Spartans boys soccer falls to Ottawa in penalty kicks
By Michael Ashford
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
With the Ottawa soccer team celebrating near midfield with a throng of students that had just rushed the field, Emporia High junior goalkeeper Spencer Anderson walked over to sophomore striker Gary Rivera, who was lying face down in the grass about eight yards in front of the goal.
Rivera had just missed a penalty kick, giving Ottawa a 4-3 victory on penalty kicks following a 2-2 tie after regulation and four overtimes and taking with it the Spartans’ chances of advancing in Regional play.
Anderson bent down, patted Rivera on the back and offered what little consolation he could.
“I told him, ‘Get up and don’t worry about it,’” Anderson said. “We can do it next year. We’ll be a better team next year.”
After battling Ottawa to a 2-2 tie through regulation and into four scoreless overtimes, Emporia High’s hopes of extending its season came down to a penalty-kick shootout with the Cyclones to decide the game.
Both teams made their first two kicks — Jacob Sipple and Tyler Butler for Ottawa; Adam Sanchez and Adrian Trujillo for Emporia. But after Ian Sutton gave the Cyclones a 3-2 kick advantage on his made shot, Alex Guevara’s try went straight to Ottawa goalkeeper Scott Stoops, putting the Spartans in come-from-behind mode.
Matt Sessions extended the lead to 4-2 on his made kick before Taylor Anderson calmly knocked in his attempt to keep Emporia alive at 4-3.
All Ottawa’s Blake Hiatt had to do after that was make the Cyclones’ fifth and final try, but like Guevara’s earlier attempt, Hiatt’s shot went straight to Spencer Anderson to give the Spartans a chance of at least sending the game into a second set of kicks.
But Rivera’s attempt went wide right of the goal, sending the Ottawa students and players into a frenzy while the Spartans fell into a shocked daze.
“The pressure is on the keepers in penalty kicks; the pressure is not on the shooters. If they relax, they should be fine, but sometimes you get a little tense,” EHS coach Steve Pearson said. “We saw their keeper kept going to the left, so I told Gary to shoot to the right, and it was just a little too far to the right — just a little too far.
“But it could have been worse. We could have been stomped 9-0. You go through two halves, four overtimes and a shootout and it comes down to the last kicker, good grief, I couldn’t ask for much more out of them.”
Had it not been for Rivera, the Spartans never would have gotten the game into the extra sessions.
Rivera came out on fire in the first half, scoring both of Emporia High’s goals — the first in the 27th minute and the second coming not long after in the 28th minute.
Both of Rivera’s goals came after the Ottawa goalkeeper, Stoops, had come away from the goal to try and take the ball away, but both times, Rivera lobbed the ball over Stoops’ head as Stoops was falling to the ground to give Rivera the uncontested goals.
The two scores gave Emporia a 2-0 advantage and a wave of momentum unlike any the Spartans had experienced this season.
That momentum was gone by halftime, though, as Ottawa tied the game at 2 with goals from Sipple on a penalty kick in the 34th minute and on a goal by Hiatt in the 39th minute.
Taylor Anderson said he believed the Spartans were a little unsure of how to play after getting up by two scores.
“I think we kind of let it (the lead) get to our heads,” Taylor said. “Then they scored on us, and we just lost track of what we were doing and they came back.”
The two teams battled through a back-and-forth second half, as each team had just five shots on goal after halftime.
After two 10-minute and two 5-minute sudden-death overtimes saw neither team score, it came down to penalty kicks, and it was the Cyclones who came out on top and earned the chance to face Shawnee Heights in Topeka on Thursday.
“It was a tough loss, mainly for the guys who missed their shots,” Taylor Anderson said. “I feel bad for them.”
The loss ended the Spartans’ season with a record of 3-12-2.
Pearson said the Spartans’ youth combined with a tough schedule made for a rough road at times. But, he said, the lumps the Spartans’ took this year should only make the team stronger next year.
“The season hasn’t really been all that frustrating,” Pearson said. “We knew we were young and that we had some big people to fight. We had a tough league, a tough schedule and a young team, and I’m not dissatisfied with our kids at all.
“They say that scars make you stronger, so next year we ought to be really good. We’ve got our scars.”