Spring Mills pulls soccer upset to end University High’s season
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MORGANTOWN - The West Virginia Boys' soccer tournament doesn't have a catchy name like March Madness.
However, after games like the one that happened on Thursday Night at University's Myland Pharmaceuticals Stadium maybe October Oddities, October Obscurities or October Outlandishness.
After dispersing Spring Mills just two weeks ago with a 3-1 win the No. 8 seeded Hawks hosted the Cardinals in a first-round Class AAAA Regional. What followed was anything but normal.
The Cardinals (3-14) picked up just their third win of the season with a 2-0 victory that saw Spring Mills dominate the first half and then play defense in the second half.
"We had some injuries in our last game against University," Spring Mills head coach Jarred Miller said. "I definitely think we possessed the ball a little more today than we did the last time - that was definitely the key."
Spring Mills finished with 15 shots in the contest while UHS mustered just five. The Cardinals were also able to take advantage of one of their five corner kicks and another free kick. Meanwhile, the Hawks were unable to take advantage of four corners along four more free kicks just outside the penalty box.
"We actually worked on set pieces yesterday," Miller said. "We worked on defending them in practice. It's just about putting the right people in the right spots on a set piece because the game is stationary at that point, you can kind of set yourself a little bit more than the fluidity of the normal game."
The Cardinals scored first with 5:03 left in the first half when a corner kick wasn't cleared by UHS. The initial volley landed in the UHS box and was kicked high in the air off a deflection. That's when Colton Klomstad was able to put his head on the loose ball and direct it into the bottom left corner of the net.
"We talk all of the time about how are we going to respond after we score a goal or our opponents score a goal - what's that next five minutes going to look like," UHS head coach Brian Shannon said. "Are we going to play strong or are we going to hang our heads."
Unfortunately for the Hawks (5-16) the Cardinals were able to tack on another score with 1:30 left in the first half as Alejandro Rojas scored on a free kick from 26 yards out. Rojas found the top right of the net.
In the second half, the Cardinals played defense as they packed their half of the field and were comfortable with mustering only short attacks against the UHS goal.
"I don't want to say that we parked the bus, but we definitely settled in on defense," Miller said.
That defense was able to turn away the Hawks repeatedly. UHS had two free kicks on the left side of the penalty box in the second half and another potential goal clanged off the side of the right goalpost.
With the win, Spring Mills advances to Monday's regional semifinal against Wheeling Park. Meanwhile University ends its season.
University's Parker Smith finished with five saves in goal while Chason Wratchford had three for the Cardinals.
"We need to get a ball at our feet all year long," Shannon said of his team's offseason development. "We need to make use of our flex days that we have and there are tryouts for local club teams starting on Nov. 11. A lot of our guys are already there, and we need to train, train, train in the offseason because that is going to translate into how well you do in the next high school season."