Aberdeen Central’s bad luck against Sioux Falls Washington continued Tuesday afternoon.
The Golden Eagles fell 2-1 in penalty kicks to the Warriors in the opening round of the Class AA boys’ soccer state playoffs at Golden Eagles Field.
That marked the second straight time the Golden Eagles and Warriors have met in the post season and the second straight time Central has fallen in a heartbreaker.
“They’ve got our number,” said Central coach Lance Mohr. “Sometimes self-inflicted, sometimes they just have our number. I’m proud of our guys, and (Washington) is a class act. They do things the right way, and it’s a testament to them to come up here and knock us out of the playoffs.”
Central, which dropped a 2-1 game to Washington in last year’s quarterfinals on a last-second double-overtime goal, scored Tuesday’s first goal with 7:31 remaining in the first half. Gabe Johnson took a long through-ball from Jordan Grieben and one-touched it into the goal.
It was a brief, fleeting moment.
Less than two minutes later, senior captain Sekou Gogue left the game with an apparent knee injury and three minutes after that, the Warriors notched the tying goal.
“We competed at a very high level and lost a very close game,” Mohr said. “I can lose a game like that. I can’t lose a game where we didn’t compete at a level that we thought we could. We gave it everything we had. … The adversity that we had to deal with – we lost Sekou and gave up a goal in 5 minutes – and to bounce back and stay in the fight, (the guys) showed a ton of heart. They wanted it for each other. We just fell short at the end.”
Neither team was able to score in the second half despite creating scoring opportunities for themselves, including a shot from the Warriors that glanced off the crossbar and one from the Golden Eagles that sailed just over the crossbar on the other end.
“It was very back-and-forth,” Mohr said. “We just could not get that last break that we needed. We thought we had it in us, but we fell short.”
After a pair of scoreless overtimes, the game went to penalty kicks, where Washington converted on all three of its attempts, while the Golden Eagles were just one of four, the lone goal coming from Derek Arunasalam.
Central ended its season with a 8-3-2 record.
“This one is gonna sting, but we’re gonna learn from it,” Mohr said. “We’ve got a ton of guys coming back. We conducted ourselves the right way, and it’s a big learning lesson for us.”
Sioux Falls Washington 1 0 (PK 3) – 2
Aberdeen Central 1 0 (PK1) – 1
First Half
1, AC, Gabe Johnson (Tyler Bain), 33rd minute; 2, SFW, (Alembe Sango), 38th minute.
Second Half
No scoring
Shots on Goal: Sioux Falls Washington 3; Aberdeen Central 6.
Goalies: Sioux Falls Washington (Ishaq Hayyawi); Aberdeen Central, Camden Fauth (5 saves).
