow, but there was a stretch of about 10 minutes in the second tonight that was as miserable as I’ve ever seen it,” Bruin coach Hank Willems said. “Despite all of that I think we played some of our best soccer. We possessed the ball well on a field that is smaller than what we are used to playing on.”

Bethany (16-3-1) advances to the regional championship on Saturday at 7 p.m. where the Bruins will face the No. 9-ranked Andrean 59ers (16-3). Andrean was a 2-0 winner over Wheeler in the evening’s opening contest.

“I’ve known the Andrean coach (Pete Reist) for about 15 years,” Willems said. “They have a team that is very similar to our team. We are going to have to be playing at our very best on Saturday. When we are at our best we can play with any team, but we have also had some times when we have not been at our best.

“The weather forecast for Saturday is cold but no rain. We have played six games in the rain and have played well in all of them.”

Neither Bethany nor Andrean have ever won a regional title.

Bethany senior Femi Hollinger-Janzen began the Bruin scoring parade at 34:08 of the first half. The Indiana University bound standout sliced his way through the Boone Grove defense for his 24th goal of the season.

“In my coaching career I’ve had six players go on to the (NCAA) Division I level,” Willems said. “He is probably the farthest along any of them have ever been in high school. He is very good at possessing the ball and is very calm when he is out on the field. He is very exact. When we give him directions as how to do something he does is the exact way we have told him.

“We play about 20 kids. Femi is the engine that drives the team, but he knows for us the go as far in the tournament as we would like he has to get the rest of the players involved.”

Junior Caleb Morris added the Bruins’ second goal with 12:07 left in the opening half assisted by junior Josh Stoltzfus. It was the ninth goal of the season for Morris and the 13th assist for Stoltzfus.

The score reaming 2-0 in favor of the Bruins until a stretch of about 5:00 in the second half where Bethany put things out of reach for the Wolves with three more scores.

Bethany showcased it’s depth as junior Andrew Snyder tallied his ninth goal of the season at 24:34, Stoltzfus his 12th at 21:59 and junior Isaac Schertz his third at 19:06.

“We are a possession team and feel that we can build out of it,” Willems said.

Bethany won the LaVille sectional on the same field by defeating John Glenn 8-2 and Mishawaka Marian 3-1.

“This was our third game on this field and that was an advantage,” Willems said. “This was one of our best night’s in terms of finding space.

“We didn’t know a lot about Boon Grove coming in. The only common opponent we had was Culver Military Academy. Boone Grove’s No. 21 (senior Chris Vasquez) did a good job defending our forwards.”

The Bruins had the wind to their backs in the first half before the team changed sides at halftime.

“Since we are a possession team I don’t think the wind was that much of an advantage for us in the first half,” Willems said. “Where it concerned me was in the second half when Boone Grove had it and we were leading 2-0. If a long punt or a goal kick gets through our defense and the Wolves score a 2-1 game is a lot different.”

Bethany controlled things as the Bruins led 13-2 in shots on goal and 10-0 in corner kicks. Senior Jeff Yoder made two keeper saves for the Bruins and freshmen Nathan Miller stopped eight Bruin shots.