Osbourn wins wild one
Advertisement
Text size: small | medium | large
By HUGH RIST
For the News & Messenger
Published: May 26, 2008
The teams played about as evenly as possible, finishing in a 1-1 regulation tie and failing to score during two five minute overtime periods as well as two five-minute sudden death periods.
That moved the game into penalty kicks and once again each side finished its rotation of five tied with four goals apiece. Then in the first sudden death penalty kick round, Osbourn goalie Chris Fenner made a point-blank save on a shot by sophomore midfielder A. J. Painter mere moments before Osbourn senior forward and captain Michael Wood drilled a shot above the head of Gar-Field goalkeeper Luis Guevara, giving the Eagles their first-ever regional playoff victory at home since moving to Group AAA in 1996.
Osbourn (13-5-1) advances to Wednesday’s semifinals to face Colonial Forge. Should the Eagles win, they would secure their first berth in the state playoffs in school history.
“We haven’t been to the second round of regionals since my freshman year, so I wanted it and af-ter my man (Chris) Fenner made an awesome save, I couldn’t let him down,” Wood said, when asked what was going through his mind during the winning kick. “I am the captain this year so I had to take charge and win it for my team.”
Fenner notched nine saves during the regulation and overtime, but none was bigger than his save in the first round of sudden death penalty kicks. Immediately after making the save, Fenner jumped up and down and raised his arms as if to rally his teammates. The dramatics must have worked.
“The team needed me, so I stepped up,” Fenner said. “We want to get past that next round if we can because getting into states would be huge. We will just have to play our game.”
Playing “their game” was something that was difficult for the Eagles after the opening three minutes Monday. Gar-Field (9-4-3), which was playing without two players because of red cards in the Cardinal District title game, had its talented goalie Guevara on the bench for the first half due to disciplinary reasons, according to coach Mark Markiewicz. Osbourn appeared to use that fact to its advantage as they found junior goalkeeper Sean Libby just outside the goal box where Wood bounced a ball in the middle off an indirect kick and junior midfielder Travis Pittman blasted it past Libby into the center of the goal to give the Eagles a 1-0 lead.
After that the Eagles had very few chances, thanks in large part to the play of senior defender Allan Aguilar, who in the words of Osbourn coach Dave Larson “prevented us from getting that final touch, that final pass” for the rest of the game.
Markiewicz said Aguilar has played that way all season.
“Everywhere we go, coaches ask me about Allan Aguilar,” Markiewicz said. “He’s a special kid, but then I have a team full of special kids. For them to do what they did tonight after all the adver-sity—losing kids to red cards and discipline—makes me super proud of them. They have nothing to hang their heads about even though they are. I feel terrible for them, but they battled all the way. They could easily have folded after giving up the early goal, but they didn’t and I couldn’t be prouder.”
Gar-Field actually outshot the Eagles 8-6 in the first half by dominating the midfield and using good spacing. They finally got their best scoring chance—and took advantage of it—in the 23rd minute when Rafael Reynoso found freshman forward Curtis Einsmann on the left wing, and Eins-mann drilled it past Fenner to tie the game.
From there, both teams had relatively few chances, except for a sequence in the waning minutes of the first half. With Guevara in goal, Osbourn took three shots in the space of 30 seconds, but shot wide twice and missed the other as Guevara notched the save.
Osbourn also missed a chance in the final minute of the first overtime period when John Cornwell split two defenders and had a one-on-one chance against Guevara, but the shot went wide right and a diving Guevara knocked it away.
Larson said Gar-Field’s defense prevented Osbourn from executing its game plan in the first half.
“After we scored, I think we let down a bit. But that is also a tribute to the Gar-Field defense as they took away the midfield. In the second half, we made the adjustments and were able to get a few more shots. But when we needed it, Fenner made the save, and it was huge.”
REGION II QUARTERFINALS
• BRENTSVILLE 2, HERITAGE 1: The Tigers won their eighth game in a row to advance to the Group AA Region II semifinals. Zach Kennedy scored off a cross from Zach Willis, while Trey Bright secured the win with an unassisted breakaway in the second half. Mike Madigan had six saves for the Tigers (11-4-4), who will travel to Orange on Wednesday.
Post a Comment
The commenting period has ended or commenting has been deactivated for this article.
Can't find what you're looking for? Try our quick search:
