Charleston – The Shady Spring boys and girls soccer teams traveled to the Capital City Tuesday in hopes of dethroning the reigning state champions.
Unfortunately for the Tigers it was not meant to be in the Class AA-A Region 3 championship matches.
The Shady Spring boys took the Irish to the last shot of the match before falling 7-6 in penalty kicks, but the girls could not slow down the Charleston Catholic juggernaut in a 10-0 loss.
Freshman Micah Smith put the visitors on top with a goal in the 10th minute of play. However, Charleston Catholic junior midfielder Owen Snyder answered for the home team to even the match just over nine minutes later.
For the next 60 minutes of regulation time and two 10 minute sudden victory overtime periods, neither team could find the back of the net.
The game then went to kicks from the mark to decide the regional champion.
With the shootout tied at 6-6, Charleston Catholic junior Ethan Bastian nailed his attempt before making the crucial save on the ensuing Shady Spring attempt to preserve the win.
Charleston Catholic will now look to win its third straight boys state title next week at The YMCA Paul Cline Memorial Youth Sports Complex in Beckley.
After seeing the Lady Irish beat both sectional opponents by a 10-0 margin, the Tigers knew it was a big hill to climb in order to knock off the Irish who had won the last four state titles.
Two first half goals by Mia Lough and Molly Messer along with a netter from Roxy Winter led to a 5-0 advantage at the break and Shady never could quite recover.
The AA-A boys semifinal matches will be played in the morning session on Thursday, Nov. 2. Game one will start at 9:30 a.m., while game two will kick 30 minutes after the conclusion of the opening match.
The girls matches will start at 4:30 p.m. later that evening and are played under the same schedule.
The AA-A boys championship game is Saturday, Nov. 4 at 9:30 a.m. with the girls game to follow 45 minutes after the boys game ends.
