With practice time limited and several players returning from a school trip under the weather, University Heights Academy failed to find the net in a pair of losses at Saturday’s Boots and Butts Classic at the Stadium of Champions.
UHA was mercy-ruled by Bryan Station 8-0 after a 4-0 loss to Elizabethtown in the opener. Due to the event’s goal-margin formula, Bryan Station was determined the Boots and Butts champion while Elizabethtown was runner-up.
“We knew we would play good teams, and they were very good, but we’re extremely disappointed with the way we played,” UHA coach Josh Nichols said. “We played Elizabethtown twice at Centre’s camp It was 0-0, and we lost 2 -1, so today’s result is extremely disappointing.”
It’s the first time in five years that UHA was kept off the scoreboard in consecutive games.
“Give credit to those teams. They’re very good, and they took advantage of everything that we didn’t do well, which was quite a bit. We looked like a team that hadn’t practiced in a week, which is basically the truth, and just weren’t good enough today,” said Nichols.
UHA (4-3) has a pair of district games this week, starting Thursday with Christian County who they beat in last year’s district championship on penalty kicks. Saturday they will play at Heritage Christian Academy.
“We have to be able to keep the ball better. You know, we get under pressure, and we panic, and we go long, and people get quiet and run from the ball in the midfield, and you just can’t beat good teams that way,” Nichols said.
On Monday, Sept. 9, the Blazers will play at Mayfield (3-3) in the All A Classic sectional with a berth in the state tournament on the line.
Elizabethtown 4 University Heights Academy 0
The game was decided in a two-minute stretch of the first half when Ben Craig scored off a corner kick in front of the net in the 27th minute.
Kobe Ryan added a goal 90 seconds later to put the Blazers in a 2-0 hole.
Ryan scored his second goal of the contest in the 52nd minute and Lincoln Shirts ended the scoring in the 61st minute.
Elizabethtown (6-2-1) outshot UHA 10-6.
Bryan Station 8 University Heights Academy 0
The Defenders scored four goals in each half, with the eighth and final one two minutes ahead of the final horn invoking the mercy rule.
Bryan Station (5-2-1) was able to move the ball to the tune of a 20-2 advantage on shots.
