×

Trojans Fall To Riverside In Semifinals

Southwestern’s Chase Stevenson, right, attempts a shot on Riverside’s Say Reh during Saturday’s Section VI Class B-2 boys soccer action at Sweet Home High School. P-J photo by Scott Reagle

AMHERST — Through its first 17 games this season, not once did Southwestern allow three goals in a game.

On Saturday evening in the Section VI Class B-2 semifinals at Sweet Home High School, the Trojans picked the worst time for it to happen.

No. 6 Riverside scored three goals in a less-than 15-minute span during the first half and shut down No. 2 Southwestern’s usually potent offense the rest of the way en route to a 3-0 victory.

The Frontiers advance to Wednesday’s Class B-2 final against No. 4 Olmsted, which defeated No. 1 Burgard, 5-2, in Saturday’s second semifinal behind a hat trick from freshman Jonah Fogel, who had just one goal entering the night.

“We just always had our eyes on sectionals, looking to win the B-2 bracket,” Riverside coach Jeff Hurley said. “Now we’re just one step closer.”

Southwestern’s Esteban Diaz (20) attempts a slide tackle on Riverside’s Ali Hassain. P-J photo by Scott Reagle

Riverside looked smaller than many teams Southwestern matched up with this season, but what the Frontiers lacked in size they made up for in other ways. That became apparent early as they attempted several balls over the top of the Trojans defense.

Eventually one fell in the right spot as Omran Dalil sent a ball into Jasper Maniriho, who settled it and eventually punched it past Southwestern goalkeeper Brandon Fardink, who got a piece of it with his hand before it fell into the net.

“We had a couple of long balls that we weren’t able to control and get in front of,” Southwestern coach Jason Deering said. “They put them in the back of the net.”

Armed with a 1-0 lead, Riverside struck for two more goals in a four-minute span later in the half.

First, Mi Per Htoo fed Dalil in the box and he touched a ball that trickled just over the goal line before it was cleared to safety by Drew Keppel. Play continued for a short while before the referee and the linesman conferred and it was deemed a good goal with 22:16 remaining.

“Omran is a late bloomer. I’ve typically relied on Say (Reh) and Feysal (Osman), which are my two senior captains,” Hurley said. ” … Omran is just confident with the ball. He doesn’t let people knock him off. He plays really hard and today he stepped up for us.”

At the 18:07 mark, Osman dropped a ball into the top of the box where Fardink and his defenders seemed to have a brief communication breakdown. Dalil took advantage, tapping the ball through and into the net for his seventh goal of the season and a 3-0 lead.

“There probably needed to be a little more communication and a little bit more concentration on what was going on,” Deering said.

“Two of our goals came from just muscling their defenders around,” Hurley said. “They actually kept up with us with their speed. We ended up using our physicality to our advantage.”

With 4:45 remaining in the half, Southwestern nearly broke through with Reh in net and starting goalkeeper Eric Ndemezo on the bench due to an injury. Chase Stevenson picked up a ball near the top of the box and beat Reh, but with the ball rolling toward the corner of the net Osman cleared it off the line and out of danger.

When Reh wasn’t picking up his teammate in net he was a force all over the Sweet Home turf. The senior captain was stellar when possessing the ball and later in the defensive end of the field with the Frontiers were defending their three-goal lead.

“Say Reh was just a gift to me from the soccer gods. He’s really got it all,” Hurley said. “He’s got the brain. He’s the field commander when he’s out there. He controls everything, plus he’s got a boot like no other.”

“He was one of the best players on the field,” Deering said of Reh. “He was all over the place and did a lot for them.”

The Trojans officially put just four shots on net and their usually deft passing was often broken up by the Frontiers, who sometimes pushed as many as 10 players into the defensive half of the field during the second half.

“With what we’ve done all season, we were pretty confident that we could pop four goals on them in 10 minutes. We’ve done it before and we had confidence that we could do it again,” Deering said. “This is playoff soccer so obviously it’s pretty difficult to do that at this time of year.”

While it was unable to get the job done Saturday, Southwestern could easily return to the same postseason spot next year as the Trojans lose just three senior starters to graduation in Esteban Diaz, Chris Butler and Fardink.

“We’ll be back next year,” Deering said. “We’ll be back.”

Newsletter

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *
   

COMMENTS

Starting at $4.62/week.

Subscribe Today