Late goal secures a 1-1 tie for Crestview in ITCL showdown against South Range

September 22, 2011 at 12:05a.m.

By BRANDON Judeh

NORTH LIMA

The rains came and went during the South Range-Crestview boys soccer game on Wednesday night, as did the many goal opportunities for each team.

In the end it was a 1-1 draw in an up-and-down Inter Tri-County League showdown.

The Raiders (7-0-2), who came into the game with 44 goals scored and only two allowed, marched up and down the field and had plenty of opportunities to dent the scoreboard.

Finally, in the 26th minute of the first half, Aaron Beabout notched a goal to put the Raiders ahead.

The second half was much of the same for both teams, with South Range’s senior goalie, Isaac Schuster, making one big save after another.

In the 39th minute of the second half Crestview had the ball deep in South Range territory when a penalty call gave them a free kick, and Tanner Goss stepped up.

“I knew I had to make the goal for the team and do my best to tie the game for the team,” said Goss.

Goss did convert the clutch goal, to secure a 1-1 tie with only 49 seconds left.

“This was a great morale booster for us, we played a hard fought game and that is all I can ask for,” said Goss.

Crestview (8-1-1) coach Jonathan Kinkead said he had all but one of his players pushing up the field on the final offensive possession, which helped lead to the game-tying goal.

“Goss is one of my best senior players and takes most of our free kicks and sure enough he came through by hitting the left post and bouncing it in. It was really great accuracy,” said Kinkead.

The Rebels, who have scored 52 goals and allowed just six this season, felt they needed to either win or tie this game in order to stay in contention with the Raiders, especially after losing a game 3-0 to them earlier this season.

One of the main reasons the Raiders and Rebels are such big rivals goes back many years. Raiders coach Bill Wagenhouser was an assistant at Crestview and one of his players happened to be Kinkead. Wagenhouser said it is a fun rivalry between the two programs.

“I was at Crestview for five years before I came over to South Range and to coach John [Kinkead] then and now coach against him is great,” said Wagenhouser.

“It’s really a nice little rivalry we have going on, it’s always very intense,” said Wagenhouser.

Both coaches agreed that they would love to meet each other again in the tournament and acknowledged that both teams have a great chance at going deep.

“I hope it comes down to South Range verus Crestview in the playoffs, it would be great for the area and huge for local soccer. It’s a great sport, we need to get more people in to it,” said Wagenhouser.

Although the Rebels had plenty of goal opportunities, Kinkead is pleased with his team’s overall hard play.

“Not only did we play our hearts out, but so did South Range. This is a huge rivalry game, I can’t express this enough. Our team played great and proved that we are as good, if not better, than South Range.”