‘It’s all about momentum.’ Lafayette, Henry Clay take boys soccer district titles
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- Lafayette won the 43rd District, pushing a 14-game streak and ten straight shutouts.
- Rylan Chau and Pol Marti supplied decisive goals and set plays, Chau earned MVP.
- Region outlook: Lafayette may face defending champion Henry Clay in a pivotal rematch.
Last year, Lafayette’s boys soccer team failed to reach the 43rd District finals despite, by RPI standing, being the second-best team in the 11th Region.
But that’s in the past. A year to the date of a crushing 2-1 loss to Tates Creek, the Generals handed the same team a 4-0 defeat to clinch a spot in the championship game and the 11th Region tournament. Then on Thursday night, they clipped down-the-street rival Lexington Catholic by the same score to win their second district crown in three years.
Lafayette (15-1-0), the Rundell Rankings’ No. 6 team in the state, has gotten used to winning — and decisively. Its 4-0 victory over the Knights, playing on their home field, was its 14th straight and the 10th consecutive shutout.
“It’s all about momentum,” junior Pol Marti said. “We’re on a 14-game win streak, and it’s pushing us a lot to achieve more, to want more. Because we know we can do it”
Lexington Catholic (10-4-2) was the last team to score any goals against Lafayette; the Knights fell 3-2 in their only prior meeting this season. The scoreboard showed 4-0 this time, but the teams dueled to a standstill for much of the night.
After a couple solid shot attempts in a nil-nil first half, the Generals started pouring them on in half two. Knights keeper Gregory Brown, who Wednesday night made several critical saves to help LexCath advance, again played well beyond his sophomore billing. Over one stretch he saved five consecutive Lafayette shots in about as many minutes.
But the deluge never relented. Finally, 16 minutes into the second half, senior Rylan Chau finally pushed one through off a corner kick by Marti.
“In these types of games, when it’s 0-0 dragging into the second half, whoever scores the first goal, that’s the most critical,” said Chau, who was named tournament MVP. “It’ll dictate how the game goes. Luckily we were the first one to score because of that intensity we set.”
Catholic’s Brown saved another shot 12 minutes later, but it deflected to the far side of the goal; Lafayette senior Samuel Brown was slightly quicker to the ball and tapped it in for the Generals’ second goal.
Senior Kyran Davis got the third one through on a strike from about 10 yards out with 10 minutes left. Two minutes later, Marti put another corner kick into play, this one perfectly placed in front of the goal as senior Sean Hayes approached for a fast tapper.
“I’m looking for where the concentration of our players is highest compared to the other team,” Marti said of his approach on corner kicks. “That way, of course, the chances are highest we’ll get a header on it, but also if it bobbles we have more chances of getting it in.”
Henry Clay avoids upset in the 42nd District
Defending state champion Henry Clay survived an upset bid by Bryan Station thanks in part to a penalty kick midway through the second half that put the state’s No. 1 team up 2-1 on the way to its second straight 42nd District Tournament Championship.
The Defenders’ Felicien Nzilamba struck from 10 yards out on a well-delivered cross to put Bryan Station up 1-0 against the tournament hosts 15 minutes into the finals. That remained the score at halftime.
The Blue Devils finally answered thanks to a free kick with 23 minutes left in the game. A ball from Jose Flores-Cruz dropped into a scrum and found the leg of Shukuru Hamisi, who pushed it toward the goal. Espo Dieudonne redirected it past Station’s keeper.
Henry Clay pulled ahead at 17:52 mark of the second half after a Bryan Station player’s late challenge in the box resulted in a penalty-kick opportunity. Connor Taylor popped the go-ahead goal into the top left corner of the net. The Blue Devils nursed the 2-1 edge to the end.
“We came out with not enough intensity, not taking a team seriously enough despite all the warnings,” Henry Clay head coach Jason Behler said. “They play really hard and are a well-coached, disciplined team. … In the second half I thought we were dominant in possession and dominant in creating chances but less than efficient in front of the goal. That’s always the most difficult part.”
Bryan Station, like LexCath, will face a district champ on the road in its region opener. The Defenders, No. 16 in the Rundell Rankings after Thursday’s loss, won’t be a desirable draw for any of the title-holders next week. They’d won seven of their past nine — with two draws — since playing Henry Clay to a 3-1 loss Sept. 16.
The only team in Kentucky that played Henry Clay closer this season was Paul Laurence Dunbar, a 1-1 draw Aug. 28.
“They’re a very good team, that’s why they’re the state champions and No. 1,” Station head coach Alex Tungate said with a laugh. “But I guess because we play ’em pretty well; we’re pretty good too. We’ve got a lot of young guys, the majority of our team is underclassmen and the majority of their team is seniors. I think the future is gonna be pretty good.”
Lexington Catholic stuns 6-time state champion in PKs
Lexington Catholic reached Thursday’s 43rd finals with a shocking 2-1 (4-3 on penalty kicks) result over defending 43rd District champion Paul Laurence Dunbar the night before.
In the regular-season meeting Sept. 17, No. 8 Dunbar, a six-time state champion, routed the Knights 5-0.
“We played better than we did the first time,” LexCath coach Todd Bretz said. “They are a very good team and we didn’t play very good the first game. … And when you get to overtime and PKs, you never know.”
Tied 1-1 at the end of regulation and two five-minute overtimes, the shootout to settle it was tied 3-3 after the first five designated players took their turns from the spot.
Knights keeper Gregory Brown saved Dunbar’s sixth attempt, setting the stage for teammate Charlie Morris to put home the game-winner, which he did with a precision dart into the bottom left corner beyond the Bulldogs’ keeper’s dive.
Dunbar had not missed the district finals and subsequent region tournament since 2008, when Bretz was in the midst of his historic run in charge of the Bulldogs program. Bretz led Dunbar to its first four state titles from the school’s founding in 1990 until 2018.
In charge of his alma mater since 2023, Bretz has the No. 26 Knights back in next week’s 11th Region Tournament for the first time under his watch.
“The guys got themselves back there,” Bretz said. “That’s been their goal, and they’ve committed themselves to doing it. We’ve been able to build some depth over the last couple of years that we were lacking before and their goal has been to reestablish Catholic.”
Looking ahead to the 11th Region tournament
The draw for the 11th Region tournament bracket is Friday. Lafayette will host one of the runners-up from the 41st District (Great Crossing), 42nd District (Bryan Station) or 44th District (Model Laboratory School). LexCath, conversely, will travel to a district champion in the first round: Frankfort (41st), Henry Clay (42nd) or Madison Central (44th).
When Lafayette last won the 43rd District in 2023, it advanced all the way to the KHSAA state tournament finals, falling 1-0 to St. Xavier. A path back to the state tournament in all likelihood will require overcoming Henry Clay, the defending state champion and the only program against which Lafayette has lost in 2025. The Blue Devils defeated the Generals 5-1 on Aug. 21.
Lafayette head coach Chris Grimm in part credits that result for propelling the Generals, who’ve since outscored their opponents by a combined score of 62-3.
“Henry Clay played us off the field when we played them early in the season,” Grimm said. “That was a wake-up call to this group to say, ‘Hey, we’re not where we need to be yet if we want to compete with a team like that.’”
The Generals since have put in the work to suggest that a possible rematch ought to be more competitive.
“When it comes to regionals, the main thing is knowing that every game could be our last,” Marti said. “That’s where the pressure comes from. We can’t let that get to our heads. We’re going to fight and give everything we have to the last ounce.”
All-District Tournament Teams
42nd: Tyler Diguette, Sayre; Alex Toro and Landon Turvey, Scott County; Connor Long and Keegan Nash Frederick Douglass; Joaquin Guerrant, Luke Majors and Lincoln Wallingford, Bryan Station; Shukuru Hamisi, Will Potter, Connor Taylor and Espo Dieudonne (MVP), Henry Clay.
43rd: Sawyer Nelson, Lexington Christian Academy; Jackson Brooks and JT Martin, Paul Laurence Dunbar; Kevin Parada and Nathan Thomas Tates Creek; James Barnett, Josh Barnett and Gregory Brown, Lexington Catholic; Xavier Chenault, Max Jacobs Pol Marti and Rylan Chau (MVP), Lafayette.
