5 goals in 15 minutes. ‘They caught us on the wrong night.’
There was mist. There was rain. There was drizzle. Then came a flood.
On a soggy night of boys’ state soccer semifinals, the most devastating downpour came in 15 minutes of fury by the Henry Clay Blue Devils in a 5-0 rout of Oldham County at Bryan Station High School on Wednesday.
Five minutes in, Keandre Sandoval found Tahj Jairam in the box and the score was 1-0.
Five minutes later, a long, arcing ball from about 45 yards out off the foot of Cayden Rose found the head of Drew Grider on the other side of the field. Grider played it into the path of Chris Sanders — 2-0.
Two minutes later, Charlie Boone’s free kick from midfield was guided home by Keenan Wilson — 3-0.
Less than two minutes after that Sota Ippongi beat his defender and the keeper — 4-0.
At 19:23 of the first half, Keandre Sandoval put home a feed into the box from Shel Cundiff — 5-0.
“Everything was just clicking between us. Five goals in the state semifinals is just unbelievable,” Sanders said. “We lost last year at this point. This feels great.”
It was the kind of run that players found hard to describe, but their coach, Jason Behler, said he’s seen glimpses of it this season.
“It was unexpected in the sense that I never know when they’re going to click. I know we have spurts like that in us,” Behler said. “When things are going well, we saw it against Great Crossing, we saw it against Madison Central in the regional tournament … things just start clicking and they feed off of that.”
Henry Clay sometimes likes to test its opponents early with a high-intensity press against their defensive players in the back half of the field.
“We were just a nightmare for the first 20 minutes,” Behler said. “They couldn’t connect passes. We were very disruptive, and we just capitalized off of turnovers. …
“They’re a good team. They caught us on the wrong night.”
Now the quest begins for Henry Clay’s third state title in the program’s fifth finals appearance and first under Behler. The Blue Devils won it all in 1991 and 2010.
The Blue Devils brought back eight starters from the team that a year ago got stopped in the state semifinals by the eventual champion.
“We’ve got another game on Saturday,” said senior midfielder Sota Ippongi, who this week was recognized as Lexington Player of the Year by the city’s coaches. “That’s all I’m focused on now. … We’re going to go at it, leaving everything on the floor.”
Henry Clay will face Daviess County in the Kentucky High School Athletic Association Boys’ State Soccer Championship at 6 p.m. Saturday at Bryan Station. Daviess survived an overtime thriller in Wednesday night’s first semifinal.
Daviess County 3, East Carter 2 (2OT): With less than a minute left until the game would go to a penalty kick shootout, Daviess County’s Hunter Clark shook his defender, dashed toward the endline and drove a pass across the face of goal where a sliding Jacob Boling put it into the net to help the Panthers rescue a trip to the state finals.
“I saw Hunter out wide and gave it to him,” Boling said. “Hunter does a great job with what he does. … It felt amazing right when I hit it. I can’t explain it in words really. For a second, I thought I wasn’t going to get there.”
What looked to be a game Daviess might handle easily after a 2-0 lead just 17 minutes in became much more complicated two minutes later as a straight red card was issued to defender Carter Hoagland after a crunching head-to-head collision in East Carter’s end going after a ball in the air.
At first, Daviess County continued to play well after the send-off, generating several more chances that they just couldn’t get the right final touch on.
But in the second half, East Carter’s intensity increased. Jacopo Volpato made a run deep up the right side and crossed it into striker Ethan Miller, who cut the lead to 2-1.
Daviess Coach Doug Sandifer shifted to a more defensive formation and tried to help his team nurse the one-goal lead till the end. The strategy worked, until a free kick was awarded to the Raiders from about 35 yards out with less than three minutes left.
Miller drove a header into Daviess County keeper Cody Clark off a perfect ball in off the foot of Garrett Halstead. Clark’s save, however, put the ball right back at Miller’s feet and he struck the equalizer with 2:13 left in regulation.
“We gutted it out,” Sandifer said. “You just have to make a big adjustment. You’re playing 60 minutes down a man. … It’s hard to be real thrilled because it was such a frustrating game. I didn’t think we played particularly well, but we got in a lot of guys who’ve never played in this game before.”
Neither team generated much in the first overtime. In the second OT, Daviess County switched gears.
“We played without a center forward the whole second half and the first overtime and I said, ‘look, we’ve got to go back to what we know,’” Sandifer said of the switch that immediately began generating opportunities to score. “I moved Jacob (Boling) back up to the attacking mid … right between overtimes and it was the right move, I guess.”
Saturday
Henry Clay vs. Daviess County
What: Boys’ state soccer championship match
When: 6 p.m.
Where: Bryan Station High School
Records: Henry Clay 24-1-3, Daviess County 21-2-2
This story was originally published October 31, 2019 at 12:35 AM.
