Sometimes rivalry games just don’t go the way that they look like they should go on paper. And that is why the games are decided on the field and not decided on paper.
The Hopkinsville Tigers scored the first two goals of the match and the last two goals of the match Thursday evening as they upended the Christian County Colonels 4-2 in a big 8th District battle at the Stadium of Champions.
Going into Thursday night’s 8th District soccer match, it looked as if the Christian County Colonels were the hot team while the Hopkinsville Tigers were struggling. The Colonels were 8-4 and came within a whisker of taking down the UHA Blazers.
Hopkinsville had dropped 10 of their last 12 matches going into Thursday night. But none of that mattered when the two teams took to the pitch.
The Tigers came out and staggered the Colonels to start the evening. Alex Rameirez found the net in the early going of the match to give the Tigers a 1-0 lead. Hoptown freshman Anthony Evangelista drilled a left footed shot across the face of the net into the right side at the 16:00 mark to make it a two goal lead for the Tigers.
The Colonels however recovered to find their footing and made their move to get back in the match. Erwin Macario directed a header into the net at 18:10 to cut the lead to 2-1. Christian County pulled even at the 28:45 mark when Noah Davis scored off a crossing pass that the Hopkinsville goalie gambled on and missed and the match was dead-even at 2-2.
Hopkinsville would score what turned out to be the game winner in the final 30 seconds of the half on a penalty kick after the Colonels were called for a foul in the box. Erick Hernandez drilled the shot to put Hopkinsville back on top and seize the momentum once and for all in the match.
Gavin Harton would add an insurance goal for Hopkinsville at 60:30 to push the lead out to 4-2.
Hopkinsville (5-11) now gets the inside track on the second seed for the 8th District tournament. The Tigers will take on UHA on Tuesday.
Christian County (8-5) will look to try and end a two-match losing streak Tuesday night on the road at Madisonville-North Hopkins.
