Left, right, low or high, everything the Enka soccer team did worked in penalty kicks.
The visiting Jets clipped Freedom, 4-2, in a PK shootout after 110 minutes of combined regulation and overtime left things in a 1-1 deadlock Saturday night in a second-round 3A state playoff match at the Catawba River Soccer Complex.
“I’ve said for some time, I think there’s got to be a better way to end a playoff game,” Patriot coach David Fletcher said. “It’s like ending a basketball game on a free-throw contest. I just don’t think it’s right. It’s a lot of pressure on the kids, and it becomes an individual thing when the sport is about team.
“Certainly, we congratulate Enka though. They earned it.”
Enka (12-9-2) struck first in the 28th minute on a cross into the middle and one-timer to beat Patriot goalkeeper Matthew Watson on the near post.
Freedom (15-7-2), which dominated possession in the opening 15 minutes, finally found the net in the 56th minute off a Jose Tejeda goal (his fourth of the playoffs) assisted by Yaret Regino.
The Pats certainly had their chances to end things and advance further into the postseason before the two regular 10-minute overtimes and the subsequent pair of five-minute sudden-death sessions as Tejeda, Regino and Sinson Lee combined for multiple solid scoring looks.
A Lee shot from 20 yards out sailed just high in the fourth minute before Tejeda found Regino on the left wing with the goalie drawn out for a shot that missed left in the eighth minute. Later in the opening half, a Tejeda cross and a Christian Patton flip throw-in each barely missed Freedom players in attack position.
A 74th-minute long Patton throw from next to the corner flag just missed Tejeda’s foot, then Lee lifted a header just over the crossbar a couple minutes later. And with a minute to play in regulation, a Regino steal and pass ahead to Justin Hang for a potential point-blank game-winner was denied by a Jet defender’s sliding stop.
Watson snatched a would-be goal the other way to begin overtime, keeping his team’s hopes alive when a ball floated perilously close to the line in the 82nd minute. Tejeda then was denied the second of his two nice double-overtime looks when the Jets’ keeper drilled him as both players scrapped for a loose ball near the 18.
Freedom started PKs with Levi Andrews bouncing in a score off the left post, and Robby Goodchild found the upper 90 to beat the goalie left on Freedom’s third try, but the hosts’ second and fourth chances missed. And when Enka nailed its fourth straight attempt, Freedom’s season was frustratingly over.
“We wasted too many chances in regulation,” Fletcher said. “I felt like we shouldn’t have let it get to that. We missed so many good opportunities on the back side. We just did not play up to our abilities tonight.”
Fletcher noted that the future of Freedom soccer is bright, however, as the squad has now improved from fourth place overall in the South Mountain 2A/3A Conference in 2009, to third in ’10 and second this fall.
“I think our kids coming back will use this in a positive way,” he said. “It was just one game, and we had a very good season overall. The seniors stepped up and showed the younger players the things you have to do in order to have success. And we can build off that.”
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement