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Lumsden’s goal difference in Canfield victory
By Steve wilaj
AUSTINTOWN
Instead of playing it off, Canfield’s Max Lumsden was completely honest about his kick that proved to be the decisive goal in the Cardinals’ 3-2 victory at Austintown Fitch on Tuesday.
“I was just trying to cross the ball,” he admitted.
But Lumsden’s kick from about 30 yards out narrowly cleared Falcons goalie Hunter Klaus and found the back of the net in the 63rd minute to the surprise of, well, just about everyone.
“I was amazed — just so happy,” Lumsden said. “I was yelling so loud.”
Canfield coach Phil Simone called the goal “a lucky bounce.”
Ken Kilpatrick, Fitch’s coach, simply tagged it as “goofy.”
Either way, Lumsden — a senior — is proud to call it his first varsity goal.
“We were telling him a couple times to play the ball diagonally over the top,” Simone said. “So he got one opportunity to do that and he did it. Yeah, it kind of took a lucky bounce -- I don’t know if the keeper misjudged it -- but I told the boys that an ugly win is still a win.”
Prior to the colorful goal, the Falcons (2-3-1) twice fought back to tie the contest.
Trailing, 1-0, Zach Castro notched a goal in the 13th minute, while a goal by Alex Kilpatrick in the 44th minute once again tied the score at 2.
“I thought it was an even match,” Ken Kilpatrick said. “We played hard and we’re young. They possessed the ball better and we tried to counter. And they were stronger on the corner kicks.
“It’s just hard when something goofy happens and it costs you the game.”
The Cardinals (3-2-1 AAC Red) got ahead early on a more routine score when Ben Feuer found the back of the net in the eighth minute. Later in the first with the game tied at 1, Frank Phillips’ goal with 12 minutes remaining once again put Canfield ahead.
Simone credited his Cardinals for their resiliency.
“We’ve always been a tough team and never let anything get to us,” Lumsden said. “So we always just keep working really hard to try to get it in the goal.”
Meanwhile, Kilpatrick said his young Falcons are still a work in progress.
“We only start one senior and never really worked together coming through the system,” he said. “We’re trying to put together a lot of pieces of new players. So we’ll definitely win more than we lose this year, but there’s room for improvement.”