Why St. Xavier boys soccer's quest for 16th KHSAA state title will have to wait
LEXINGTON, Ky. — Ninety minutes of incredible soccer culminated in coin flips.
St. Xavier twice called heads and came up empty, and suffered its second loss of the season in the final game of the KHSAA Boys Soccer State Tournament presented by UK HealthCare.
Paul Laurence Dunbar prevailed, 4-2, after a 0-0 masterpiece through two overtime periods. The Bulldogs won their sixth state title, and second in a row, while denying the Tigers a 16th.
“You hate for a championship to be decided that way, but you love for a championship to be decided that way,” St. Xavier head coach Andy Schulten said. “A great game tonight. Back and forth, up and down.”
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The Tigers (24-2-3) had one less shot than the Bulldogs (19-2-3), but came across as the aggressor through much of the contest, and especially in the waning minutes of regulation. After keeper Alex Kron got a fingertip save against a penalty kick off the foot of Dunbar’s Ryan O’Hara with four minutes left, St. X bolted down the field and dictated the remainder. Stone Work, a sophomore with 27 goals on the year, sailed a good ball with a Dunbar defender incoming, but it ricocheted off the crossbar and into the knees of a rival.
Inches separated both teams from victory down the stretch. Those brushes with glory made a shootout feel inevitable before the first overtime got underway.
Dunbar called all four right. Joany Chavez nailed his first PK before keeper Mason Feddock blocked the first St. X attempt from Walker Stanbery. The squads exchanged goals in the next two rounds before Trenton Kaskocsak launched a ball too high seconds after Jacob Oser made the decisive kick for Dunbar.
Schulten offers up only two bits of advice in PK situations: Want to be up there and don’t kick it soft.
“I’m proud of all the guys for doing that,” Schulten said. “The goalie made a great save on the first one, and our last one he hit it hard. It was in but he skied it a little bit. That’s soccer.”
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The finish did no justice to the play of St. X keeper Alex Kron, a senior who trains with Louisville City FC. The penalty kick save in regulation was the most impressive of six that kept the Bulldogs at bay; he had one in each of the overtime periods as well.
“Unfortunately, I couldn’t get one in the shootout,” Kron said. “But I couldn’t really do much more. I hope not. I hope I left everything out there.”
Schulten fell to 12-2 in his final appearances, both losses coming at the hands of Lexington’s winningest program and outside of regulation. The Bulldogs prevailed in overtime 1-0 in 2001.
“One missed ball, one missed pass, whatever, it can go either way,” Dunbar head coach James Wray said. “These guys stuck with the game plan and I’m so proud of these guys. They played their hearts out tonight and here we are.”
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Eight of the 16 players who took the field for St. Xavier on Saturday were underclassmen. The Tigers will return four of their top five goal-scorers and their two assist leaders, Trip Campbell and Alvaro Gonzalez (eight apiece). Kron’s 90 saves will be missed, but Schulten expects current junior Ben Howard to step into the box and perform well.
The returning Tigers won’t lack motivation.
“I think it’ll be a good reminder that we came so close,” Work said. “And that the PKs just got us. They were a great team and played really well. We hope to be back here next year.”
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: KHSAA boys soccer: PLD denies St. Xavier 16th state championship
