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St Edward advances to regional final
Updated: October 12, 2011 8:27PM
Trailing by a goal early in the second half, St. Edward could have allowed a potential equalizer nullified by an offside ruling to become a source of frustration.
Instead, the Green Wave rode an offensive tide to a 5-2 victory that washed Westminster Christian out of Class 1A regional play. The win puts St. Edward, now 4-14-1, in Saturday’s noon regional title match against top seed Christian Liberty. Losing to the No. 3 seed Green Wave means the No. 2-seeded Warriors’ year ends with an 8-6-1 ledger.
“I don’t think our record reflects how good we are,” said Johnny Shepherd, who thought St. Edward had a tying strike when Kevin Olenek was flagged for being offside with 30:28 to be played.
But less than eight minutes later, Shepherd’s pass was headed home from five yards out by Olenek, who had given the Green Wave a 1-0 lead with a follow-up on a block in the opening 15 minutes of the match.
“I carried the play into the box and hoped for either a rebound or an assist and Kevin was right there to finish it,” Shepherd said.
“Johnny hit a great feed and I was just in the right place at the right time,” Olenek said in boosting his goal total to five.
Forty-one seconds later, the Green Wave took the lead when Joe French fed Shepherd for a three-yard finish from the left. Seven minutes elapsed when Logan Johnson set up Alex Lobo for a four-yard header that preceded a collision with Warriors goalie Sam Carani.
Lobo, who assisted on Olenek’s initial goal, didn’t see his score as he was flattened and left with a fat lip. Olenek set up Austin Davis for a final goal with 2:07 remaining.
It was a bittersweet ending to the stellar career of Westminster Christian’s Josh Beachler, who converted a penalty kick in the opening half and then put the Warriors up five minutes into the second half with a nine-yarder that brought his career record to 101 goals. Earlier this year, he broke the school standard of 98 set by his brother Tyler, now playing for Taylor University.
“It’s not about the goals. This is a great group of guys but a young team and when we got two (straight) goals, we let up. They’re young but they’ll learn from their mistakes,” Beachler said.
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