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South Range comes to sad, sudden end of season
Gallery
By Doug Chapin
NORTH LIMA
The outstanding 2011 season of the South Range High boys soccer squad came to an abrupt halt on Tuesday night as the top-seeded Raiders dropped a 2-1 overtime decision to Waterloo in a Division III district semifinal.
Waterloo’s Jake Podnar banged home a shot from less than 10 yards away just 4:58 into the first overtime as South Range (14-1-3) suffered its first loss of the season.
“It’s been a great season. We had a great group of seven seniors this year,” South Range coach Bill Wagenhouser said. “It’s hard on them, now it’s over. The season was fantastic. We played very well all year, this is only the second time we’ve been behind all year.”
About a minute and a half previous to the game-winner, Podnar was stoned by South Range senior goal keeper Isaac Schuster from about the same distance away on the other side of the net.
On the second attempt, Podnar steered his shot away from Schuster, who finished with 10 saves.
“I had seen Waterloo play a couple times and we had told the boys the last couple days that they were a mirror image of us,” Wagenhouser said. “They play good defense, they had some solid out front guys. But both teams, the defenses stood out tonight, being a 1-1 tie.”
South Range scored first on a 30-yard shot by senior Aaron Beabout with 24:49 left in the first half. Waterloo’s keeper came way out of the net to clear the ball but his clearance was deflected and Beabout gained possession. He maneuvered for his shot and put it in the net before the keeper could recover.
The third-seeded Vikings (12-3-4), who will play host to second-seeded Crestview in the district championship on Saturday, tied the score on a penalty kick with 16:03 left in the first half.
Senior Zach Morgan converted the PK after a Waterloo player was tripped in the penalty area.
The game was as close as the score indicated, though Waterloo ended up with a 21-6 edge in shots.
“They [Waterloo] played good defense,” Wagenhouser said. “They had five guys back all the time. We had a hard time getting the ball into the middle, but we had our opportunities.”
Senior Jordan Baker finished with 27 goals and 20 assists this season for the Raiders. Fellow seniors Andy Lacefield (13 goals, 5 assists), Beabout (7 goals, 15 assists) and Joel Skidmore (8 goals, 4 assists) also contributed to the South Range attack.
“You say goodbye to your seniors, because you love them all. They’ve been with me a long time,” Wagenhouser said. “But the other side of the coin is we’ve got three good juniors, we’ve got a lot to look forward to, the program’s going in the right direction.”