The Newport Central Catholic Thoroughbreds hit their home Morscher Field for the first time and held off the Walton-Verona Bearcats, 3-2.
NewCath led 2-1 at halftime and scored the game-winner with around 20 minutes left. Brady Diedenhofer scored twice for NewCath and Ryan Desmond scored the other one.
“This was a short rest period for us,” said Ben Williams, NewCath head coach. “Walton-Verona came out very excited to play and they had a lot of energy. It was hard to deal with at times. We were down a goal about 15 minutes in. We had to fight through a little bit.”
Mason McCloskey once again started at goalkeeper for the Thoroughbreds. McCloskey said NewCath tightened up on defense once they took the final lead, adding he made a good one-on-one save in the first half.
“I think I only touched the ball one more time the rest of the game,” McCloskey said. “We did better keeping the ball. We were more calm and focused.”
Logan Pronk had one goal and one assist for the Bearcats. Jonah Carrico scored the other goal and Tyler Wolfe added an assist with Sam Kunkle making 21 saves at goalkeeper.
Both teams resume action Saturday. Walton-Verona (0-1) travels to Campbell County (1-0-1) for a 10 a.m. game and NewCath (2-0) travels to Boone County (0-1) for a 1 p.m. battle.
Highlands 5, Beechwood 2
The Bluebirds (2-0) won their first 9th Region game behind a hat trick of four goals and one assist from Chad Gesenhues.
Harrison Gamble added one goal and one assist. Zach DeSylva and Tyler Whitney added assists.
Jack Wilson played in the first half and goalkeeper and Sam Lang once again played the second half. Both had three saves.
Gavin Warren and Cole Bishop had the Tigers goals, and Reece Bell had an assist. Goalkeeper Warner Platt had five saves.
Both teams play again Tuesday. Highlands plays host to Conner (0-1-1) at 7:45 p.m. and Beechwood (0-1) plays host to Ryle at 8 p.m.
Simon Kenton 2, Cooper 2
The Pioneers and Jaguars battled to a tie in Union to move their respective records to 0-1-1.
Dominick Dornbusch scored both Simon Kenton goals and Andrew Petty had an assist. Goalkeeper Miles Mullen had two saves.
Maddox Pemberton and Landon Hughes scored the Jaguar goals with Devin Montes and Liam Haswell recording assists.
Cooper travels to Madison Central (1-0-1) on Saturday for a 10:30 a.m. battle. Simon Kenton plays host to St. Henry late in the day at 5 p.m.
Holmes 11, St. Patrick 3
The Bulldogs (1-1) won the non-region road game behind two goals each from Gio Villegas Espionza and Alan Orzoco.
Maximas Tafoya had one goal and two assists with Robert Cameron and Andy Coronado tallying one goal and one assist each. Eduardo Gonzalez, Claude Tumusifu, Edgar Gabriel Reynoso and Gasper Laynez De La Cruz had one goal each with Jeyson Tomas Macario adding one assist. Miguel Kennedy and Villegas Espionza both played goalkeeper recording eight and two saves respectively.
Holmes travels to Calvary Christian (1-1) on Monday for a 5 p.m. game.
Other Boys Soccer Scores
Conner 1, Bishop Brossart 1
Campbell County 2, Holy Cross 2
Calvary Christian 11, Paris 1
Covington Catholic 2, South Oldham 2
Soccer, Girls
Holmes 11, St. Patrick 1
Holmes (1-1) ventured to Maysville and picked up the win.
Maddie Nicholas led the Bulldogs with five goals with Sarai Ramirez and Melissa Leal scoring two each. Tifani Nolasco and Emily Alvarez scored one each and Natasha Lee Cole had three saves at goalkeeper.
Holmes plays at Ludlow (1-0) on Saturday at 10:30 a.m.