Make it three straight 4th Region All A Classic boys’ soccer championships for the Todd County Central Rebels. The Rebels picked up the latest title with a pair of wins Saturday at Clinton County.
In the semifinals, the Rebels had the lion’s share of the chances but Foundation Christian Academy battled hard and hung around. The match went to the break tied up at 0-0.
The Rebels got settled in as the second half got started. Todd County Central controlled the start of the second and finally got on the board when Tanner Henderson was able to find John Ross Cardwell with a slide across the net giving the Rebels a 1-0 lead.
With 10 minutes left in the match, Foundation Christian nearly evened things back up when they hit a low drive that John Mark Campbell dove on and saved. FCA did pull even a short time later when they got off a shot from about 30 yards out that got over Campbell and evened the match at 1-1.
With 5 minutes to play Chris Salazar pushed the ball deep, dropped it to the pk spot and found Alex Figueroa, who was there to put it home and give the Rebels the 2-1 win.
That win moved the Rebels into the title match against the Russellville Panthers.
The championship match was scoreless until the 20th minute when Chris Salazar found Tanner Henderson over the top for a run out goal right up the middle. That would be the only goal of the opening half as the score at the break was 1-0.
Action was back and forth for much of the first half and that continued in the second.
Chris Salazar found the net with a free kick just outside the box to extend the lead to 2-0.
With 9 minutes left in the match, Todd County Central sealed the title when Tanner Henderson got lose and hit an open John Ross Cardwell, who then slid the ball back to the pk spot where Chris Salazar was waiting to put the ball in the net and to put the Rebels up 3-0 and sent the Rebels on to the sectional round.
Waiting for Todd County Central (8-1-1) in the sectional will be the Owenboro Catholic Aces. That match is expected to be played Saturday in Owensboro. The Rebels beat the Aces 4-1 in last year’s All A sectional match in Elkton.
The Rebels are back in action Monday when they go on the road to Hopkinsville.
