Four top-15 teams. One district. No mercy. There’s no tougher test.
In soccer parlance, it’s unquestionably “the District of Death.”
Outside observers roll their eyes when they hear folks in Lexington say it. Whether it’s basketball, baseball, softball, volleyball or soccer, the 43rd District usually contains some of the state’s top teams.
But in boys’ high school soccer this year, it’s simply a fact.
The 43rd District rocks.
“On any given night, just about all of us can beat each other,” Lafayette Coach Chris Grimm said Thursday when a 2-2 regulation tie resulted in a loss after overtime and penalty kicks. “Obviously, they (his players) are going to be upset after losing tonight … If anything, this should just solidify in their heads, ‘Man, we are legitimate, and we can go really far.’”
Consider this: In the latest MaherRankings.com release on Sunday, the 43rd has No. 6 Paul Laurence Dunbar, No. 8 Lexington Catholic, No. 11 Lafayette and No. 13 Tates Creek. The 43rd’s lowest-rated team, No. 51 Lexington Christian, would be the top-ranked team in the 13th, 14th and 15th regions — that’s right, regions.
Dunbar has swept the district’s regular season, but Thursday’s escape at home also served notice to the 11th Region’s perennial favorites.
“How close was today’s game in the district?” Dunbar Coach Todd Bretz asked his team Thursday. “We’ve got two weeks to get some separation.”
Lafayette had only given up three goals in 14 games before the Dunbar match (the stingiest goals-against mark in the state) and had beaten No. 8 LexCath and tied No. 7 Daviess County and No. 9 Ryle. After taking a 1-0 lead against Dunbar on Thursday, they got down 2-1 in the second half, rallied to 2-2 and forced overtime and penalties. They lost the shootout 3-1.
“When you go to penalties, it can be a coin flip,” Grimm said. “Put that aside, I’m just really, really proud of our guys. They fought extremely hard.”
Tates Creek’s only loss outside the 43rd is to No. 20 West Jessamine.
LexCath’s only loss outside the 43rd is to No. 2 Trinity. And the Knights are the defending 43rd and 11th Region champs. They won both of those finals last year in PK shootouts. Perhaps, you’ve spotted a trend.
Louisville’s 7th Region lays clams to the top four teams in the state with No. 1 St. Xavier, No. 2, Trinity, No. 3 Ballard and No. 4 Collegiate. But those powerhouses are distributed among the 26th, 27th and 28th districts. The 26th District has No. 1 St. X, No. 4 Collegiate and No. 23 Male, but it also has No. 186 Brown and Assumption, a girls-only school.
So, it’s likely that all of the 7th Region’s best teams will at least make their region tournament.
For Lexington’s 43rd teams, however, the district semifinals will be the end of the road for all but two.
Tuesday night, Lafayette and Tates Creek square off with district seeding on the line. With a loss, Tates Creek risks falling into the bottom of the bracket and potentially having to play its way into a semifinal match against Dunbar, which has already secured the top seed. Only district finalists advance to the 11th Region Tournament.
Even if 43rd rivals feel confident in their chances against Dunbar, avoiding an extra game before having to play the Bulldogs could be critical. No team that has had to play its way into the district semifinal has advanced to the finals in the current alignment, which has been in place since 2012.
After a head-scratching 5-0 loss at Collegiate to start the season, Dunbar had a scoreless tie with No. 5 Highlands and a fatigued 1-0 loss to No. 40 Woodford County in the nightcap of a Lexington Soccer Showcase doubleheader. It was not the start they hoped.
“I think at the beginning of the season, we were maybe holding onto it a little bit and (now) we’re really trying to spread the ball around,” junior defender Jed French said. “We had to go back and get to work. We don’t want (those losses) to be our season.”
The response? Dunbar reeled off 10 straight wins, swept the 43rd regular season, and has begun a grueling stretch of out-of-state events to prepare itself for Kentucky’s “second season.”
Dunbar lost Saturday to Ohio No. 7 New Albany before getting a 1-1 draw against Ohio No. 16 Dublin Coffman. After taking on Franklin County on Tuesday, Dunbar takes a huge road trip for a three-game tournament in Iowa.
“We’re not that physical a team, so we’ve got to play more collectively,” said Bretz, who purposefully has scheduled what look to be faster, more physical teams in the last two weeks. “We have to share the ball. We have to be able to play organized. If we do, we can compete with good teams. If we don’t … we get exposed very easily.”
This story was originally published September 24, 2018 at 3:24 PM.