Brewer’s goal lifts Louisburg past De Soto in overtime
Louisburg junior goalie Ambrose Stefan comes out of goal to make a diving save early in the match Friday against De Soto in Louisburg. The Wildcats defeated De Soto in overtime 1-0 on a goal from Raistlin Brewer.
For 80 minutes, Louisburg found itself knotted in a scoreless match with Frontier League leader De Soto.
Louisburg needed a win to stay in the race for the league title and wanted revenge for a tough loss earlier in the season.
It took less than a minute in the overtime for all that to come to fruition.
Junior Raistlin Brewer scored 59 seconds into the extra period to give the Wildcats a 1-0 victory Friday at home over De Soto as they stayed alive in the league title race after falling to current league-leader Spring Hill earlier in the week. Spring Hill and De Soto were tied in the league standings heading into the contest.
The win was also the first time the Louisburg senior class had ever notched a positive result over De Soto in their four years. Earlier in the season, the Wildcats fell to De Soto by the same score in what was a weather-shortened game.
“This was kind of redemption for us in how we felt the first game ended,” Louisburg coach Kyle Conley said. “By the boys winning, it gives us an amazing amount of confidence especially after losing to Spring Hill. By beating De Soto it actually gives us an ability to control our own destiny with our four regular season games left.”
Raistlin Brewer heads the ball away Friday during Louisburg’s home match with De Soto.
Louisburg (9-3) had a few opportunities to score on De Soto in regulation, but its best one came in the overtime and Brewer made sure he took advantage. Brewer attacked toward the goal after he received a through ball, played it off toward the middle, the ball got back to Brewer and he took the shot that hit the back of the net.
“Brewer’s goal was fantastic,” Conley said. “He has been so close so many times, but I couldn’t have asked for a better time to get one. The boys all just kept fighting and grinding. They didn’t give up and played with such desire.”
De Soto, which outshot Louisburg 5-3 for the game, was on the attack early as it took several shots on the Louisburg defense and the Wildcats got a pair of nice saves from goalie Ambrose Stefan early on. Louisburg limited De Soto’s chances after the first 20 minutes and was able to keep the game scoreless thanks to the Wildcat defense of Curran Conklin, Kris Light, Jacob Benne, Kolten Ragan, Scott Murphy and Calvin Cassida. Stefan also earned the shutout.
“After about the first 20 minutes, we settled down and pushed a bit more,” Conley said. “The majority of the game was played between the 18’s. They did take a lot of shots, but the majority of them were 30 yards out or so and didn’t pose much of a threat. They did have two really good looks early but Stefan made two quality saves. The defense played with a ‘bend but don’t break’ mentality. I couldn’t have been prouder of the way the boys played.”
Louisburg is currently tied with De Soto for second-place in the Frontier League standings with four regular season games remaining. Spring Hill is one game up on both teams, but the Wildcats will get another shot at the Broncos later in the season.
The Wildcats returned to action today when it traveled to Baldwin this afternoon, but they return home Thursday for senior night against Eudora. The varsity is set to begin at approximately 6 p.m.
Spring Hill shutouts Louisburg
Louisburg traveled to Spring Hill on Oct. 4 as it began the week tied with Spring Hill and De Soto for first-place in the Frontier League.
The Wildcats had both teams slated on its schedule for the week and they started with the Broncos. Unfortunately, it didn’t get off to the best of start for Louisburg as it fell to Spring Hill 3-0.
The Broncos took control in the second half and scored two goals to pull away from the Wildcats. Spring Hill broke open a scoreless game eight minutes into the first half with a goal, and despite chances to score several minutes later, Louisburg couldn’t get on the board.
“It was a frustrating game for us,” Louisburg coach Kyle Conley said. “We played very even in the first half in fact had several quality opportunities, but the second half we struggled to find feet and didn’t play our game. They scored three goals, but I felt two of which were soft by our standards. They are such a quality team, play hard and are a very experienced squad. We will play much better the next time we play them.”