Apollo boys soccer earned a two-game winning streak and snapped Owensboro’s four-game winning streak with a 1-0 victory on Thursday.
The Red Devils were able to get a few shots off in the first half to no avail, but the vast majority of the first half was Eagles.
They controlled possession time and time again and kept giving themselves opportunities near the box, something Head Coach Ryan Poirier said he was very pleased with.
“I think we played our best first half of the season—really any half,” Poirier said. “The passing was great and crisp. [There was] lots of attack [and] the defense was rock solid.”
In the 38th minute senior Harrison Bowman earned a free kick, but Alex Gonzo had made the save.
Shortly after Gonzo’s kick, Apollo’s junior Dah Hai won the ball in the midfield and flipped it over his head and found the feet of junior Teranse Twihenya.
Twihenya took the beautiful pass into the box and then found the left side of the net to put the Eagles up 1-0 going into the second half.
Winning balls in the midfield was something that Owensboro Head Coach Ryan Haley said was a big reason for their sloppy play and deficit going into the second half.
“I thought in the first half we kind of lacked the will to win 50-50 balls in the air and second balls,” Haley said. “We were kind of letting them win that. They were playing a formation where they had four in the middle versus our three and we didn’t change anything because it left our wings pretty open and they were exposed there.”
With that in mind, Haley asked his players to be strong in the midfield and battle to control possession and make a comeback. His message didn’t fall upon deaf ears, as the Red Devils came out of halftime on a mission.
Owensboro had almost total control of possession throughout the half, the only downside was that their shots were sailing.
The Red Devils outshot the Eagles 18-10, but Poirier said it was the defense’s ability to force deep shots or shots where players were falling forward or backward in the second half that allowed the defense to succeed.
“Second half I knew they were going to push us,” Poirier said. “They tried to put some more people up. They did a great job of really making us play a lot more defense in that second half. We got tired, we let them have the ball a little bit, but the defense stayed rock solid.”
Despite the mass chaos as Owensboro tried to find the back of the net in the box later, the Eagles cleared the ball to the other side of the field as time expired to wrap up the 1-0 district win.
Haley said that they had plenty of chances, but just weren’t able to convert. Despite the result, he was thrilled with the effort his guys put forth.
“Second half I thought we were on their side of the field the majority of the time,” Haley said. “We outshot them. I think we had opportunities. I think it’s just something for us that we gotta keep working towards. It is disappointing to not get the win, but at the same time I’m extremely proud of my guys. They’re a young group and we fought hard.”
On top of the success of Apollo’s defensive front, sophomore keeper Kaden Phillips stepped up when it mattered most, recording a shutout in his first career varsity game with Steven Teran out.
The win moves the Eagles to 4-3 overall and 3-1 district before they hit the road to take on Franklin-Simpson at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday. Meanwhile Owensboro will look for its first district win of the year when they take on Daviess County for the second time this season at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 9.
