It’s a sunny Monday afternoon and the Ryle Raiders boys soccer team hits the field for practice with four days between the state quarterfinal and semifinal games. Two years ago when Ryle was in the state semis, just two days separated the two rounds.
“We’re a little banged up so the fact that we get some rest is really nice,” said Stephen Collins, Ryle head coach. “We’re not as deep this year as we’ve been in years past so it allows a lot of starters who have played a lot of minutes to kind of rejuvenate and get better. Plus, it allows us to refocus and gives us more time to game plan and figure out what we’re going to do.”
The Raiders (19-4-2 overall) take on the defending state champion Lexington Dunbar Bulldogs (17-2-3) at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in the second state semifinal game Thursday. Louisville St. Xavier (23-1-3) takes on Bowling Green (19-2) in the first semifinal game at 4 p.m.
Junior goalkeeper Landon Barth played that role in the state semifinal game two years ago as a freshman and made seven saves in a Raiders loss. Barth has 136 saves this year.
Senior defender/midfielder Alex Huff also started in that game but he is out for the season with a torn left Anterior Cruciated Ligament (ACL).
“It stinks what happened. It’s a part of the game and it’s a big learning part as far as leadership goes being captain,” Huff said. “Being vocal even when you’re not out on the field, you’re trying to make an impact on the field. You’re trying to help players, bring them together and keep them focused on the game, really doing whatever you can to help the team win the game.”
Ryle has won a pair of 1-0 games in the state tournament taking out 10th Region champion Montgomery County then 12th Region champion Boyle County on Saturday in Danville.
The Raiders have outscored opponents, 63-25 with 10 shutouts this year.
“Being on the plus side of those games has really helped their confidence and the kids can see that defensively, we’re there with some of the top teams in the state as long as we follow the game plan, stay focused and do some of the little things,” Collins said. “The flip side of that is they’re really stressful and you don’t get to play as many guys off the bench. That means your starters have a little more wear and tear so you have to trust that they know what’s best for their bodies and they let you know if they need that extra rest or not throughout the week in terms of practice.”
Ryle plays the 4-5-1 (defender-midfielder-forward) formation. Collins said that Dunbar, on film, appears to play a 3-4-3 and modify it in many different ways. The Bulldogs have outscored opponents, 70-17 with 10 shutouts.
The Bulldogs have four players that have at least six goals. Junior Joany Chavez and senior Antonio Blackman led Dunbar with each scoring 11 goals and adding seven assist for 29 points.
“They don’t have a stud,” Collins said. “In all honesty, a team that has several guys who can score can sometimes be harder to game-plan against because you don’t know who the guy is that’s going to step up that game.”
Collins credited team leadership for helping Ryle go this far in the postseason after starting the season 1-2-2.
“We’ve spent a lot of this year working on defenses,” Collins said. “This is a program built on defense. This is more of an offensive team than we’ve had in the past. Midway, through the year, the kids began to pick it up. The kids are starting to understand what we’ve wanted from day one and you can see that on the field because we’re doing a good of making sure when guys get open, it’s the guys that are furthest away from the goal and less dangerous.”
Ryle did a goob job winning the 50/50 balls at Boyle County on Saturday. The Raiders know it will be a key again Thursday.
“It’s been successful. (Junior forward/midfielder) Josh Line wins a lot of them,” said Gandhi Merida, Ryle senior forward/midfielder. “He’s our tallest man in the middle. If we win most 50s, we have the advantage over most everyone.”
Ryle owns seven region championships since Collins took over the program in 2004. The Raiders have lost in the state semifinal round in their last two state appearances.
The Raiders finished state runner-up in 2006 and 2011.
