Pioneers go down swinging: Rally falls short against Blackman
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Down 4-0 against the Blackman Blaze, Warren County came charging back over the game’s final 30 minutes, but fell short in a season-ending heartbreaker, 4-3.
Although the Pioneers’ season ended with a 4-11 overall record Monday night, coach Charlie Hardee said the enthusiasm and tenacity displayed not only Monday, but throughout the season, made this year’s squad a group to remember.
“To hell with the record, and you can quote me on this,” he said. “These guys are winners. These guys don’t quit, and when you’ve got people that don’t quit, you can do a lot.
“I’m so proud of this bunch, and I’m proud of the seniors. They didn’t reach their goals, but they never quit.”
The Blaze, which fell to Warren County 1-0 a week ago, got things going early, when Brett Todd scored on a crossing pass from Tyler Morrisey to put Blackman up 1-0. Jeremy Johnson fired a shot past a diving Matt George with 22 minutes left in the first half, and Blackman carried a 2-0 advantage into intermission.
Five minutes into the second half, Alex Bouton put in a rebound on a deflected shot from Jeff Boyington, sending the Blaze up 3-0, and Johnson struck for his second goal just two minutes later, as he headed in his own deflected shot.
But rather than play out the string, content to see their season end on a down note, the Pioneers turned up their intensity, attacking the Blackman goal with a nothing-to-lose mentality that paid off when Totsura Kusunoki fired a long shot past the BHS keeper.
John Jenkins scored on a header with 21:44 left in the game, cutting the score to 4-2, and Kusunoki narrowly missed a chance at his second goal of the game when his attempt off a Oscar Rodriguez crossing pass hit the goalpost.
Morgan Gunter came through with just under 10 minutes to play, scoring the game’s most dramatic goal and sending the large contingent of WCHS fans to their feet.
Ramsey Black sent a high pass in from near midfield, and Gunter used perfect timing to dive at the ball, sending a header into the goal and cutting the Blackman advantage to just one.
Hardee said the most notable fact about his team’s comeback was the large number of underclassmen on the field during the game’s final minutes.
“Except for three, everybody was a freshman or a sophomore out there,” he said. “So that shows us we’re going to be all right for the future.”
The Pioneers’ momentum was quelled slightly, as with just under seven minutes to play one of the game officials had to call a personal time-out. But WCHS still had several chances through the final moments of the contest, and kept fighting for the game-tying goal until the final whistle.
The loss marked the end of the careers of Pioneer seniors George, Gunter, Nathan Hyatt, Matt Larson, Kevin Lewis, Michael Oettinger, Derek Wilcher, Sam Wallace and Tommy Weddington.
“These seniors knew it was going to be a tough year, but they never quit,” Hardee said. “They kept the tradition of never saying die, and this has been as good a bunch of seniors in my heart as last year’s team or the year before that. Maybe not athletically, but as far as guts and attitude, I’ll put them right up there with the best.”