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Kidron Central tops United in D-III regional
Two quick goals help Comets eliminate Golden Eagles
By Brian Dzenis
MINERVA
A lot can happen in 29 seconds.
For United, what happened in that short span was enough to cost the Golden Eagles against the Kidron Central Christian Comets in a 2-0 defeat in a Division II Region 9 semifinal.
Wednesday night’s contest at Minerva High School marked the farthest the Golden Eagles have gone in the postseason.
“At the beginning of the season, if somebody told me we were going to regionals, I wouldn’t have believed them,” senior striker Jonathan Logan said. “If there’s any way to go out, it would have been like this against the state runner-ups. I mean, there aren’t many better ways to go out than by giving your school its first district title. It’s cool.”
KCC (14-4-2) boasts a senior class that has done no worse than the regional semis in four years.
A set-piece gaffe put the Golden Eagles in an early hole. KCC got its first corner kick nine minutes into the contest and the kick deflected off a United defender into the path of the Comets’ Henry Perkins, who scored from point-blank range.
A short time later, Perkins struck again.
“They played it down the right wing — they got in behind us and we sucked over — and they got us on the back side,” United coach Curtis Jones said. “I always stress that whenever there’s a goal — whether we scored it or not — that we keep it clean for five minutes. We were still shellshocked and then we coughed the ball up to give them a second goal.”
The Comets managed just four shots on goal to United’s zero in a steady rain. The Golden Eagles launched a couple balls over the net in a bid to get back in the game.
“It happened, you get back up and keep playing,” Logan said. “Sometimes, teams are better prepared than you are. They’re a Christian school. They recruit their kids and we’re a public school. It happens and that’s how it is.
“They’re probably the best team I’ve played, save a few club teams here or there.”
Logan ends his high school soccer career as the program’s all-time leading scorer with 102 goals. This season, he filled the net 55 times and had 11 assists.
“I just thought, ‘Hey, it’s my senior year. Let’s see what we can do,’” Logan said of his career year. “I guess it sort of happened. There wasn’t really anything that I did that was spectacular or special. I played my heart out.”
Logan is at a crossroads with the sport. He said he has offers to keep playing at the Division III level, but he is considering just going all-in with academics.
“I’m looking at majoring in physics and aerospace engineering at Ohio State or Miami Oxford,” Logan said. “A few Division III colleges have reached out, but that’s about it.
“Being close to home doesn’t matter to me, so when it comes to picking between sports and academics, academics comes first for sure. It’s also just getting advice from people who played college sports and being told they pretty much own you. You have to focus on academics as much as you can.”
United closes out the year at 16-2-2. With Howland being eliminated in regional play on the same night, the Golden Eagles and Tigers are tied as the last teams standing in the Mahoning Valley.
“We set a goal at the beginning of the season to make the district finals and we achieved that more and I couldn’t be more proud of my boys,” Jones said.