By RANDY GONZALES

rgonzales@dailynews.net

McPHERSON -- The Hays High School boys' soccer team erased a one-goal deficit at halftime with two goals in the second half to take the lead.

Then the Indians hung on for a 2-1 win over Andover Central in Monday's first round of the fourth annual McPherson Invitational. The win in Hays High's season opener moved the Indians into Thursday's 8 p.m. semifinals against host McPherson.

The Bullpups, the tourney's defending champion, were 11-1 winners over Wichita-Word of Life in their tourney opener Monday.

Senior forward Thayne Griffin scored twice for Hays High (1-0), in the 45th minute and 53rd minute, to give the Indians the lead.

Andover Central (1-1), which scored in the 14th minute to take a 1-0 halftime lead, was desperate to score the equalizer in the match's final five minutes.

The Jaguars, who lost to HHS in first-round action in 2005 and '06, both by one goal in overtime, almost sent the game into overtime again Monday.

In the 75th, junior Tyler Maneth broke past the HHS back line and blistered a shot from short range on HHS junior goalkeeper Jared Wasinger.

Wasinger stopped the initial strike, and Maneth's shot on the rebound hit the near post and bounced away.

Earlier, Andover Central had another chance in the 69th on a corner kick, only to have Wasinger smother the ball near the goal line.

"We were a little nervous toward the end," first-year Hays High head coach Zach Michaelis said. "We stopped what we had been doing, which was contain."

"We panicked a little bit. First game is why; it's a tournament; it's exciting," he added.

Griffin put HHS in position to win, and almost had a hat trick.

He sailed a blast over the crossbar in the game's opening minute, and was just wide of the goal on a free kick in the second half.

After Andover Central Diego Habib, a freshman foreign exchange student from Brazil, scored on a blast from 30 yards out in the 14th minute, HHS got the equalizer in the second half on the first goal by Griffin, who chased a long ball into the penalty area, where he was alone with Jaguar senior keeper Ben Clark. It was a race to the ball, with Griffin chipping it over Clark, who came off his line.

The game didn't stay deadlocked long. Eight minutes later, HHS sophomore Trey Herman directed a free kick into the top of the penalty box, where Griffin's long header eluded Clark to make it 2-1.

"That was a pretty one," Michaelis said. "For a second, I didn't think it was going in."

Wasinger's play in goal made the lead stand.

"Jared came up big on two occasions," Michaelis said.

Big enough to send the Indians into the semifinals for the fourth consecutive year.