Todd County Central‘s boys’ soccer season came to a close Wednesday in the semifinals of the 4th Region tournament in Bowling Green. The Greenwood Gators beat the Rebels 3-0 to advance to Thursday’s championship match where they will play Bowling Green.
Todd County Central’s game plan was mostly defensive as they dropped five defenders to limit Greenwood’s penetration toward the goal. The Gators were able to find feet with their passes for most of the night and were able to get off eight shots in each half against the Rebel defense.
The match remained scoreless until 11:50 left in the first half. Imran Karamova scored off a corner kick with a header that just crept past Rebel goalie Jonah Rager.
With Todd County taking a defensive mindset, the office struggled to get off shots. Todd‘s first shot on goal didn’t come until nearly 60 minutes into the match.
The semifinal, scheduled for a 7:30 start, didn’t begin until 8:45 thanks to a rain delay before the first semifinal match and a lightning delay shortly after Bowling Green and Franklin-Simpson began play.
Playing on the artificial turf at Warren Central High School, the Rebels struggled with their through balls. Passes toward the goal or corner that would normally nestle into the corner on natural grass were skipping faster on the wet turf and would go out of bounds. That limited the Rebels offensively.
Greenwood nearly took a 2-0 lead when a shot caromed off the side of the post with 16:10 left. The Gators would find the net two minutes later when leading scorer Andy Alfaro scored from out front.
Alfaro finished the scoring with just over a minute left when he headed in a corner kick.
The Gators outshot the Rebels 16-1. Rager made seven saves in goal in his final game as a Rebel.
Both Todd County Central and Greenwood were making their first region tournament appearance since 2013. That season, the Gators also ended the Rebels’ season in the semifinals.
Greenwood (11-10-2) will play Bowling Green in Thursday’s championship match. The Purples beat Franklin-Simpson 4-0 in the first semifinal. Bowling Green beat Greenwood three times by a total of five goals during the season.
Todd County Central’s season ends with a record of 17-4-1. The Rebels’ began the season with 11 wins and a tie in their first 12 games. They won an All A Classic region title and nearly won a district title, falling in double-overtime to Franklin-Simpson in the championship match.
The Rebels have three seniors on its 2022 roster.
