After seeing its soccer season end in the KCAA State Tournament semifinals each of the past two seasons, Heritage Christian Academy has broken through to the championship game for the first time in a decade.
The top-seeded Warriors beat the Academy of Individual Excellence 5-0 and will advance to Friday’s championship game in Elizabethtown.
AIE, the No. 4 seed in the tournament, put seven defenders back in an effort to slow down the Warrior offense. However, Vova West had other ideas. He sent a 40-yard rocket past the goalie just three minutes into the match to put the Warriors ahead.
HCA would waste little time adding to its lead. Carlos Robles scored in the seventh minute off a pass from Liana Carr to give Heritage a two-goal advantage, and Carr fed Trenton Hayes with a scoring pass just a minute later for a 3-0 lead.
The Cougars’ best shot at getting on the scoreboard came in the 14th minute, but an open shot sailed wide of the goal.
Heritage tacked on its fourth goal of the first half when Hayes scored off a corner kick from West.
Robles would add the only goal of the second half when he scored on a header from a corner kick by Kris Ruth.
It was another sterling effort from the Heritage defense which has given up just four goals in nine games this year. Heritage outshot AIE 17 to 5 with all five of the Cougars’ shots coming before halftime. Matt Wills made three saves in goal for Heritage.
The Warriors had advanced to the state semi-finals each of the past two seasons but fell one game short of the championship each time. Heritage will play for the school’s first state soccer championship Friday. They will play Assumption Academy in Elizabethtown at 6:30 Eastern time. Assumption, the number two seed in the tournament, beat North Hardin Christian 3 to 2.
It will be the third match this year between the Warriors and Minutemen. The teams played to a scoreless draw on September 3. The Warriors clinched the number one seed in the tournament with a 5-0 win over Assumption on September 25.
