Wyoming boys soccer falls in overtime to Bexley in Division II state semifinals

BELLBROOK, Ohio - The Wyoming boys soccer team's bid for back-to-back Division II state championships was spoiled Wednesday night in a heartbreaking overtime defeat in the state semifinals at Bellbrook High School's Miami Valley South Stadium.

After battling to an 80-minute scoreless draw with Columbus Bexley, Wyoming's season came to a sudden end when Bexley senior midfielder Liam Kauffman retrieved a throw-in, maneuvered through traffic and found the back of the net with a hard-hit grounder just before the five-minute mark of the extra stanza.

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Bexley, making its ninth state Final Four appearance, will face Lima Shawnee in the Division II state championship game Saturday night at Lower.com Field in Columbus.

"The big thing that we've talked about is maximizing time and they might've heard that as trying to win, advance and play more games, but to me, it was really ensuring that the time we spent together we spent it well," Wyoming head coach Ryan Derge said. "I know this group maximized the time they had. That's all that really matters to me."

Wyoming was playing a man down in overtime and the final minutes of the second half after Cowboys' senior midfielder Ethan Hatcher received a red card with 2:46 left in regulation. The call ended Hatcher's night early and received heavy disapproval from the blue and white faithful in the bleachers and the Wyoming bench.

"The big thing this year was playing for 80 minutes and continuing. As the game went on, we were able to find a little bit more success, but when we got the red card, it really hampered that momentum that we had, especially going into an overtime period where we would've had, I think, the legs and rotations and stuff like that," Derge said. "You can't control the referees, you can't control the weather, you can't control those things. The only thing we can control is what we do, and we have stuff to do still."

Despite having only 10 players on the pitch, Wyoming held strong in denying Bexley's last-ditch efforts to deliver a game-winning goal in regulation. Bexley had scored 32 goals in its previous five postseason contests. A free kick following the red card gave Bexley a few cracks from deep inside the box, but Wyoming turned away each Lion attempt.

With both teams at full strength for the majority of the match, Bexley had the shots-on-goal advantage, but Wyoming's defense turned away any shred of momentum the Lions would possess with key clears from the backline and numerous saves from senior goalie Noah Popovitz.

Though its looks were few and far between, Wyoming came just a mere inches away from delivering the game's first goal in regulation. With just over 24 minutes remaining in the first half, Hatcher, who had 11 goals coming into the night, had a free kick clank off the crossbar. The rebound was retrieved by leading scorer Van Carmichael, who fired a shot that Bexley goalie Drew Martin stopped with a dive.

Just past the midway point of the second half, Hatcher hit another solid free kick that found the head of Sam Elliott, but his shot once again banged off the crossbar before Bexley once again cleared the loaded box.

Wednesday marked just the second time Wyoming had been shut out this season. The first since a 0-0 draw with Mariemont in September. It was Bexley's fifth shutout of the playoffs and 15th of the season.

"They (Bexley) get the details. They are able to manage a game and get control of it," Derge said. "I think they were the ones in control of the game, in the actual management of it."

Derge, named Wyoming's interim head coach following Adam Jones's departure last summer, did not address the team directly after the season-ending loss but wanted to focus on the positives from this season and what the senior class accomplished as a whole.

Over the last four seasons, Wyoming went 72-9-7 overall and 23-2-3 in Cincinnati Hills League competition. In that span, the Cowboys won two league championships, four district titles, two regional crowns and the program's first-ever state championship.

"This is one of the best senior classes in the history of DII soccer. We won state last year, went to the Final Four this year, district champions four years in a row. You have great teams in Carroll, St. Francis DeSales and Alter that have done that in the last 25 years, but there hasn't really been a public school off the top of my head that's done something like that," Derge said. "This is a collection of families that live 2.7 square miles (apart), so our ability to really succeed these last two years is because of that senior class.

"They won't realize it today, tomorrow or probably for a while, but I think that the feelings and emotions they're going through right now they're entitled to. For me to try to replace it with other things to try to alleviate that pain, it's not fair to them. They'll handle it and I'll be there for them to handle it, but again, everything we've done this year is what I'm proud of."

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Ohio high school soccer: Wyoming falls on OT goal in DII state semis