Van Horn can’t hang on to lead in district loss

The Van Horn boys soccer team had a berth in the district championship in its hands.
But a goal in the final two minutes tied it for Barstow, and the host Knights ended the Falcons’ season with a goal 10 minutes into overtime.
“We executed our game plan to perfection  for 75 minutes,” Van Horn coach Chris Corrie said after his team finished 12-11 with the loss in the Class 1 District 8 semifinals. “Our guys really worked hard to get there, but we couldn’t deal with their power on the restarts, and eventually we had to pay the price for it.”
Van Horn took a 2-0 lead into halftime against Barstow, the sixth-ranked team in the state in the Missouri Soccer Coaches Association poll.
Cristobal Murillo scored off a Carlos Contreras assist in the 12th minute. Ricardo Sanchez made it 2-0, scoring off a Carlos Borders assist eight minutes later.
“I wasn’t surprised that we were up 2-0 at that point,” Corrie said. “We battled them hard on the free kicks. We’re not a very big team and they were,  and we won a lot of headers and made a lot of tackles. We just couldn’t keep it up the whole game.”
The loss was hard to take for Corrie and the Falcons.
“There’s no moral victory,” Corrie said. “We’re disappointed we couldn’t quite finish. We’re real disappointed we’re not playing again on Thursday.”