The final season of soccer for the Hopkinsville Tigers will go down as a memorable one indeed. Hopkinsville scored on a penalty kick at 71:40 and then fended off the University Heights Academy Blazers over the next eight minutes to take a 2-1 win in the 8th District boys’ soccer championship game Thursday night at the Stadium of Champions.
The win was the second over the Blazers in the last two weeks for Hopkinsville. The Tigers won 1-0 in a match that was played over two days back on September 23-24. That win gave Hopkinsville the top seed in the district tournament.
The Tigers came out of the gate ready to go. Just two minutes into the match, Hopkinsville found the goal for the first time. Setting up for a direct kick opportunity, Ethan Fabian elected to drop a short pass to Jason Macario instead of taking aim on the goal. The move worked out perfectly as Macario then found his opening and took it, giving the Tigers a 1-0 lead.
While not finding the net again in the half, Hopkinsville appeared to control play for much of the half, with the Tiger defense not allowing the Blazers to get many good looks at the net. At some point in the opening half however, there felt like a momentum shift took place, as UHA began to get shot opportunities. The Blazers were not able to convert any of those first half chances, but the momentum had changed ends of the field.
The Tigers carried a tenuous 1-0 lead into the break.
That swing of momentum late in the opening half continued into the beginning of the second half. The Blazers kept the pressure on the Hopkinsville defense and finally broke through at the 43:25 mark. UHA played a shot that ended up right at the right front post.
With the keeper pinned out of position, a Hopkinsville defender tried to play the ball across the face of the goal and out of danger. The problem was that one of his teammates stepped in the line of the played ball and the ball then deflected off his leg into the goal, tying the match up at 1-1.
The two teams went back and forth over the next 20 minutes, but neither could get to the lead. The Blazers had three really good chances over a four minute span. Hayden Hunt had a shot deflect off the crossbar at 62. Hunt looked to have a goal at the 65 but an outstanding play from Hopkinsville goalie Raul Rivera slammed the door. The Blazers also had a good look off a corner kick at 66 but could not get the shot into the net.
The turning point of the match came at 71:40 when the Blazers were called for a foul in the box. Sophomore Erick Hernandez scored the penalty kick for the Tigers, putting Hopkinsville back into the lead at 2-1.
With the lead, the Tigers went into protect the goal at all cost mode, and they were able to turn back all efforts from the Blazers to try and tie the match. When the clock hit 0:00, the celebration was on for the Tigers.
The Blazers fall to the Tigers despite outshooting them 11-8 for the night.
Hopkinsville moves to 11-6-1 while UHA drops to 15-6-0. Both teams advance to next week’s 2nd Region tournament, which is being played at Henderson County. The regional tournament draw is set for Friday morning.
