Considering how young his team is, Tuesday’s season-ending loss was acceptable to Fort Osage boys soccer coach Andrew Fletcher.
Up against a “more talented” Winnetonka squad, Fletcher’s Indians tried to keep it close and hope to sneak in a goal. It worked for a half, but the second-seeded Griffins scored two goals in the second half to post a 2-0 win in the Class 3 District 15 semifinals at Fort Osage. William Chrisman also saw its season come to a close with a 6-0 loss to Liberty in the other semifinal.
“That was our game plan, to sit back and play defense and hope to hit them on a break,” Fletcher said after his Indians finished 8-14. “We’d knew we’d have one or two good opportunities and we had to take advantage of those. We did get those – in fact, I think we probably outplayed them about the last 30 minutes – but we couldn’t finish.”
Goalkeeper Hunter Hickey, one of Fort Osage’s few seniors, managed to keep it close by making 13 saves on 21 Winnetonka shots.
“Our goal was to make it at least to the district semifinals and we did that,” he said. “We just wanted to see how far we could get. But we achieved a lot of our goals for the season. You hate to lose, but we had a good year.”
The Indians appeared they might have a chance to extend their season after keeping it scoreless heading into halftime. The defense, led by senior Mark Wisecup, and Hickey frustrated the Griffins, denying them on 13 first-half shots and nine corner kicks.
“It was really exciting, and it was good to know we were still in the game,” Hickey said. “We had a chance and were able to hang in until the end, so it was good for me.”
It took Winnetonka just 16 seconds to strike in the second half. Daniel Taylor sent a pinpoint perfect pass from midfield to the top of the penalty box, where Andrew Martin beat Hickey for a 1-0 lead.
“That first one, they just caught us off guard,” Hickey said. “Their guy just made a great pass.”
Ishmael Zinnah made it 2-0 about 15 minutes later when he weaved through the Fort Osage up the left end line and slipped a shot past Hickey into the upper part of the next from a near impossible angle.
“The second one, that was just an amazing shot,” Hickey said. “He got me on that one. He’s an amazing player.”
The Indians controlled play quite a bit from there but could never get a quality scoring chance against Winnetonka goalkeeper Hunter Hampton.
“We’ve got such a young team, but we outplayed them there for a while,” Fletcher said. “I couldn’t be more proud of the way they played; I couldn’t be more happy with them.”
LIBERTY 6, WILLIAM CHRISMAN 0: William Chrisman saw its season come to a close with the loss to Liberty.
Drew Dempsey scored two goals as Liberty scored three in each half.
The Bears (3-16) had to play the final 60 minutes with just 10 players after a red card on Jeramie Sagastume.
“I can’t complain about the heart the guys showed,” Bears coach John Straub said. “But playing 60 minutes short-handed against Liberty makes it much more difficult.”
|
|
|
Considering how young his team is, Tuesday’s season-ending loss was acceptable to Fort Osage boys soccer coach Andrew Fletcher.
Up against a “more talented” Winnetonka squad, Fletcher’s Indians tried to keep it close and hope to sneak in a goal. It worked for a half, but the second-seeded Griffins scored two goals in the second half to post a 2-0 win in the Class 3 District 15 semifinals at Fort Osage. William Chrisman also saw its season come to a close with a 6-0 loss to Liberty in the other semifinal.
“That was our game plan, to sit back and play defense and hope to hit them on a break,” Fletcher said after his Indians finished 8-14. “We’d knew we’d have one or two good opportunities and we had to take advantage of those. We did get those – in fact, I think we probably outplayed them about the last 30 minutes – but we couldn’t finish.”
Goalkeeper Hunter Hickey, one of Fort Osage’s few seniors, managed to keep it close by making 13 saves on 21 Winnetonka shots.
“Our goal was to make it at least to the district semifinals and we did that,” he said. “We just wanted to see how far we could get. But we achieved a lot of our goals for the season. You hate to lose, but we had a good year.”
The Indians appeared they might have a chance to extend their season after keeping it scoreless heading into halftime. The defense, led by senior Mark Wisecup, and Hickey frustrated the Griffins, denying them on 13 first-half shots and nine corner kicks.
“It was really exciting, and it was good to know we were still in the game,” Hickey said. “We had a chance and were able to hang in until the end, so it was good for me.”
It took Winnetonka just 16 seconds to strike in the second half. Daniel Taylor sent a pinpoint perfect pass from midfield to the top of the penalty box, where Andrew Martin beat Hickey for a 1-0 lead.
“That first one, they just caught us off guard,” Hickey said. “Their guy just made a great pass.”
Ishmael Zinnah made it 2-0 about 15 minutes later when he weaved through the Fort Osage up the left end line and slipped a shot past Hickey into the upper part of the next from a near impossible angle.
“The second one, that was just an amazing shot,” Hickey said. “He got me on that one. He’s an amazing player.”
The Indians controlled play quite a bit from there but could never get a quality scoring chance against Winnetonka goalkeeper Hunter Hampton.
“We’ve got such a young team, but we outplayed them there for a while,” Fletcher said. “I couldn’t be more proud of the way they played; I couldn’t be more happy with them.”
LIBERTY 6, WILLIAM CHRISMAN 0: William Chrisman saw its season come to a close with the loss to Liberty.
Drew Dempsey scored two goals as Liberty scored three in each half.
The Bears (3-16) had to play the final 60 minutes with just 10 players after a red card on Jeramie Sagastume.
“I can’t complain about the heart the guys showed,” Bears coach John Straub said. “But playing 60 minutes short-handed against Liberty makes it much more difficult.”
