Holy Cross will head to their first district title game since 2020 while Covington Catholic will go for their fourth straight 35th District championship on Thursday night.
Here’s how the action played out in the 35th on Tuesday night at Covington Catholic:
Holy Cross 2, Beechwood 1
The Indians (12-8-2) snapped a five-game losing streak to Beechwood and avenged a 9-1 defeat to the Tigers less than two weeks ago.
Holy Cross’ two goals came less than a minute apart in the first half and hung on from there despite dominating possession for the most of the night and having the more creative attack.
William Fisk scored the first goal on a header, Nico Voight with the assist in the 24th minute. Less than a minute later, Logan Brunk collected a pass from Voight in the box and finished to give the Indians all the momentum.
“The past couple years we’ve given them stuff really early. They scored within 15 seconds last game, a matchup a few years ago we gave them two goals in less than five minutes,” Indians coach Dave Groneck said. “Tonight they came out and told them the first five minutes was very important and luckily tonight we were able to strike first and play with the lead most of the game.”
Beechwood was unable to put anything together on the Indians back line in the first half with just one shot on goal, not a threatening one from about 35 yards out.
“We kept our midfield fresh. We haven’t subbed a lot all year, we’ve kind of been playing about 13 guys, but we kept the midfield fresh and we knew they’re gonna run all game. We dropped to a 4-5-1 really quickly to just kind of alleviate some pressure in the midfield then went back to our 4-4-2 to get our attack back on,” Groneck said. “Just kind of showed them a different formation for a few minutes kind of helps sometimes.”
After the Indians threatened to make it 3-0 with a couple of missed opportunities, Beechwood finally broke through in the 70th minute, Breaden Trejo scoring off a rebound.
Beechwood continued to try and find the equalizer, their last best chance coming in the 76th minute when Wyatt Driscoll made a sliding save to keep the lead for the Indians.
“At first I honestly thought I should have come out for it and then I stayed in the goal and stuck with my decision. I saw he was shooting to the right and then I just kind of slid and got it with my foot,” Driscoll said. “As a freshman we had to watch them destroy us in the All “A” and they beat us in the district semifinals too, so it feels good to beat them.”
Driscoll finished with four saves, most of his activity coming later in the game.
Brunk’s goal was his ninth of the season, the second most on the team behind Voight’s 27.
“Our urgency was big tonight. We played faster, had more pressure on them and feel like overall, we outhustled them,” Brunk said. “We’ve lost first round of Beechwood every year, since I’ve been here, this year we get to beat them and move on.”
Voight’s two assists also give him a team-high 13 on the season.
The Indians are the last and only team to defeat Covington Catholic in the 35th District tournament since it was formed in 2012. Holy Cross defeated CovCath in the 2019 championship, they’ve only met one time since, the 2020 championship game which was the start of three straight titles for the Colonels.
Thursday’s match is slated to start at 8 p.m. at Covington Catholic.
After a 4-7 start Beechwood (8-9-2) went 4-2-2 down the stretch. They’ll return all but two players for next season. The Tigers finished with five shots on goal, the Indians with six. Beechwood’s Warner Platt had six saves.
Covington Catholic 7, Holmes 0
The Colonels dominated this one, putting 21 shots on goal to the Bulldogs one.
Miguel Kennedy was able to keep Holmes in it for a while with eight first half saves, but the Colonels consistent pressure in the final third eventually was to much to bear.
Covington Catholic scored five second half goals after their first two came from a penalty kick in the 15th minute from Andrew Roland and a free kick from just outside the box from Cole Hubert in the 33rd minute.
A five-goal blitz in the second half started with Tyler Turnpaugh collecting a rebound and finding the back of the net in the 42nd minute. Turnpaugh followed with another on an assist from Aiden Leach in the 45th minute. Chris Wessels, Owen Robertson and Ben Kennedy followed with goals to finish out the Colonel scoring on the night.
Holmes best chance came in the 74th minute when Robert Cameron had a breakaway opportunity, but Lucas Short made a sliding stop to preserve the shutout.
The Bulldogs season comes to a close with a 7-12 record, the seven wins the most for the program since the 2016 season when they went 11-6-2. The Bulldogs have nine seniors on the roster.
Kennedy finished with 14 saves for Holmes.
Leach had two assists for the Colonels. Auggie Eilerman combined with Short for the shutout. CovCath (12-5-4) is on a 10-game unbeaten streak headed into Thursday’s final. They’ve won seven and tied three during that span.
CovCath and Holy Cross did not meet during the regular season.