After nearly 100 minutes of even soccer, Sioux Falls Christian found a way to advance in the Class AA boys’ soccer playoffs Saturday afternoon.
Gabriel Schock scored on a free kick with 30 seconds left in double overtime to lift the Chargers past Aberdeen Central 2-1 handing the Golden Eagles their only home loss of the year and ending their season.
“These games are what they are: they’re one 80-minute shot and in this case 100 minutes,” said Central coach Lance Mohr. “You just hope to end up on the right side of it, and today we weren’t.”
On a day where a strong southerly wind was a big factor, the Golden Eagles weathered the storm in the opening half playing into the wind and scored in the 39th minute on a Linus Johnson goal. The junior used some nifty footwork to find the back of the net that gave Central a big shot of momentum heading into the half.
“I saw the guy and he took too big of a touch, so I saw that I obviously needed to take it,” Johnson said. “So I get the ball and I start dribbling. I kind of saw the split between two guys, and so I did a move and then I put it in the far netting.”
It was fitting ending of 40 minutes of solid soccer for the Golden Eagles, however that changed when SFC scored in the first 10 minutes of the second half.
“We ate all the pressure in the first half, had a perfect first half, just how you draw it up,” Mohr said. “And then like it took 10-15 minutes to get out of that mode in the second half. And in that time we hung back, we weren’t ready, and we gave up the goal.”
Still, playing with the wind the rest of regulation, Central had multiple chances to go back in front. However, the Golden Eagles had two shots that hit the post and other attempts that were denied by Chargers keeper Wilson Rector.
“The guys pushed so hard to get the second one. They pushed and they pushed and they pushed in the second half,” Mohr said, “but if you don’t take (advantage) your chances in soccer, then it usually doesn’t work out for you in the end, and that’s what happened today.”
Central had the wind at its back in the first overtime, but was unable to get a shot on goal. Christian then possessed the wind and had a solid scoring chance wiped out by Central keeper Zander Kuhfeld with two minutes remaining in the second overtime.
Just when it appeared that game would be decided on penalty kids, the Chargers were awarded a free kick in the final minute, which Schock deposited into the upper left corner of the goal for the game-winner.
“Only 30 seconds left with that free kick,” Schock said. “I thought we were going into penalties.”
Instead, Schock nailed a perfect attempt that sent the Chargers into next week’s semifinal round.
“It still hasn’t even sunk in yet. It’s unbelievable,” Schock said. “It’s really a blessing from above. I thank God for that goal.”
He said the plan was to just get it up into the wind at his back and see what happened.
“It’s really windy out here today. Down wind, far out, just try and get over it and put it on frame and hit it hard,” Schock said. “It just bent right into the top left corner. It was amazing.”
Central senior Derek Arunasalam had made his share of similar shots with free kicks, but was on the short end watching this one.
“That player, he was good all game,” Arunasalam said of Schock. “I was nervous, but I didn’t think he was going to do that. It happens. He’s a good player; good players do good things with the ball.”
And on this occasion, it brought the curtain down on a remarkable season for the Golden Eagles.
“Sometimes that happens in a game,” Johnson said. “I thought we played our hearts out, but we also had some areas where we just weren’t all dialed in.”
Central finished the year with a 12-3 overall record and captured its second straight Eastern South Dakota Conference championship.
“Of course we would have wanted something differently, but very grateful, back-to-back ESD champs, fantastic team that I could be a part of,” Arunasalam said following his last game with the Golden Eagles. “Those are my brothers, those 12 seniors, everyone on that team, they’re my brothers. It was amazing to play with them for all of the years that I did.”
Sixth-seeded SFC will now try to keep its season going, while the third-seeded Golden Eagles will put away the uniforms for another year.
“The top eight teams in South Dakota are all going to be good teams. They just are,” Mohr said. “We were right where we needed to be today as far as in the first half. It was perfect, and then we just couldn’t get that last bit of finish.”
Sioux Falls Christian 0 1 0 1 – 2
Aberdeen Central 1 0 0 0 – 1
First Half: 1, AC, Linus Johnson, 39th minute.
Second Half: 2, SFC, Levi VanderHaar (Dawson Holthe), 48th minute.
First Overtime: No scoring.
Second Overtime: 3, SFC, Gabriel Schock (free kick), 100th minute.
Goalies: Sioux Falls Christian, Wilson Rector (10 saves); Aberdeen Central, Zander Kuhfeld (5 saves).Shots on Goal: Sioux Falls Christian, 7 shots; Aberdeen Central 11 shots.
