St. Xavier entered Wednesday’s KHSAA state soccer semifinal against Ryle nationally ranked No. 2, undefeated and looking to defend its state championship.
The Raiders didn’t care.
Ryle pushed St. Xavier to the brink, playing to a 1-1 tie through regulation and two overtime periods before falling to the Tigers 3-1 in penalty kicks.
The Raiders’ game plan nearly paid off. They allowed the Tigers to control possession while looking for opportunities to counterattack when they won the ball. St. Xavier finished with 19 shots, eight on goal, compared to Ryle’s nine shots, four of which were on target.
“We talked a lot about how we didn’t want them to get in the corners because they really like to get in the corners and get that ball across,” Raiders coach Stephen Collins said. “Our plan was to prevent them from getting to the corners and make them have to make that ball cross the field earlier, where we had a chance and a lot of guys sitting to clear it out.”
Ryle nearly produced its trademark early goal, something the Raiders had done consistently throughout the regular season and postseason. Cooper Neace turned in the box and fired a shot on goal in the opening minutes, but Tigers goalkeeper Thomas Kron made a last-ditch save with his right hand.
St. Xavier quickly countered, with Logan Seales finding the back of the net on an assist from James Walker less than two minutes into the match.
PHOTOS: Slideshow provided by Charles Bolton
But the Raiders weren’t fazed.
“We weren’t scared of them. A lot of teams that play them are scared,” Neace said. “Then we just went full throttle and had confidence.”
Neace, who was a constant threat in the midfield with his speed, broke free in the 12th minute. In a one-on-one opportunity with Kron, the goalkeeper took Neace’s legs out, earning Ryle a penalty kick.
Chase McCarthy converted to even the score at 1-1.
The scoreboard remained unchanged from there, but not for a lack of opportunities. St. Xavier applied constant pressure, hitting the crossbar three times: once in the closing seconds of the first half, again late in the second half and a third time in the closing seconds of the first overtime period.
Ryle’s best opportunity came in the 62nd minute, when a sliding Daniel Lopez sent a shot just wide of the left post.
Neither team could find a winner through 80 minutes of regulation and two 10-minute overtime periods, sending the match to penalty kicks.
In the best-of-five format, St. Xavier struck first as Brady Youssefizad sent his shot into the bottom-left corner. Ryle’s Danny Harding followed but fired just wide of the right post.
Tigers midfielder Max Fahey then hit the right post, while Maddox Rollins converted for Ryle to even the shootout at 1-1 after two rounds.
Walker converted for St. Xavier in the third round, while McCarthy missed wide right, giving the Tigers a 2-1 advantage.
Seales converted for St. Xavier in the fourth round, and Damien Lakkis was denied by Kron, sealing the Tigers’ 3-1 shootout victory.
“We’ve been practicing them, but it’s different to do it down here in a state final four game when you’ve played what 90 minutes of soccer and you got all the fans over here,” Collins said. “That’s a whole lot different than when you do it at practice. And so even though we’ve practiced PKs more this year than we have in any other season, it just doesn’t translate.”
The semifinal loss was a familiar outcome for Ryle. Wednesday marked the Raiders’ fifth trip to the state semifinals since 2017, and they’ve now lost all five appearances. Three of those defeats have come in penalty kicks, including two against St. Xavier. The Tigers also eliminated Ryle in 2023. The Raiders’ other semifinal loss came in double overtime against Daviess County.
“If I stay around long enough we’re going to win one of these,” Collins said. “It’s been quite a few of these that we’ve had to go through, but hey, they they played hard. I mean, number two team in the country, and I think we gave them all they could handle, and that’s all we could ask.”
Ryle’s resurgence this season came through a renewed commitment to the team. After missing the region tournament altogether last year, the Raiders made changes and saw their players buy into a new approach.
“They struggled last year as juniors,” Collins said. “We couldn’t couldn’t find the right mix, and we couldn’t get get the right leadership. So at the end of last season, our kind of mantra to them was, next year we need to come in with a clean slate, and we got to come with open minds, and we’re going to try some things. And we we we played two formations this year, which we’ve never done before, and we made them learn a second formation, which we used tonight. It was not our main formation, and we talked about how we had to be more of a team and less individuals if you wanted to go where you want. And so it was a growing process.”
The Raiders will graduate 19 seniors from this year’s roster, bringing an end to a group that has spent much of its high school careers growing together.
“A lot of us started from the freshman team all the way up,” Lakkis said. “Last four or five years, we’ve learned how to play for this team. A lot of us are close. A lot of us are friends outside of high school so you know we really are family. I think that’s what makes us special.”
ST. XAVIER 1, RYLE 1 (St. Xavier wins 3-1 in penalty kicks)
RYLE — 1-0-0-0 — 1
ST. XAVIER — 1-0-0-0 — 1
Game Stats
Goals: (SX) Seales (2′), (R) McCarthy PK (12′)
Assists: (SX) Walker
Shots (on goal): Ryle 9 (4), St. Xavier 19 (8)
Saves: Ryle 7 (Stropko), St. Xavier 3 (Kron)
Corner Kicks: Ryle 0, St. Xavier 8
Records: Ryle 24-4-1, St. Xavier 24-0-1
