Lynchburg-Clay wins 8th straight SHAC boys soccer championship
Lead Summary
By
Stephen Forsha-sforsha@gmail.com
DODSONVILLE — For eight straight seasons, the Lynchburg-Clay Mustangs have won at least a share of the Southern Hills Athletic Conference boys soccer championship, and in 2020 they sit at the top of the SHAC standings alone with a perfect record.
This year, the golden ball trophy returns to the Mustangs, and they clinched the perfect conference mark with a 3-0 win over the visiting Fairfield Lions on Wednesday night, scoring all three goals in the second half.
The Mustangs were playing without four starters due to COVID-19 quarantines, an injury and a red card suspension from a previous match. They still overcame that adversity and a slow first half by taking control of the match in the second half on senior night, as the seniors were a part of three perfect SHAC seasons in four years.
“Our touch was not there, and tonight we had kids playing spots they normally don’t play due the COVID situation. I’m not making excuses, but these guys can play much better than what they did,” LCHS head coach Jason West said. “We got the three goals in the back of the net and took the victory. (Fairfield) played a very consistent game, so it was a good, clean game.”
In the second half, the Lynchburg-Clay Mustangs scored their first goal of the match with 35:36 on the clock as Kaden Harper put the ball in the back of the net for the 1-0 lead.
The advantage of Lynchburg-Clay went to two goals when Ian Waits of the Mustangs added a goal to the home team side of the scoreboard with 33:01 left in the match for a 2-0 lead. Waits was the LC keeper in the first half.
Lynchburg-Clay’s final goal came with 17 seconds remaining when Dawson Osborn scored off a rebound near the keeper for a 3-0 lead.
Fairfield head coach Jacob Alexander spoke about the match and his team, as they had just one reserve player for the match on Wednesday. Also for the Lions, keeper Hunter Burns made many athletic saves in the match.
“Hunter Burns back in goal he keeps us in a lot of games,” Alexander said. “He’s a junior, and next year he’ll be more experienced and ready to go. We are just a young team, and we had just one senior here tonight, so we would have loved to win this game, but we are still building for next year.
“We know how good Lynchburg-Clay is, and we know they are a second-half team. They pass the ball well and like to wear you out and wear on you physically in the first half. By the time you get to the second half, they take advantage of those opportunities. We were down to one sub tonight, and that wore on us as the night went on. The effort was here, and we have a few errors we need to clean up, but we’ll get that ready.”
The win by LCHS moves them to 6-0-0, allowing them to not only clinch the perfect season for the gold ball trophy, but the Mustangs also are now 53-0-2, as they have been undefeated in their last 56 SHAC games.
“Going undefeated in the league is special for the players,” West said. “We talked to them about that, and it is something they have experienced in repetitive years, so maybe to some it isn’t quite as special as it is today. I told them in years to come when they have kids, and come back to the school, and they are standing there, they can say ‘we won that one and that one and won that one,’ and it will mean more.”
The win also moved the Mustangs to 11-3-1 overall this season, as this was their fifth time this season the Mustangs didn’t allow a goal in a match. LC will play again Wednesday, Oct. 21 (5 p.m.) against the winner of the Fairfield (3-9-1) at Clay game, which takes place Saturday, Oct. 17 at Clay with an 11 a.m. start.
“We’ll play next Wednesday, and after that game if we play well, we’ll play against our archrival, the South Webster Jeeps, if they win their first two games. That sets up for a nice little rematch, and we came away with the victory earlier this year,” West said. “It just seems that historically to be the closed door we just haven’t been able to open when it comes to the tournament.”
West also spoke about the seniors.
“I want to say a special thanks to all the seniors who were here tonight,” he said. “Dawson had a goal, Connor Tyree has been our leading scorer all year long and Josh Niehaus has stepped in and played tremendous on our back line as a defender. And our other two seniors who weren’t able to be here, we want them to know we are thinking about them.”
[[In-content Ad]]
This year, the golden ball trophy returns to the Mustangs, and they clinched the perfect conference mark with a 3-0 win over the visiting Fairfield Lions on Wednesday night, scoring all three goals in the second half.
The Mustangs were playing without four starters due to COVID-19 quarantines, an injury and a red card suspension from a previous match. They still overcame that adversity and a slow first half by taking control of the match in the second half on senior night, as the seniors were a part of three perfect SHAC seasons in four years.
“Our touch was not there, and tonight we had kids playing spots they normally don’t play due the COVID situation. I’m not making excuses, but these guys can play much better than what they did,” LCHS head coach Jason West said. “We got the three goals in the back of the net and took the victory. (Fairfield) played a very consistent game, so it was a good, clean game.”
In the second half, the Lynchburg-Clay Mustangs scored their first goal of the match with 35:36 on the clock as Kaden Harper put the ball in the back of the net for the 1-0 lead.
The advantage of Lynchburg-Clay went to two goals when Ian Waits of the Mustangs added a goal to the home team side of the scoreboard with 33:01 left in the match for a 2-0 lead. Waits was the LC keeper in the first half.
Lynchburg-Clay’s final goal came with 17 seconds remaining when Dawson Osborn scored off a rebound near the keeper for a 3-0 lead.
Fairfield head coach Jacob Alexander spoke about the match and his team, as they had just one reserve player for the match on Wednesday. Also for the Lions, keeper Hunter Burns made many athletic saves in the match.
“Hunter Burns back in goal he keeps us in a lot of games,” Alexander said. “He’s a junior, and next year he’ll be more experienced and ready to go. We are just a young team, and we had just one senior here tonight, so we would have loved to win this game, but we are still building for next year.
“We know how good Lynchburg-Clay is, and we know they are a second-half team. They pass the ball well and like to wear you out and wear on you physically in the first half. By the time you get to the second half, they take advantage of those opportunities. We were down to one sub tonight, and that wore on us as the night went on. The effort was here, and we have a few errors we need to clean up, but we’ll get that ready.”
The win by LCHS moves them to 6-0-0, allowing them to not only clinch the perfect season for the gold ball trophy, but the Mustangs also are now 53-0-2, as they have been undefeated in their last 56 SHAC games.
“Going undefeated in the league is special for the players,” West said. “We talked to them about that, and it is something they have experienced in repetitive years, so maybe to some it isn’t quite as special as it is today. I told them in years to come when they have kids, and come back to the school, and they are standing there, they can say ‘we won that one and that one and won that one,’ and it will mean more.”
The win also moved the Mustangs to 11-3-1 overall this season, as this was their fifth time this season the Mustangs didn’t allow a goal in a match. LC will play again Wednesday, Oct. 21 (5 p.m.) against the winner of the Fairfield (3-9-1) at Clay game, which takes place Saturday, Oct. 17 at Clay with an 11 a.m. start.
“We’ll play next Wednesday, and after that game if we play well, we’ll play against our archrival, the South Webster Jeeps, if they win their first two games. That sets up for a nice little rematch, and we came away with the victory earlier this year,” West said. “It just seems that historically to be the closed door we just haven’t been able to open when it comes to the tournament.”
West also spoke about the seniors.
“I want to say a special thanks to all the seniors who were here tonight,” he said. “Dawson had a goal, Connor Tyree has been our leading scorer all year long and Josh Niehaus has stepped in and played tremendous on our back line as a defender. And our other two seniors who weren’t able to be here, we want them to know we are thinking about them.”
[[In-content Ad]]