Harvest Christian falls in boys soccer sectional
BYRON - The Harvest Christian Academy boys soccer players received a nice ovation from fans Tuesday as they left the field for the final time this season.
Despite coming out on the short end of a 9-1 decision against an older, more mature team from Hinckley-Big Rock, the young Lions were lauded for reaching a Class 1A sectional semifinal in the first place.
"Seven of our starters are freshmen or sophomores," Harvest Christian coach Jason Acres said. "This is a good learning experience for them. We're playing teams that mostly have upperclassmen, juniors and seniors. So we need to play more physical, we need to be more aggressive and we need to improve.
"But you can't take anything away from how hard they worked all season long. They went 12-4-3 and won a regional, so that's good."
Hinckley-Big Rock (17-6-1), a bigger, more physical side at almost every position, struck early. Center midfielder Eric Phillips settled a ball sent into the box by Jeremy Perales and put it past Harvest Christian goalkeeper Noah Fox for a 1-0 lead 87 seconds into the match.
The Royals dominated possession and spent most of the first half in the Lions' end. Despite such near constant pressure, Harvest Christian found a way to tie it. Sophomore Antonio Nevarez sent a direct kick to freshman Alessandro D'Argento, who finally took control of the ball in front of the net after it pinballed off several players. He put the ball in the back of the net to tie the contest 1-1 with 17:25 left in the first half.
However, the Royals regained the lead within 25 seconds. Senior forward Connor Nelson put a pass on the foot of junior Jack Bullard in the penalty area. Bullard was marked by a Harvest Christian defender so he slid the ball across to Phillips, who settled it, aimed and blasted the go-ahead goal inside the left post. It was the second of 5 goals for Phillips.
"I credit my team,"Phillips said. "After that tough goal we needed to bounce back and we did."
A penalty kick goal by Bullard and 2 more by Phillips staked the Royals to a comfortable 5-1 halftime lead.
Hinckley-Big Rock added second-half tallies from Perales, Phillips, senior defenseman Dutch Schneeman and sophomore forward Jack Warner.
Harvest goalkeeper Noah Fox made 7 saves, but he was left vulnerable too many times by the Royals, who executed their passes with precision.
Nevertheless, Fox expressed positive feelings as he left a high school soccer field for the last time. And he had only good things to say about his young teammates and the direction in which the program is headed.
"We only had two seniors on this team and three juniors," Fox said. "I mean, to win a regional with that young a team? To get here with that young a team? They have plenty of good years ahead of them. I would have liked to go a little bit farther, but they can't take the regional away."