WESTPORT — The Staples boys soccer team broke open a tight game Friday afternoon, in their FCIAC tournament quarterfinal against Fairfield Warde.

Avery Mueller — whose first-half strike gave the Wreckers a brief lead, before a penalty kick equalized for the Mustangs — scored twice more in the second half, and added an assist. 

Staples’ 4-1 victory vaults them into Monday’s semifinal against Stamford. That match is 5 p.m. at Fairfield Ludlowe.

The Westporters — seeded first in the tournament, thanks to their 12-1-3 record — had a bit of trouble at the start against No. 8 Warde, who they had beaten 3-0 earlier in the year.  

Not one player on Staples coach Russell Oost-Lievense’s young squad had ever played in an FCIAC tournament. The largest crowd of the year ringed Wakeman Field, adding to the tense atmosphere.

Warde nearly drew first blood, blasting a shot inches high 3 minutes in. In the 11th minute, keeper Nick Sikorski saved well with his feet out of the box.

Two minutes later, Jack Schwartz played a ball from deep in his end to Mueller. The co-captain powered up the right side, cut in, blistered through the box, and sniped a clinical finish into the far left side.

Sikorski saved nicely again five minutes later.

Both teams struggled to maintain possession, with the ball in the air more than the Wreckers like.

Midway through the period, after a Warde striker rounded the defense, Sikorski was called for a penalty kick just inside the box. He was also shown a yellow. Junior Christian Rinaldi came on, but had no chance at Jack Murphy’s well-struck PK that leveled the score.

After intermission, the Wreckers began to impose their will on the match. Emmett Nivaud earned a corner kick in the 48th minute, and took it himself. Mueller and Cormac Mulvey both leapt high. Mueller nodded it on to the junior back, who comes forward on set pieces, for a powerful strike — and the lead.

Just two minutes later, Zach Gorin — the creative, unflashy but very effective midfielder, who pairs well with Luca Escalarte — found Jonny Costello. His fellow junior played the ball wide. Mueller picked it up in stride, and once again drove forward before finishing decisively.

Playing now with confidence, the blue-and-whites had Warde on the run. The defense — with Mulvey in the center role, flanked by Schwartz and Gabe Hellman, with help from Zach Beebe and Adam Syah — locked down in front of Sikorski, while they moved the ball briskly, and to feet, all over the field.

Mueller was not yet through. In the 60th minute he was saved well by Gabriel Tiene on a breakaway.

He applied the coup de grace just seven seconds from the final whistle. Escalarte sliced a ball across the box. Mueller waited, cocked his leg, leaped in the air, and volleyed a scissors-kick goal home.

It was one of the high-scoring attacker’s prettiest goal, of many this year.