Ryan Schaeffer
BBHS Assistant Coach
After defeating Calvary Christian on Monday night, the Mustangs found themselves in the championship game on Wednesday night vs. the Campbell County Camels. A team who gave our boys a tough game on September 10th @ the MAC, where the Mustangs prevailed 3-0. Regardless of the circumstances, as a fan, you want to see these teams play each other every-single-time. Many of them know each other, play on the same club teams, compete in other sports, etc.
The game was knotted for the first 29 minutes, with each team making some nice offensive runs and defensive stops. The Mustangs had several corner kick opportunities that just came up short. With 10:40 to go, Junior Tyler Smith rifled a cross from the right sideline to the far post and found Sophomore Luke Alwell, for the Mustangs’ first goal of the night. Neither team could produce another goal before halftime, making the score 1-0 after the first 40 minutes of play.
The Camels fully admit that they have been a second half team this season, and proved it by wasting no time with a goal just 2 1/2 minutes into the second half, tying the game at 1-1. The Camels seemed to have the momentum and made several attempts but our back line of Junior Tyler Braun, Senior Colin Ratcliff, Junior Carter Goodman and Junior Ryan Clines had several key takeaways. Senior GK, Lucas Steffen, added 4 key saves on the night.
The clock stopped with 14:00 minutes to go, after Sophomore Alex Runge sent a pass into the box which resulting in a diving Tyler Smith header, slipping one by Campbell GK Brycen Faulkner. That goal put the Mustangs up 2-1. Faulkner would have several key saves throughout the game.
The Camels weren’t done just yet, when Steffen deflected a hard shot and James Besecker was there for the cleanup goal.
With the score knotted at 2-2, fans started asking about the rules for overtime and PKs. Luckily we didn’t reach that point, after Tyler Smith found the back of the net once again with 1:39 left in the game. It’s kinda becoming his thing…winning games with seconds left on both the soccer field and football field.
Smith was named Tourney MVP, while Luke Alwell, Alex Runge and Sam Chirumbolo were named to the All Tourney Team. Nice job boys!
The Mustangs (12-5-2) will find out who, when and where they play next after the Regional Tournament draw sometime on Saturday. The earliest that they will play is Monday and it appears that the game will either be at Montgomery County or George Rogers Clark. Stay tuned and check back as those two teams play each other on Thursday night.