Two tight 33rd District semifinal games Sunday at Conner’s Fred Nevel Stadium.
The top-seeded Ryle Raiders (16-2-1) and third-seeded Cooper Jaguars (7-6-5) earned the tough wins and will face each other for the third time in four years for the district championship at 8 p.m. on Tuesday. Ryle is seeking its fourth straight district championship and Cooper is looking for its first one since 2018.
Cooper 1, Conner 0
It was no surprise this game came down to the final shot as neither team wanted to see its season end.
With one minute remaining, Cooper sophomore goalkeeper Carson Morgan had a goal kick and Conner head coach John Walker told his player the Cougars needed to win the 50-50 ball to have a chance to tie the game. The Cougars drew a penalty on the kick and booted the free kick into the attack box, but Cooper cleared it out of bounds over the end line giving Conner a corner kick with just under 10 seconds left. Conner senior Jeremy Alig got a shot off to the left side, but Morgan stopped it with two seconds left to preserve the win.
“The corner came in and got flicked on to (Alig), then he headed it,” Morgan said. “I was in good position. I got the ball and went down with it to make sure we secured the win. Defense is the reason we won the game.”
Both teams had 12 shots. Both goalkeepers made some nice saves. Conner goalkeeper Owen King made six saves and Morgan had three.
“I’m extremely proud, especially after we graduated 18 seniors and a lot of experience last year,” said Doug Flesch, Cooper head coach. “We’re extremely young. But our sophomores and two freshmen have stepped up big time this year. The leadership from our upperclassmen runs downhill so I give props to them first.”
Both teams had their chances on free kicks. Cooper’s leading goal-scorer in sophomore Maddox Pemberton had several opportunities before landing his 12th goal of the season with 17:34 left in the game. It hit off the top crossbar and ricocheted in over the goal line.
“First of all, (teammate) Jackson Carnes was driving. He got us a free kick,” Pemberton said. “I saw that the wall was set up weird so I just curled it on the wrong side of the ball because (King) was set up on the other side. I got a lucky bounce. I knew we had get that goal to win.”
Cooper put up seven shots on net compared to three for the Cougars (9-6-2). The Jaguars also doubled up the Cougars, 4-2 in corner kicks.
The Jaguars had to fight like crazy to preserve the lead in the game’s tense final 15 minutes. Conner had 15 fouls including four yellow cards to four for Cooper and no yellow cards.
The results between the two reversed from last year. The Cougars beat the Jaguars, 2-1 in Union on Sept. 21 and won last year’s district semifinal game between the two by the same score in a shootout.
“We struggled with the midfield in the first game,” Flesch said. “When we went back and watched the film, we broke it down. The boys came in with a game plan and executed it exactly how we wanted it.”
Conner graduates eight seniors from this year’s team. Conner won its last district championship in 2019.
“That’s what I told them at halftime. I said we need to continue to play and attack,” Walker said. “I am so proud of them for doing that even though our season was cut short. The seniors led this all the way to the end. They’re going to be missed dearly.”
Ryle 2, Boone County 0
The Raider defense had to hold the fort down for a good bit of the game before Ryle scored twice in the game’s final four minutes to avoid a potential upset.
Ryle doubled up Boone County, 16-8 in total shots. Boone County junior goalkeeper David Courtney recorded eight saves and Ryle goalkeeper Landon Barth did not have as much action, recording three.
“It was definitely rough,” said Owen Schierberg, Ryle senior defender. “But once we started giving that extra effort to keep (balls) out (of the attacking box), we were able to start working on getting those goals. It’s more of those through balls making us run after them that makes it hard to keep up.”
Ryle had a big opportunity to score with 26:30 left in the game when Josh Line drew a yellow card in the attacking box on Courtney. But backup goalkeeper Thierno Balde came off the bench for the Rebels (6-10-2) and deflected Line’s penalty kick to the left to keep the game scoreless.
“We played hard. We fought hard,” said Tony Trenkamp, Boone County head coach. “We were cohesive. We had a game plan and stuck with it. We got some of the bounces to go our way. It just wasn’t enough. We’re extremely proud of this group and it’s just the way it goes sometimes.”
Ryle broke the ice with 3:40 left when Diego Hoenderkamp drew a penalty in the box and hit the penalty kick for his team-high 22nd goal of the season. Brice Denigan gave the Raiders an insurance goal just more than one minute later off a deflection from a Boone County defender.
“We knew coming off the Homecoming Dance last night that Boone County was going to give us everything they got,” said Stephen Collins, Ryle head coach. “They really did play like they had nothing to lose. We had to keep grinding it. We had faith in our defense they were not going to give up a goal. Thankfully, we’ve been able to score every game this year so we felt eventually one was going to get through. We hit the post a couple times early. Luckily, one got in, then another one to give us some breathing room.”
The Rebels graduate seven seniors, but do return Courtney and their leading goal-scorer in Edwin Pajazetovic. Boone County last made the region tournament in 2014.