November 8, 2007

sports

Boys soccer team loses at regionals

Kyle Buchwalder played hard at the YSHS boys soccer division III regional finals against Springfield Catholic Saturday. The Bulldogs lost 0-1.

By Virgil Hervey

It took the Springfield Catholic Irish 76 minutes to do it, but they finally broke a scoreless tie with four-and-a-half minutes left in the game to defeat the Yellow Springs High School boys soccer team 1–0 to take the regional final on Saturday, Nov. 3. The afternoon game was played on artificial turf in sunny, but windy, 60 degree weather at Northmont High School in Clayton. The Fighting Irish, ranked number two in the state going into the game, had beaten the Bulldogs 3–0 earlier in the season.

Yellow Springs had a territorial advantage for much of the first half of the game with many forays into Irish territory. The first six minutes was played mostly on Catholic Central’s end of the field. The Irish’s first serious attack on the Yellow Springs goal came seven minutes into the game on a close-in header after a free kick from midfield that goalie Alex Turner was able to grab. After that the Bulldogs regained control of the game. At 22:30 James Butler hit the crossbar with a hard shot off a breakaway. The last six minutes of the half was played mostly at midfield with Yellow Springs giving the Irish one last scare with 1:25 left on a Kevin Sikes-Gilbert header off a corner kick that just missed.

The second half was a back-and-forth affair, with both teams making it deep into their opponent’s end, but missing the goal or taking weak shots right at the goalie. In the first half, the Bulldogs had the wind at their back. Kicking into the wind changed the complexity of the game for Yellow Springs. At 30:45 Turner made a save on a weak shot and the ’Dogs turned it around and moved downfield, where Butler centered the ball and Ben Armstrong hit the crossbar with a header. For much of the rest of the half, both teams were able to drive into their opponent’s territory, but each came up empty.

With 7:30 left, the anxious crowd of 300 Bulldog supporters began stomping and chanting rhythmically, “Bulldogs, Bulldogs.” But at 4:31 Catholic Central’s Stefan Latham, who had been dogged by the Yellow Springs defense for the entire game, scored on a hard, low shot to Turner’s left off a centering pass that was screened by a crowd of players in front of the goal. Less than a minute later, Yellow Springs had a good chance to even the score on a hard shot that the Irish goalie bobbled and then fell upon amidst a swarm of Yellow Springs players.

Bulldog James Butler kicked the ball in last Saturday’s soccer division III regional finals against Springfield Catholic.

In the final minutes of the game Yellow Springs threw everything they had into the attack, including bringing their goalkeeper up to midfield. At 1:55 the Irish goalie made a difficult save on a high, hard one from Kyle Buchwalder. With 10 seconds left, Alexis Onfroy just missed on a last ditch attempt to send the game into overtime.

In the end, Yellow Springs had out shot the Irish 9–6, but had not been able to convert. The loss brought the Bulldogs’ record to 17–3–1. They were undefeated in the Metro Buckeye Conference and finished the season as the league champs.

There is still more soccer to come for Butler, Buchwalder, Armstrong and Turner, who play in the Senior All-Star Game at Northmont High School on Sunday, Nov. 11, at 2 p.m. The Bulldogs’ coach Jim Hardman will coach the DIII North All-Stars team.

On a team that accomplished much during the season, the following post-season honors were earned: Butler, Buchwalder, and Armstrong were named to the Metro Buckeye Conference All-Stars First Team; Turner, Brock GunderKline, Sikes-Gilbert, and Onfroy were named to the MBC Second Team; Butler was also named MBC player-of-the-year and Hardman MBC coach-of-the-year; Butler, Buchwalder, and Armstrong were named to the Division III Dayton North Sectional All-Stars First Team; Brock GunderKline, and Turner made the Second Team; and Onfroy was named to the Third Team; Butler also made the DIII Dayton District All-Star Team and the All-Ohio All-Stars Second Team; and Hardman was named DIII Dayton North Sectional coach-of-the-year and DIII Dayton District coach-of-the-year.

Contact: vhervey@ysnews.com