Apollo’s offensive intensity and experience was too overpowering for Owensboro, as the Eagles secured a spot in the 9th District Championship with a 4-0 win.
The Eagles nearly started the game off with a bang, posting a shot inside the box before it rolled out of bounds.
However, Apollo’s aggressiveness offensively paid off in spades to give them multiple scoring opportunities.
The Eagles came through in the 21st minute, as a corner led to a strong header from senior Ko Htoo to take a 1-0 lead.
Owensboro was able to fend off Apollo for the remainder of the first half, but the Eagles came out ready to put the Red Devils away in the second half thanks to a message from Head Coach Ryan Poirer.
“[We told them] it’s 0-0,” Poirer said. “We gotta go out and win the half and score multiple goals to win this game… They took that to heart and I think that showed that. There was a fire under them. They flew around the field all day.”
Senior Teranse Twihenya cut inside and hit a rocket into the right side of the net to get things going in the 45th minute and give Apollo a 2-0 lead.
Minutes later the Eagles were able to score once again, as junior Hunter Dickenson crossed the ball to senior Harrison Bowman right in front of the net to make it a 3-0 game.
The Red Devils weren’t able to muster up much offense all game long, seemingly a pass away on multiple occasions.
On the other hand, Apollo scored one last goal with five seconds to spare, as Bowman put the game away to give them a 4-0 victory.
Poirer was thrilled with his team’s all-around effort for 80 minutes on Tuesday night, saying that they were able to play a complete game.
“I thought we played really well…” Poirer said. “I just thought we were rock solid on defense. The passing and moving [offensively was great]. We just spread them out and we played really well. We finished. We’ve been waiting for a game like this where we have two halves of great passing and great finishing and we got it.”
Owensboro Head Coach Ryan Haley agreed with Poirer’s notion, saying that they did a great job of taking away offensive opportunities.
“I thought Apollo did a good job of not letting us get shots,” Haley said. “We had two in the first half and then in the second half we had to try to move some pieces around a little bit more in order to try to create on offense and unfortunately it took away from our defensive end.”
The Red Devils seemed a step slow all night and Haley said the level of experience and leadership played a big role on both sides.
“Apollo had seven starting seniors and I believe they have more than that, but they played like they didn’t want their high school careers to end,” Haley said. “Whereas we had a few seniors that played that way and the other ones, I think they just didn’t really care much.”
Despite the final result not being in their favor, Owensboro closes out the season with an overall record of 8-9-2 and a promising future ahead of them with an average team age of 16.
“[We’re] the youngest team I’ve ever seen at the varsity level…” Haley said. “I think they’ve recognized that we’re getting bigger and stronger and that we have better years ahead of us. But, we will miss our seniors. So I think we all understand the direction that we’re pointing in and that we’re trending upward.”
With a tough matchup against Daviess County coming up for the 9th District Championship on Thursday, Poirer said they will rest up and take knowledge from previous matchups this year to hoist some hardware by the end of the week.
“We need a lot of rest,” Poirer said. “At this point in the season we know what we are. We know what they are. The last time we played them was really close. Hopefully we can take that with the finishing from tonight and if we can put those together, I think we’ve got a good shot.”
