Owensboro’s high school team was looking to make a statement in this week’s 2nd Annual Owensboro Street Soccer Bowl, and a championship win Thursday night will go a long way in helping them do so.
After taking down Apollo in the semifinals earlier in the night, Owensboro beat Madisonville 2-0 in the high school division title game at Legion Park. Owensboro coach Ryan Haley, who also coaches the regular soccer team at the high school, said the win was a long time coming.
“It’s big for our program,” he said. “These kids have been in my life since they were in fifth grade. To come away with a win, it’s overdue. We’ve struggled with being the ones to beat ourselves a lot in past games and past tournament.”
In last year’s semifinal round, OHS lost to Apollo despite a 4-0 lead with five minutes to play. Earlier this week, they lost to Madisonville after an early advantage.
“The emphasis going in was to not beat ourselves,” Haley said. “If we did the little things right, we’d hopefully come away with a victory. They listened, and I’m absolutely proud of them.”
Owensboro got a taste of what they can expect in other tough year of district play, squaring off in a rematch against a gritty Apollo squad to earn their spot in the championship.
“We knew they were going to be really tough,” Haley said. “They’ve got some really talented players. You can’t give them much room because they’ve got really good foot skills.”
After grinding out the semifinal win, Haley said the goal was to stay focused and eliminate mistakes.
“The same kind of methodology that went into that game went into the championship game,” he said. “We weren’t really worried about what other people were doing. We were worried about us. We didn’t want to be in our way.”
Haley expects the win to translate into success for the high school regular season, and he’s got high expectations.
“Hopefully this is momentum for us going forward into the season,” Haley said. “They kind of wanted everybody to know they were here. This was a big wave to everybody that we’re going to try to make some noise. We try every year, but they really feel confident.”
While he coaches both teams, Haley said the success lies with his players. With a group that’s played together for several years, he said they’ve taken it upon themselves to dedicate time to getting better.
“I take no credit — this is them,” he said. “We got together and practiced twice the week before this began. They’re not really an organized futsal team. It’s just a bunch of boys who got together. All in all, they played together and they played for each other. They wanted to win.”
