Henry Clay’s late goal sets up battle with Bryan Station for region crown
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Henry Clay advanced to the 11th Region final after Connor Taylor scored late.
- Bryan Station reached its first 11th Region final after Guerrant and Mubelela goals.
- Lafayette’s Stark saved a late penalty, but Henry Clay’s Taylor scored moments later
Moments after seeing his potential game-winning penalty kick saved, Henry Clay’s Connor Taylor got his head to a ball crossed into the 6-yard box from fellow senior Nathan Harvey.
This time, Taylor did not miss, sending the ball into a wide-open net with 34 seconds left in the game to give the No. 1 Blue Devils a 2-1 win over No. 6 Lafayette on Wednesday in the 11th Region boys soccer tournament semifinals at Paul Laurence Dunbar.
“There was no one around me, and the keeper was on the opposite side,” Taylor said. “I just had to put it in the net.”
The victory advanced the defending state and region champions to Friday’s finals against Bryan Station, a 2-0 winner over Lexington Catholic in Wednesday’s first semifinal. The Defenders, ranked No. 11 in the state as of Thursday’s online Rundell Rankings, will be making their first appearance in a soccer region final.
It is the second year in a row the boys region finalists hail from the 42nd District.
Henry Clay rallied from second-half deficit
The seeming ease of Taylor’s game-winner against Lafayette marked a stark contrast to the difficulty of the preceding 79 minutes.
Lafayette’s defense thwarted all of Henry Clay’s efforts to break it down in the first half and, when the Blue Devils began to pour on pressure after the break, the Generals snatched the opening goal of the game against the run of play.
Lafayette’s Assani Kalonda stepped into a long throw into the box from Charlie Leachman for a 1-0 lead with 30:29 left in the second half.
The Blue Devils (17-2-1) answered less than five minutes later. Shukuru Hamisi struck the equalizer on a quick counter attack to tie the game at 1-1.
“This team has belief, and we know that if you do the right things consistently, luck is going to favor you more often than not,” Henry Clay coach Jason Behler said. “I felt like luck was not favoring us in a couple ways in the first half, and we made some changes. And then it felt right in the second half, even going down a goal. It seemed like it was coming.”
Taylor said he wasn’t worried about the Blue Devils falling behind.
“We had all the momentum, so I was pretty keen on getting back into the game,” he said. “Once we got that first goal, I was like ‘This is our game to take.’”
Lafayette keeper Aiden Stark helped keep the Generals (16-2) in it with a pair of brilliant late second-half saves. The first, a diving stab to his right, denied Hamisi a second goal with just under eight minutes left.
The second came on Taylor’s penalty kick four minutes later. Taylor was tripped just inside the 18-yard box with about 3:30 to go. The foul gave Taylor a kick from the spot, but Stark gauged it and deflected it over the crossbar with a dive to his left.
Lafayette had won 15 straight games going into Friday’s semifinals. Its only other loss of the season came to Henry Clay, 5-1, on Aug. 21.
“They worked a lot harder,” Taylor said of the Generals. “This is where the season ends and no one wants their season to end. … They took away some things we want to do, just getting behind and whatnot, but we figured it out in the end.”
Bryan Station makes history and aims for more
The first two 11th Region boys soccer tournament wins for Bryan Station have given the Defenders another first on Friday — a shot at the region crown.
Joaquin Guerrant’s first-half penalty kick goal and Chacha Mubelela’s second-half corner kick header helped give Bryan Station a 2-0 win over Lexington Catholic in Wednesday’s semifinals. The Defenders won 2-1 at Madison Central in Monday’s first round for their only other regional victory.
“This is a huge step for our program. We’ve always been known as a team that doesn’t make it far,” said Guerrant, who put away his penalty kick after a Lexington Catholic handball foul in the box with 57 seconds left in the first half. “To make our mark here, it’s great, because it just builds on for the future. … This is setting the standard for where we want to be.”
Seven minutes into the second half, Mubelela headed in a deflection off the LexCath keeper for a corner kick goal to put Bryan Station up by the final margin. Lexington Catholic finished the season 11-5-2
Second-year Bryan Station coach Alex Tungate scheduled six straight road games to close the season over the final month to prepare his team for the postseason. Last year, Bryan Station had a disappointing playoff exit in a 1-0 loss to Frederick Douglass in the 42nd District semifinals.
This year, the Defenders (17-4-4) have 23 different goal-scorers on a roster that carries 24 active players and a few more who rotate in. Bryan Station’s only district losses are to Henry Clay.
“I don’t think that I would have ever dreamed that we would have gotten here this quickly,” Tungate said. “But you know, we wanted to make a statement that we can play with any of the teams in the 11th Region and in the state. I think we have done that this season.”
Despite its troubles at the regional, Bryan Station has had postseason success. Under former coach Manes Preptit in 2018, Bryan Station stunned Henry Clay 2-1 to win their first 42nd District title. That Henry Clay team went on to win the 11th Region and advance all the way to the state finals.
In last week’s 42nd District championship game, Bryan Station took a 1-0 lead in the first half before Henry Clay rallied to a 2-1 win.
“It’s going to be another dog fight,” Henry Clay’s Behler said.
Friday’s 11th Region Tournament finals
At Paul Laurence Dunbar High School
Henry Clay vs. Bryan Station, 7 p.m.
This story was originally published October 16, 2025 at 8:13 AM.
