The St. Aloysius Flashes had to work to do it, but they earned another shot at the king.

Jack Dowe scored the game-winning goal with less than 10 minutes left in regulation on Monday as St. Al beat Adams County Christian School 3-2 in the first round of the MAIS Class AAA boys soccer playoffs.

The Flashes scored twice in the second half and advanced to face four-time defending state champion Central Hinds in the semifinals on Wednesday afternoon. Kickoff will be at 3 p.m. in Raymond.

It’ll be the sixth meeting between the teams in the past two seasons — the third this year — as well as a rematch of last year’s semifinals. Central Hinds has won all of them, just like it has every other game during its championship reign. The Cougars overcame a stubborn Laurel Christian squad to win 4-2 in overtime in a first-round game on Monday, as their winning streak grew to nearly 70 games.

St. Al (12-5) finished second in District 3-AAA to Central Hinds and thus had to go on the road to face ACCS (19-2-2) in Monday’s first round. That, too, was a rematch from last year’s playoffs and a classic in its own right.

ACCS took a 2-1 lead into halftime as Cris Thompson scored twice after Ryan Theriot had given St. Al an early lead. Theriot tied it early in the second half, and then ACCS squandered a number of opportunities to regain the lead.

“It was a very intense game. We had multiple opportunities, but we just didn’t finish. When we didn’t come out and score one right at the beginning of the second half, the momentum swung,” ACCS coach Jim Bob Allgood said. “We had shots that hit crossbars, lines, the keeper, posts and bounced out. The ball didn’t bounce our way, and it’s called unlucky. Sometimes, you’re just unlucky.”

Especially when the luck was on St. Al’s side. In the waning moments of the game, Theriot fed a pass to Dowe deep in the Rebels’ end. Dowe shot across his body from right to left and past keeper Alex McCready to give St. Al a 3-2 lead it didn’t relinquish.

“It was a beautiful shot,” St. Al coach Scott Mathis said.

Mathis added that he was happy with the way the Flashes responded after falling behind in the first half.

“The first half, we played very slow and made a lot of mistakes but we turned things around quickly in the second half,” Mathis said. “The defense really stepped up and our keeper Chuck Beamish played lights out.”

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Natchez Democrat sports writer Emmalee Molay contributed to this report.