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Lincoln's senior defender Santana Hocker gets out in front of Richmond Model¿s John Reisig to take away a potential shot on goal for the visiting Patriots in the first half of action at LCHS. Model disrupted Lincoln¿s Senior Night celebration by handing the soccer Patriots a 4-1 loss in their regular-season finale. (Nancy Leedy / nancy@theinteriorjournal.com / October 3, 2012) |
STANFORD — It was the Lincoln County boys’ soccer Senior Night Tuesday at LCHS, but visiting Richmond Model seemed to have no intention of letting the Patriots enjoy it, handing Lincoln a 4-1 loss.
In contrast to the pre-game Senior Night celebration, it was all quiet on the Lincoln sideline post-game as Patriot coach Chaz Garcia sat on the bench with his seniors – Ian Blevins, Carl-Lewis Cummins, Brett Deshon, Jacob Gourley, David Green, Austin Grigsby, Santana Hocker and Brandon McMullen.
“There are a lot of mixed emotions here, right now,” said Garcia of the quiet bench. “The score is 4-1. I don’t feel like the score showed what the game was like. But we lost, we just got beat.”
For almost half of the first 40 minutes of the game, Richmond Model (12-2-1) and Lincoln (10-5-0) waged a midfield battle for control of the ball.
The Model Patriots started to possess the ball more in the 15th minute, and got several shots on goal before Andrew Wylie broke the scoreless tie. Wylie scored off a corner kick, booting a shot in behind Lincoln goalkeeper Ian Blevins to put Model up 1-0.
Model outshot Lincoln 12-5 in the first half, 18-10 overall, and posted a 2-0 halftime lead.
Andrew Yoder made it 2-0 Model in the 36th minute, following through for the goal off a missed shot. Blevins had just punched out a shot attempt by Yoder but could not get back into goal and did not have the defensive help to stop the putback.
“We were ready to go from the beginning, but I think we just collapsed out there,” Garcia said. “I don’t know. We may have been (tired). We were coming off a four-day rest. We didn’t practice on Friday and then you’ve got the weekend. Then we got rained out yesterday. It’s really hard to come in and play like that.”
Wylie, who had a hat trick for Model, scored his second goal just four minutes into the second half, placing the ball past Blevins off another corner kick for a 3-0 advantage.
Lincoln’s Carter Dunn interrupted the visitor’s scoring run just two minutes later, dribbling to the left of goal then firing in a shot behind Model goalkeeper Turner Curtis to make it 3-1.
Lincoln’s soccer Patriots got several strong scoring opportunities in the second half, including back-to-back shots by Dunn and Carl-Lewis Cummins in front of goal in the final six minutes, but failed to convert.
Model would tally once more before the final whistle sounded, with Wylie dribbling the ball in front of goal and punching in a shot to the left corner of the net.
“It was just not a good night tonight,” Garcia said.
Lincoln travels to Garrard County Middle School on Monday to take on Boyle County in the first round of the 45th District Boys Soccer Tournament. Kickoff for the tourney opener is at 6 p.m.
“I think we’re definitely ready for district. I hope so at least,”¿said Garcia. “A very good Lincoln team will be playing in a tough tournament because we’ve got a tough district. I just hope we’re ready to play.”
