With 5:11 left in the game, Simon Kenton senior forward Dominick Dornbusch created space in the middle and fired one into the left part of the goal for his team-high 12th of the season.
While it equaled the number of goals the Pioneers (12-10-2) scored in the other four trips to the 8th Region semifinals in the current format, Simon Kenton could not keep the two-time defending region champion North Oldham Mustangs off the scoreboard in a 3-1 loss at Carroll County.
The Pioneers have lost all nine meetings against the Oldham County teams in the region tournament since the current format started in 2012, including three to the Mustangs.
“I thought in the first half, we executed our game plan. We made them play direct. We won the balls and they didn’t really have any good opportunities,” said Jeremy Wolfe, Simon Kenton head coach. “They made some adjustments in the second half and caught us a couple times. It’s hard to keep a team out of the net for 80 minutes when you play as defensive as we did.”
Overall, North Oldham outshot Simon Kenton 14-12, the Mustangs putting two more on goal and the Pioneers first one on net coming with 8:34 left.
The teams entered halftime scoreless. North Oldham outshot Simon Kenton, 6-4 in that half with two on frame that Mullen saved. North Oldham goalkeeper Cooper Judy made three saves in the game while those were Mullen’s two.
North Oldham (7-8-4) dented the scoreboard with 33:24 left in the game when Jack Price scored his first of two goals. His second then came on a wide-open shot in the middle on an assist from Braden Ammons to put the Mustangs up 2-0 with 22:44 left in the game. Mullen tried to grab the ball that came into the attacking box on the second goal, but he could not secure it.
North Oldham earned its final goal with 18:21 left in the game. Grayson Roederer took one in the middle about 10 yards away from the attack box and scored to give the Mustangs that 3-0 lead.
“That third goal was a rip,” Wolfe said. “After they scored, we had to open up and press a bit. We knew we were going to give up a few opportunities by doing that. But I thought we created a few ourselves, got a few corner kicks. We just couldn’t get that one to tie. Then they got the second, it just gets harder from there.”
Both teams had their share of free kicks to go with four corner kicks each. North Oldham had seven fouls to five for Simon Kenton and the teams received one yellow card each.
Simon Kenton made it back to the region semifinals for the fifth time since 2012, but it marked the first appearance since 2018.
Simon Kenton graduates nine seniors from the team that won its third consecutive 32nd District championship. The Pioneers improved their win total by three from last year.
