Lions slip past Cougars in tournament final

Injuries to players during Saturday’s Cougar Cup seemed to hurt the rest of the Trinity Lutheran boys soccer team.

The Cougars managed to shut out Shoals 2-0 in the first match, but in the championship, Trinity trailed Lighthouse Christian 2-1 at halftime and allowed one more goal in the second half for a 3-1 loss.

One of the Cougars’ backfield defenders was injured within the first five minutes of the Shoals match, and

before they scored their final goal, another player went down.

“We had some people playing out of position, and we didn’t react well to it,” Cougars coach Justin Vorthmann said. “We did play well in the first game, especially with some guys out of position. But when Matthew Pinnow got injured in the first five minutes, that had some lineup issues because the Pinnows (Mark and Matthew) don’t come out.”

Against Shoals, Trinity made it 1-0 at 24:38 after the ball got away from a Jug Rox player in the backfield, and Sam Setty kicked the ball along the ground and to the left of the goalkeeper.

Shortly after Mitchell Flinn suffered an injury, with 3:07 remaining in the match, Stone Riddle received the ball near midfield, dribbled all the way to the goal and shot it past the goalie.

Cade Chudy was Lighthouse Christian’s spark in the championship match. He put the Lions on the scoreboard first at 20:30 of the first half after the ball got loose on a corner kick and he booted a straight shot into the right end of the goal.

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