Boys’ state soccer finals: Daviess County wins a thriller

It took 10 extra minutes and eight rounds of shootout kicks, but Daviess County emerged victorious over Covington Catholic in the KHSAA Boys’ Soccer State Tournament finals Saturday night at Bryan Station.

The Panthers, playing in their second state title game, won their first championship after besting Covington Catholic 6-5 in the penalty shootout. Each team made three of their first five kicks, forcing a sudden-death scenario.

Covington Catholic connected on attempts No. 6 and 7 but Daviess County was able to match. The Colonels missed their eighth try, setting up Tommy Booker’s game-winning goal on Daviess County’s next effort.

It was poetic justice for Booker, who, in the first overtime period, had a game-winning header off a cross from Graham Miller with 6.4 seconds left erased by an offsides call. Video from the sidelines did not seem to confirm the game-extending call.

“I’d love to see that on film,” Daviess County Coach Doug Sandifer said, “cause we’ve scored off of (that play) several times. Those two, Graham and Tommy, have connected on those. Graham knows he’s going to be there on the back post.”

When the teams went the sudden-death shootout, Sandifer said he thought, “Don’t let them take this from you boys. You deserve this, go get it.”

Daviess County’s victory gave it 27 wins this season, tying St. Xavier for third all-time in a single year.

Sandifer, who lost to Tates Creek in the 1988 finals as a player at Owensboro and as a coach to Henry Clay in the 2010 title game, finally got to experience the other side of the championship post-game ceremony.

“From day one this season I felt like we had the potential to be the best team in this state,” Sandifer said. “ … We talked about it all season. ‘You have to go take it. Nobody’s gonna give it to us.’”

“ … As long I’ve been here, this has been our goal; 2010 made it realistic for our program. And this team just won this for every kid that’s played for this program.”

This story was originally published November 5, 2016 at 10:14 PM with the headline "Boys’ state soccer finals: Daviess County wins a thriller."