Bull Dogs top Cougars, owls to win boys soccer sectional

Soccer matches can often be decided on one little break and that is all it took for Columbus North to defeat Seymour 1-0 in the championship match of the Seymour Sectional Saturday night at C.B. Hess Memorial Field.

North's Jeremy Barnes scored at 35:52 of the second half and that was all the Dogs needed.
North advanced to the finals with a  5-1 win over Trinity Lutheran, and Seymour advanced with a 3-0 win over Brown County.

"You hate to lose like this 1-0," Owls coach Wil Smith said after North shut out his team for the second time this season. "The goal that slipped in there on us was like a counter attack, boom boom. It got knocked down the field and we were a little bit out of position.

"We played them even up there for a while." North had nine shots on goal to four for Seymour.
Smith said Seymour's best chance to score was when Daniel Koester had a header off a corner kick with five minutes remaining, but the shot was stopped by the North goalie. "I thought it was in," Smith said.

"The boys did well. We played exactly how we wanted to play. We tucked it in tight and clogged up the middle. We were patient and we didn't over commit almost the whole game.

"We let them knock it around and we took our chances to win the ball. We moved people out of the defensive area and moved them up late in the game. When you do that you're going to win some set pieces."
Seymour finished 10-7-2.

Semi-finals

In the opening match of the day, North held a 3-0 lead at the half on three goals by Alex Abedian. He also had a goal in the second half.

North led 5-0 when Bradley Tabeling scored Trinity's goal at 27:41.

"Our goal, coming in, was to keep the score 0-0 as long as we could," Cougars coach Dan Sievert said. "We were pretty respectable of their program and knew of the talent level they had.

"For us, a victory would be to keep them out of the net, and they earned some goals. They go hard to the goal. These weren't fluke goals. They were well-earned. We had a couple breakdowns chasing down some crosses. (Abedian) has a rocket foot. That was a beautiful goal, and there was nothing Chad (VanLiew)could do about that.

"The first three were in the hole and we changed our offensive formation and switched to an offensive set and tried and get a goal."
The Cougars finished with a record of 10-3-2.

Sievert said the team has a lot to look forward to. "When were setting out goals at the beginning of the season we said lets stay .500, and represent Trinity well. A 10-3-2 record for a school of 115 (students) and the people we play is just outstanding. I couldn't be more proud of what they achieved. Forty-eight of our 49 goals were scored by sophomores. We had a senior, a junior and everybody else was a sophomore or a freshman on the field. We're looking for fun things down the road the next two years and see what they can do."

The second match was scoreless until Koester kicked a high ball from 30 yards out that went over the goalie and into the net at 20:50 of the second half.

The score stayed 1-0 until Michael Bowen drilled a penalty kick at 3:23, and Jason Kincer added a goal at 2:47.

"It seems like the boys started out real slow," Smith said. "We didn't get going until the last 15 minutes in the half. We were not pleased with our play early in the game.
"The defense played well. (Josh) Caplinger and the back four did well. We had a chance to rest some people pretty early."

Results

Finals
Seymour 0 0-0
North 0 1-1
Shots: SHS 4, CN 9
Goal saves: Caplinger 5

Semifinals
North 3 2-5
Trinity 0 1-1
TL goal: Tabeling; assist-Hensley.
Shots: CN 28, CN 6
Goal saves: VanLiew 18.

Seymour 0 3-3
Brown Co. 0 0-0
SHS goals: Koester, Bowens,. Kincer, assist: Martin
Shots: SHS 16, BC 3
Saves: Caplinger 1, Edington 2