Gallery by Karen Akers
Wednesday night’s Class AA Region 3, Section 2 boys semifinal clash between No. 2 seed Shady Spring and No. 3 seed Mingo Central could have been a trap game.
Instead, the Tigers stayed on task and showed their defensive dominance in a 3-0 win over the Miners.
“Defensively we played pretty well. We have been trying to shore up our defensive clear-outs and stuff like that,” Shady Spring head coach Dylan Foster said. “I am really impressed with how aggressive we played tonight.”
Any thought of an upset for the visitors was squelched quickly by senior striker, Walker Bowman.
Bowman put Shady Spring up 1-0 in the 12th minute on a blast that could not be handled by Miners’ keeper Justin May. Twelve minutes later, Bowman made it 2-0 on a clean blast off an assist from sophomore Michael Vecellio.
“Two quick goals from a senior like that, that is big stuff,” Foster said. “Walker keeps getting better and better every game. We lean on him a lot.”
“I knew the goalie liked to go backside when you’re front post,” Bowman said. “I just tried to play the ball on the ground because we knew the grass was wet and if I played front post, he would be leaning the other way. I just had to aim there.”
Less than four minutes into the second half, Vecellio put on a dribbling display through the Mingo defenders and cashed in on an unassisted goal for a 3-0 advantage.
Although the Tigers had what looked to be a comfortable lead, Shady never relaxed on defense.
“They are one of the most physical teams that we have played all year,” Foster said. “We have been taking pride in our defensive practice and it is showing out now. Tonight, made two consecutive shutouts and we are going to keep going.”
The win over Mingo Central now sets up the highly anticipated clash with No. 1 seed PikeView.
Meeting just once in the regular season, the game was halted late in the match after a scuffle broke out on a hard foul from PikeView.
“We lost 2-1 the second game of the season. As we all know it was a hotly contested match and there was a lot of bad blood,” Foster said. “We look forward to going down there and getting some revenge. We are confident and ready to go down there.”
With emotions sure to be running high from the start, Foster feels his team will again stay on task and play soccer.
“We have talked about that since it happened. We are going to go down there and beat them in the game of soccer,” Foster said. “We are going to keep our heads and keep our composure. That is what is going to win us the game.”
The match will be played at PikeView and kickoff is set for 3:30 p.m.
“We are all excited to play them because we want some revenge from that first game,” Bowman said.
