The Red Devils couldn’t convert on a number of offensive chances on Saturday, leaving the window open for Apollo to win a shootout to grab a 2-1 district win on the road.
Owensboro came out of the gates looking to set the tone right away, as junior Peter Saang was able to draw a foul in the box six minutes in. He proceeded to sink the penalty kick, giving them an early 1-0 lead.
The Red Devils controlled possession throughout much of the first half, but a counter eight minutes later led to a foul on junior keeper Alex Carpenter on a save attempt. Making contact with the shooter sent senior Long Berly to take the PK, as he sank it to tie it at 1-1 in the 28th minute.
Going into halftime tied at 1-1, Owensboro continued to push the action offensively in the second half. The Red Devils rattled off a number of shots throughout the contest, with two true threats coming in the final five minutes of the game.
Neither were able to find the back of the net, giving Apollo one last chance in regulation. The Eagles got a shot with 30 seconds left on the clock, but Carpenter was able to make the save and send it into overtime.
Owensboro was able to get a shot off in both of the five-minute OT periods, but with both teams still knotted up at 1-1 the game went to a shootout. Saang and junior Ra Son netted the first penalty shots for their respective squads, while Carpenter and senior Steven Teran followed it up with big saves on the second shots.
Teran proceeded to save the second and third shots by Owensboro, while Berly put Apollo out in front with his second PK of the day. Sovar nearly sank the fourth shot for the Red Devils to even up the shootout, but his shot rang off of the crossbar and just missed the line for the goal.
This left the door open for senior Cesar Gonzalez to put the finishing touches off of a nice district win for the Eagles, as he sank the fourth PK in order to grab a 2-1 win. With Apollo playing on the defensive for a vast majority of the game, assistant coach Dakota Morgan—who filled in for a sick Ryan Poirer—was pleased with his team’s mental toughness.
“Just the complete mentality of the team [was key],” Morgan said. “It starts with our three center backs and it works all the way up. Our center backs were able to push up the field, spread out the field and move the ball up to our forwards and we were able to get that PK back. Once we were able to do that and calm back down a little bit more, it kind of started swinging back our way.”
Morgan and company were feeling pretty good when the game went to a shootout, fully trusting that Teran could go and keep them in the game with some saves if they did their job offensively.
“I was very confident,” Morgan said. “Steven is one of the best goalkeepers I’ve ever seen in my life. When he’s on, he’s on. He can read PK shooters like reading a book. It’s just cutting butter for him. I’ve been around for three years now and almost every PK shootout we go into, he saves at least one. He’s always keeping us in it. He’s just that lifesaver that we have.”
The win helps Apollo’s postseason implications, moving them to 3-5 overall and 2-2 in district play with a game against Owensboro Catholic and Daviess County left on the schedule. Morgan said the win really helps them move forward, especially given that they were able to put some of their recent struggles behind them.
“It was huge,” Morgan said. “You know we came off of the Catholic loss in PK’s, then we go to 1-1 in district and then we lose a hard fought game to DC and we go to 1-2 and we have a three-way tie for second place. So tonight was super huge for us to try and get that second seed.”
Meanwhile, Owensboro falls to 3-3-2 overall and 1-3 in district play, just falling short of a district victory. Despite the result, Head Coach Ryan Haley felt that the team played well.
“I thought our guys played a good game,” Haley said. “I thought our boys did a good job kind of controlling the tempo of the game for the most part in the beginning of the game. I think we got a little fatigued and were a little shallow in some spurts, but we would always get control again.”
Haley wasn’t pleased with the officiating on the day, feeling as though some things should’ve gone their way. However, Haley said that if they had taken advantage of some of their opportunities in their attacking third that it wouldn’t matter.
“I thought there were some fouls in the box that were just blatantly obvious,” Haley said. “I think we’re just not getting calls right now, it’s kind of a theme [lately]. But outside of that we as a team have to finish our chances. We had 26 shots to their 13 and sometimes that’s just the way it rolls.”
Haley said that they plan to work on it in practice going forward, knowing that if they can continually improve in that area they will be able to close out the second half of the season strong.
“It’s repetition, it’s timing,” Haley said. “We have to put some work into our timing on our runs and our finishing. It’s something that we’ve been working on and it needs a little more work. But I’m proud of them. I think they’re all disappointed and we all are, but at the end of the day we just gotta get better.”
The Red Devils will get some more game action first to try and shore some things up, taking on Meade County at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday. Apollo on the other hand will host Franklin-Simpson on Saturday, with kickoff set for 10:30 a.m.
