Boys soccer: Hampshire stuns St. Edward in final 10 seconds
Sawyer Shores' excitement was totally evident.
Shores' rebound goal with 10 seconds left in the second overtime gave No. 5 seed Hampshire an exhilarating 4-3 win over third-seeded St. Edward in semifinal action of the Class 2A Hampshire regional Wednesday night.
The goal came off a corner kick from Kobe Frenette.
The host Whip-Purs (14-7-3) will take on Sycamore, a 2-0 winner over Marmion Academy in the first semifinal Wednesday, for the regional championship at 4:30 p.m. Saturday.
St. Edward ends the 2019 campaign with a 12-7 record.
"We didn't want to go to a shootout," said Shores. "Shootouts are toss-ups and a lot of luck. Kobe (Frenette) had a great corner kick and I was right there for the rebound. This win wasn't because of me. It was 150 percent effort by everybody on our team. Everybody played so hard for two overtimes. Give St. Edward credit they played so hard. They are a very good team. We needed every ounce of effort to beat them."
Shores ended the game with 3 goals and an assist.
"Sawyer was in the right place for the rebound," said Hampshire coach Rick Schuster. "We fought hard and got the hard goals when we had to. We left a few goals on the field but we will take the win. St. Ed's is a very good team. It took a great effort by our guys to beat them."
The Whip-Purs seemed to be in good shape after goals by Shores and Frenette gave the hosts a 2-0 advantage with 2:04 left in the first half.
But the pesky Green Wave wouldn't give in as Chase Brieger scored with 1:31 remaining in the first half to cut Hampshire's lead in half at 2-1. That was the score after 40 minutes.
The Wave scored the first 2 goals in the second half by Ty Brieger and Jackson Godfrey and held a 3-2 lead with 10:29 left in the contest.
Shores' goal on a penalty kick with 5:02 remaining in regulation tied the game at 3 and eventually sent the game into overtime.
Both Hampshire goalie Kyle Schultz and St. Edward keeper Evan Sajtar were outstanding between the pipes.
Schultz collected 6 saves while Sajtar had 8 saves.
"Both goalies were outstanding," said Schuster. "They made great save after great save. The game could have been even more high scoring if not for the goalies."
St. Edward coach Tim Brieger was pleased with his team's effort.
"We got down 2-0 but we kept battling," said the St. Edward coach. "Both teams played so hard. We just didn't lock down and clear out on that last goal."