By Christopher Shaban
EAGLE TIMES STAFF
SUNAPEE — Playoff soccer is like nothing else as Concord Christian Academy and the Lakers were locked in a rough and tumble match that needed to go to a shootout to decide a winner.
It looked like Sunapee would walk away with an easy win as they dominated play for most of the first half. Vincent Borelli and Sam Kress were on point for Jack Iacopino’s Laker offense and things were clicking right away. Rushes into the corner led to open spacing in the middle of the field allowing Dalton Rupert and Andres Claus to push forward.
During a scrum in the corner, Matt Tschudin fired a bullet that caught the far post and bounced back into the goal box. Eric Nangeroni dove toward the ball and a beautiful header found the net for a 1-0 Sunapee lead 13 minutes into the game.
The Lakers were locked in and in control when a second Tschudin blast found the post as Concord Christian Academy’s Colby Carlisle was living a very good life between the pipes. Kress was next up as his shot was gobbled up then things began to get a bit testy. David Jimenez rolled across the goal where Carlisle dove on the ball. As Jiminez’s momentum carried him into the keeper, a bit of shoving took place that seemed to change the game.
The half would end with Sunapee holding onto the 1-0 lead but it was an uneasy feeling.
“We had a lot of confidence heading into the half. We felt like we were in the game for the long haul,” said Concord Christian Academy coach Craig Anthony.
That confidence grew and overtook the Lakers in the second half as Concord Christian Academy was marking players from sideline to sideline.
“They really stepped it up after the break, they are a quality team and they really made us work for everything,” Iacopino said.
With the wing play of Concord Christian Academy covering Tschudin and Borelli like feathers on a goose, play became very physical with sliding tackles and lots of elbows and shoving scattered all over the pitch.
Concord Christian Academy pushed their all-state back, Levi Campbell into a midfield position and his passes were surgical. The uptempo play from the visitors had Sunapee on the defensive for a long stretch and eventually awarded a direct kick to Concord Christian Academy. Austin Spurr hammered a kick from nearly midfield that landed in the center of the goal box in front of Jake Galloway. The Laker keeper leaped for the ball but he wasn’t tall enough as the ball calmly settled into the goal as the game was suddenly tied 1-1 with Concord Christian Academy controlling all the momentum halfway into the second period. Sunapee would hold on and force overtime where they looked like they did in the first half.
The Lakers suddenly had energy and were tracking the ball well with crisp passing on the offensive end but couldn’t finish. The second overtime was all Concord Christian Academy and the game nearly ended except for a clearing save from Laker defender Cam Messanger when a slow roller had eyes for the goal setting up a dramatic shoot-out.
As the crowd gathered into the end of the field where the shootout was taking place after both goalies decided it was the better of the two areas, it was go time.
Iacopino set his five shooters with Galloway in net. The first shooter was Dalton (score), second was Jacob Stoughton (score top right), third was Kress (score bottom left), fourth was Claus (score bottom left). Concord Christian Academy took their turns and scored three out of the four times setting up the wining opportunity for Sunapee with one shooter remaining. The fifth shooter for the Lakers was Tschudin who had already hit the post twice but this time there was no missing as his goal finished a thrilling Laker win sending them to the semi-finals on Tuesday.
“I wanted this so bad for the seniors”, said Tschudin after being mobbed by his teammates.
One team was overjoyed and in full celebration mode while members of the other team was scattered across the field with some in tears with some Sunapee players hugging the Concord Christian Academy players in a classy show of respect.
“Sunapee is just a top notch organization, they keep reloading and we wish them nothing but success going forward,” Anthony said. “We played our best and gave everything we had but they were just a little better than we were today.”
No. 3 Sunapee will next head to Laconia on Tuesday to face No. 2 Gorham in the Division IV semifinals as the Lakers look to repeat as state champions.
“Concord Christian Academy came to play today, we practice penalty kicks all year and today we came out on top,” Iacopino said. “There is always a 50/50 chance when you get into PKs and today we kept our composure and did what we’ve practiced over and over.”
“This is a great feeling but our work isn’t done yet. We need to go to Laconia and play better,” Claus said. “This just gets harder and harder and I know we’re up to it.”
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