LeBlond falls to Chillicothe in dramatic district championship

Nov. 4—CHILLICOTHE, Mo. — Bishop LeBlond boys soccer came up short in its bid for a second-straight district title as the No. 1-seeded Eagles were defeated by No. 2 Chillicothe 1-0 in the Class 2 District 8 Championship Wednesday night.

The district title is the first since 2019 for the Hornets and third of the last five seasons.

"We accomplished a lot this year," LeBlond head coach Chad Thompson said. "We're losing some great seniors and some great kids, but we'll be back."

It was a tug-of-war in the first half, and neither team really budged. The Eagles had a few shots on goal saved by Chillicothe's Jaxon Albertson, but not much was going for either side.

In the second half, Chillicothe dictated the pace of the game. LeBlond keeper Marcos Dominguez was called upon to make a pair of saves on some great Hornet looks, keeping the game scoreless until about 10 minutes into the second half.

Chillicothe was finally able to cash in on a scoring chance, but it came with a bit of controversy.

Chillicothe's Ben Cueni-Smith played a ball over the top to fellow senior Chace Corbin. LeBlond defender Hayden Cross was running step-for-step with Corbin, until their feet appeared to get tangled up, sending Cross to the turf. Corbin stayed upright, had a free look on goal, and slotted it in the top corner.

Thompson said he was expecting a call from the referee.

"I thought, when I heard him blow the whistle a second time, that he was calling it back," Thompson said. "It appeared to me that they got tangled up, but apparently not."

The Hornets were able to keep the Eagle attack pinned down for the rest of the second half to secure the 1-0 victory.

In the lone regular season meeting between the two, LeBlond came out on top, 3-1. Wednesday night, Thompson said the Hornet defense gave them a different look.

"Everytime we had a forward up, they were putting two, three, four guys on him," Thompson said. "It's hard to pass the ball, it's hard to shoot the ball, it's hard to dribble the ball when you got two, three, four guys on you."

With the loss, LeBlond's season comes to an end with a record of 16-3. Looking ahead to next season, Thompson said there's still a lot of positives to take from this season.

"We have a super young team," Thompson said. "There's a ton of great soccer players still on the team and a lot of great soccer players coming up, so we'll build on this, and we'll be back."

Chillicothe advances to the Class 2 Quarterfinals, where it will face the winner of Harrisonville and Barstow on Nov. 13.

Maryville wins district title

The Maryville Spoofhounds defeated Summit Christian 2-1 in overtime in Wednesday's Class 1 District 8 championship.

James Distefano scored the game-winner in the closing minutes of the first overtime to hand Maryville (14-5-1) its second-straight title and third in four year.

Quinn Pettlon scored early for Maryville to snatch a 1-0 lead, though SCA tied the game before the half.

Maryville advances to play the winner of Smithton and Knob Noster in the Class 1 quarterfinals.

Jacob Lang can be reached at jacob.lang@newspressnow.com. Follow him on twitter: @NPNowLang.