Rebels suffer shootout heartbreak
COLUMBIANA — Crestview and Lake Center Christian’s boys soccer teams had a lot of time to think about their penalty kick shootout to settle the Div. III district semifinal.
After playing to a scoreless draw after two overtimes on Tuesday, the match was halted due to darkness before the penalty kick round could begin. The two schools, instead, had to make arrangements to finish it. Both coaches said they have never seen a situation like it.
“Honest to god, we could have did a best of seven coin toss on Skype and whoever won just goes on,” Crestview coach Jonathan Kinkead said.
Crestview and Lake Center settled on returning to Crestview’s soccer field at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday. It was an hour and 15 minute bus trip for Lake Center to shoot the penalty kick round which ended up taking 15 minutes.
The result: Lake Center 6, Crestview 5.
Lake Center senior goalkeeper Caleb Bower saved a shot by Jacob Wickline to end the shootout. The Tiger players rushed the field to the delight of the traveling fans who stood along the sideline waiting anxiously for the shootout to come to its conclusion.
“Crestview made us a better team,” Lake Center coach Derek Taylor said. “I feel horrible for (Wickline) for them. It’s a horrible way to end the season. We’ve been there before.”
Lake Center advances to meet top-seed and defending Div. III state runner-up South Range at noon on Saturday at Reilly Stadium in Salem.
“We’re maybe not the most skilled technical team, but we fight to the end,” Taylor said. “We’re excited about the opportunity South Range brings us.”
Taylor said the Raiders have eliminated the Tigers (10-5-2) from the tournament the last three years.
The Rebels (10-4-4) prepared for the shootout by working on penalty kicks for the majority of practice on Wednesday. Lake Center did the same and also spent time right before coming to Crestview working on the kicks. School was not in session on Thursday for Lake Center because of a teacher training day.
When both teams arrived for the shootout neither team dared venture from the normal routine reserved for warm-ups. Penalty kick practice right before the actual shootout was out of the question.
“I just wanted them to relax and just think of this as another game,” Taylor said.
Only one goal was available to use on Thursday. Overnight rain had made the goal nearest to the school building a mud pit. The one facing a wooded area was chosen instead.
Two officials instead of the typical three were used. They were not in uniform.
Lake Center’s Drew Domer, C.J. Bancroft, Nick Hopkins, Riley Shultz and Bower scored for past Crestview’s Costen Santelmo.
The Tigers had no trouble putting their goalkeeper in the first rotation to take a penalty kick.
“Our goalkeeper is one of our best offensive players for us,” Taylor said. “He’s won five games for us in the field this year. He was nervous about taking the kick and we asked him to do because he’s a leader.”
Joel Meyer converted the deciding penalty kick right before Bower saved the Rebel shot.
Santelmo was in his first penalty shootout of his career and he said it was pretty hard to have to wait so long for it to finally happen.
“I was really nervous on Tuesday,” Santelmo said. “I got to school Wednesday and nerves went away as practice came around. I was nervous again today in school but by the time school was over I was ready.”
Crestview’s Luke Wickline, Scott Murray, Jeff Roberts, Mitch Lindsay and Matthew Nery all scored on their attempts for the Rebels.
After all of the first five made their shots, both coaches had to choose the next five. Kinkead said he felt like it might come down to that.
“We had a feeling who our five would be and we also had a feeling it would go two rounds,” Kinkead said. “We had our second five ready.”
Kinkead said Lake Center’s strength was the size of their players and it showed on defense.
“They’re a strong team,” Kinkead said. “We had been playing really great soccer the last month or so because we had a great awakening. We moved a few players around and were playing really fast. These guys shut us down. They’re big athletic guys. They don’t have a football program so they have a few defensive ends and middle linebackers out there. They’re good soccer players too. They’re hard to get around.”