Mustangs fall short in semistate final

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CROWN POINT -- With a two-goal lead, it appeared the Munster boys soccer team was in promising position to make its first trip to the state finals.

Instead, the Mustangs had to settle for having made their first appearance in a semistate final.

Mishawaka Marian rallied for a 3-2 victory over Munster in the Crown Point Semistate championship on a blustery Saturday night, using a goal late in the first half to spark its comeback. It will be the Knights (15-6) who will play in the state finals for the first time, against North Central Semistate winner Zionsville.

"Extremely disappointing, but I'm not disappointed in the season," Munster coach Jim Prasopoulos said. "At the end, there's really only going to be one happy team.

"We made some mistakes."

Marian scored the decisive goal with 14 minutes left in the game. Henry Blum, who scored the Knights' first two goals, sent a through ball to put Manuel Garcia into the clear, and Garcia slotted the ball off the left post and into the net.

"Obviously, it's nice to make history for our school, but when it came down to it, we didn't finish, we didn't take it," said senior Krste Ruiz, who moved from forward to sweeper with about 30 minutes left, then moved back to forward after Marian moved ahead. "Our defense broke down. I don't know what the problem was. It's sad it has to end this way."

Munster (18-2-1) had taken a 1-0 lead only four-plus minutes into the game when Ruiz hammered home a cross from freshman Zarko Coric, starting at forward in place of injured junior Derek Carlson.

Anthony Huard's blast gave the Mustangs a 2-0 lead with five minutes left in the half, off a feed from Ruiz.

But against the wind, the Knights answered a little more than two minutes later, with Richard Was speedily carrying down the field and Blum tapping in the pass.

"I wasn't very happy with the way we finished the half," said Prasopoulos, noting a similar scenario occurred in the Mustangs' semifinal victory. "That was pivotal. That was a big momentum-changer.

"We talk about it all the time. But we really didn't finish the half in a smart way."

And Marian -- which lost to Munster 3-1 during the regular season, though it played without its standout goalkeeper Cody Camp -- tied the score with just less than 23 minutes left in the game. A long free kick from midfield rebounded off Munster keeper Jess Clark -- the Mustangs argued the Knights had kicked the ball out of the sophomore's hands -- and Blum was in the goal mouth to knock in the loose ball.

"We thought they did, but it's hard to judge," Prasopoulos said.

Munster had advanced to the championship with a tense 2-1 overtime victory over West Lafayette Harrison in a semifinal, on an own goal.

With a little more than two minutes left in the second half of overtime, Huard took a corner kick and it deflected off a Harrison defender. The Raiders vehemently protested that the ball hadn't crossed the goal line, but to no avail, with senior defender Zach Amick drawing a red card.

"This is semistate," Prasopoulos had said after the semifinal. "We persevered, we came through, we're moving on.

"Anybody could've won that game. I'm just happy, proud of the kids and how we fought."

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