The York Duke boys’ soccer team has had an up and down season. Friday afternoon they experienced their last down when they lost 2-0 to the Lincoln Pius X Thunderbolts in the first round of the state soccer tournament.
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It took a valiant effort from the whole team to make it to the tournament after starting the season with a rough 3-6 record, but once they made it to the Central Conference Tournament things took off. The Dukes won eight of their next ten games and swept through the district tournament to earn their bid to state.
Friday’s game kicked off at 11 a.m. at Morrison Stadium on the campus of Creighton University following Lincoln Lutheran’s defeat of Waverly. In the first half of action it was apparent that the Bolts would be controlling the pace of the game due to their flawless passing and ball control, but the Dukes were able to consistently turn away the advances of Lincoln’s attackers. About 15 minutes into the action York put forth their first attack of the game which proved to be the most promising shot of the game. A ball was crossed into the middle of the field and Justin McQuistan was able to fight off two defenders and rip a shot. The Pius goal keeper got just enough of his hand on the ball which hit the inside of the right post and rolled across the mouth of the goal untouched.
Pius continued to force the issue with continued attacks. They were able to keep the ball on York’s half of the field for most of the first half and finally capitalized on their efforts with 35 seconds left in the half.
Lincoln started the second half with a 1-0 lead and quickly doubled it. Only four minutes after intermission a Pius midfielder slipped a crossing pass on the ground into the box where Luke Votibka converted the goal. Now down 2-0 York had to make some changes.
“We didn’t want to do that too early,” head coach Rich Saxer said about pushing a defender up into the offensive attack. “The last time we did that they scored on us reasonably quickly. But being down two goals we figured that we should do that to try to get one goal to get us back in it. We had some really decent chances in the second half. The guys tried their hearts out. They are pretty tired right now.”
York was able to put together a few solid attacks in the second half, but were fruitless in the end.
“Our game plan was to hang with them as long as we could,” Saxer explained. “We knew they are a very skilled team, so we wanted to hang in there as long as we could and try to squeeze a goal in there some where to make a game of it. We came dang close. They are just so good. It would have been a big upset, not because we are bad, we’re a good team. It’s just that they are so good. They are going to be very tough for anyone to beat. We gave them our best shot and I’m proud of our guys.”
Overall Saxer was happy with the effort his team gave and the way they played.
“We did a nice job. We kept our feet and paid attention to the ball and not the man on defense. We stayed in good position and they started to get frustrated and take shots from 40 yards instead of 15 yards. Then they got the one goal in the first half, it was a nice play by them. I’ve got to give them all the credit in the world. I think we played about as well as we probably can.”
With this loss the Dukes ended their season with a 11-9 record overall. Out of the 22 players on York’s roster, 14 will graduate this year. Graduates include Brett Sorensen, John Ritzdorf, Adam Romans, Jon McQuistan, David Fangmeyer, Oscar Spader, Luis Enriquez, Adam Hamling, Dax Becker, Justin McQuistan, Ross Davis, Josh Ivey, Sean Walkup and Jared Munoz.
