Todd County Central celebrates after winning the school's first-ever All A Classic soccer quarterfinal match (Kassity Boor photo)
The penalty kick round has become old hat for the Todd County Central Rebels soccer team.
For the second straight round of the All A Classic State Tournament, the Rebels eeked out a win with PKs and advanced. The latest came on Saturday when Todd Central beat Somerset 2-1 for the school’s first-ever win in the state quarterfinals.
Todd Central scored on its first four kicks by John Ross Cardwell, Tyler Baker, Justin Reyes, and Memphis Bell.
Somerset needed a goal to advance the match to a second round of PKs, but Noah West’s shot was saved by Rebel goalie John Mark Campbell to preserve the win.
Todd Central advanced to Saturday night’s semifinal against Bethlehem High of Bardstown, who defeated Prestonsburg 5-0.
Spencer Pool scored in the match’s first two minutes, and the Rebel defense made the 1-0 advantage stand up until the second half.
The match took a bizarre turn with 11:18 left when the Rebels tried to poke home a loose ball in front of the net. Some pushing between players resulted in a pair of red cards issued to Somerset and one to Todd Central. One of the Briar Jumpers receiving the red was their goalie.
Despite playing 9 on 10 the rest of the match, Somerset (6-4-2) tied things up with 7:31 left when Randall Ochoa Zacarias scored off a corner kick.
Todd outshot Somerset 15-9 but only found the net once in regulation.
The quarterfinal win at the All A Classic state tournament is the first in four appearances for Todd County Central, which improved to 9-5.
The Rebels advanced to Louisville with a win over Owensboro Catholic last week in a match also decided by penalty kicks.
