It’s been 742 days since Conner last dropped a regular-season district match, and for the second year in a row the Cougars have secured the No. 1 seed for the 33rd District Tournament.
On Thursday night at Fred Nevel Stadium in Hebron, Conner and Ryle went the distance, 80 minutes of regulation, two five-minute overtimes, and finally penalty kicks, before the Cougars prevailed 1-1 (4-3 PK).
With four teams in the district—in comparison to others across the state that may only feature two or three teams and automatic bids to the region tournament—every advantage counts, making the top seed especially valuable heading into the postseason.
“It meant everything,” Conner head coach John Walker said. “You get toward the end of the season like this and you get down to your last district game. That district game means you get to be the No. 1 seed and in this district, we have to fight to get out of here. It’s not as simple as two teams just advance. We have to fight and that’s why this is so intense.”
The intensity was evident. Physical, emotional, and packed with urgency, the matchup carried the feel of a postseason battle, each side trading blows from start to finish.
Preston Scott put Ryle ahead in the 11th minute before Conner’s Ayden Terry answered in the 29th with a penalty kick. Neither side broke through again in regulation.
In the shootout, the Cougars finally delivered the decisive punch. They converted four of their five attempts, while Ryle had one stopped by goalkeeper Abram Dostal and another sail over the crossbar.
“We practice those, probably have for the last month,” Walker said. “Every practice, we have PKs at the end. We started building our group to make PKs and it’s a good thing the keepers get a lot of practice from them.”
Even while keeping pace with Conner, the Raiders were hampered by injuries.
“We played the second half without two key starters and already were down two with injuries,” Ryle head coach Stephen Collins said. “We hung in there the best we could. The message was to keep going forward and do what you have to do. We played well in the second half, but credit to them, we let them dictate the tempo.”
With Conner finishing 3-0 against district opponents to clinch the top seed, the Cougars will face No. 4 seed Boone County in the 33rd District semifinals. Ryle takes the No. 3 spot and will meet No. 2 seed Cooper. Conner topped Boone 3-0 and the Raiders fell to Cooper 3-0 in their respective matchups on Sept. 11.
“Our district is the toughest, and now we’ve got to play at home against a Cooper team that got the better of us,” Collins said. “Hopefully our boys come out with some vengeance, a little fire in their belly, and show Cooper what we’re really about.”
Ryle (8-6-2) has two games remaining and will return home Tuesday to face Bishop Brossart at 7:45 p.m. in Union.
Conner (11-6-1) has three regular-season games left, beginning with a trip to Christian Academy-Louisville on Saturday at noon.
More photos below, provided by Charles Bolton:
