Wildcats withstand Hawks

A mistake by Columbus goalie Carter Colby had the Mid-Prairie boys? soccer team believing going into extra time, but the Wildcat sophomore made up for the mistake.

The Wildcats had given up their second goal to Mid-Prairie?s Jordan Ulin, which tied the game up with three minutes to play, sending the game to extra time.

In the first minute of overtime, Mid-Prairie charged to a golden opportunity to finish the game off, but a stellar defensive effort by the Wildcats kept the game alive, and gave Colby a chance to redeem his mistake in penalty kicks.

Colby stepped up in the first round of kicks, stopping Ryan Harapat, while Columbus? Ruben Paz put the Wildcats up by one.

After the Hawks tied the penalties up at 2 after three rounds, another Colby save gave the Wildcats an advantage, stopping Matt McGaffey, and that led to the Wildcats taking the game in penalty kicks 4-3.

?Carter is a new keeper, and he?s going to make a mistake,? Columbus head coach Luis Cacho said. ?We had to be prepared for that situation; however, in the PKs, he became big, because he stopped two of them to give us the win.?

Early in the match, Mid-Prairie (2-4) jumped on top of Columbus (3-3) with a goal from Ulin in the fifth minute, but after that, Columbus started to dominate the touches in the game.

Columbus finally broke the seal of the Hawks? goal when sophomore Ruben Paz connected on a shot in the middle of the box to tie the game up at one in the 63rd minute.

?It was the team,? Paz said. ?We talked and we just put our mistakes into positives and really stepped up. The whole team came through.?

The second Columbus goal came on a mess in front of the goal on a corner kick, which seemed to accidentally go in off of the foot of Wildcat freshman Kevin Rodriguez.

?It bent in and I?m not even sure if anyone was even trying to kick it in to the goal,? Mid-Prairie head coach Pat Cady said. ?It looked like it just bounced and went in. It?s one of those things where we have to clean that up. We can?t let the ball hit the ground like that.?

After the Wildcats took the lead, the Hawks charged back to tie it up five minutes later behind Ulin?s goal which found its way through Colby?s hands.

Twenty  minutes later, the game went to PKs and the Hawks couldn?t pull off the late comeback.

?I think we looked good to come out in the game and score,? Cady said. ?We had maybe four other opportunities, and how they kept the ball out of the goal, I?m not sure, but it just didn?t happen for us. Unfortunately it came down to that dreaded PK shootout and we can?t shake that.?

The Wildcats accounted for 15 shots on goal in the game, which was a part of the game plan heading into the contest.

?Our objective was to shoot the ball,? Cacho said. ?The field was wet and the ball was slippery, and that was the point I made to Ruben. When we warm up, we have to try to shoot more. It doesn?t have to be perfect, but we have to put it in the net, because that?s going to cost us more games.?

The Hawks will look to get back in the win column against Highland at home on Monday afternoon, while Columbus will travel to face Wapello on Monday night.