Daviess County beat Ohio County 3-0 to advance to the championship match against Owensboro.
The Panthers scored first in the middle of the first half. Carter Payne flicked the ball backwards over his head and over the defender. This freed him up for a shot that he buried in the back of the net.
Cameron Bell scored the second goal later in the first half. Bell jumped to meet Gabe Sandefur’s cross and headed the ball into the top left corner.
The Panthers controlled the game for most of the second half as they controlled possession and had plenty of shots. Ohio had looks in front of goal, but the DCHS defense held out with big help from their last line of defense goalkeeper and 9th District Co-Player of the Year Connor Johnson. Johnson made key saves throughout the match to hold the lead and secure the shutout.
DCHS gave up a penalty with 13 minutes left in the game. Johnson stretched out and dove left to make the save and protected their 2-0 lead. Panthers head coach Doug Sandifer said that even though Johnson had not dealt with many penalty shots this season, he still had confidence that he was going to make the save.
“Fortunately he didn’t have to save a whole bunch of penalties this year,” he said. “That’s why I hollered to follow up before the kick was ever taken, because I had faith that Connor was going to make a tremendous effort. If Connor doesn’t make that save then it’s 2-1 and there was maybe 12 minutes left in the game. That’s a long time to play hanging on to a one goal lead, so that penalty save was big.”
Shortly after, DCHS progressed into the box and Sam Glover made a layoff pass to Jack Quisenberry who blasted the ball into the net to make the final score 3-0.
The Panthers will play Owensboro in the regional championship Thursday, and Sandifer said that his team needs to prepare for the tournament atmosphere.
“Region finals are what they are with everything on the line, and you hope you can come out and play a good game and play smart,” he said. “You just never know how the kids are going to come out and respond in the tournament time atmosphere, especially with that being a regional championship. We have to prepare them and hopefully they perform.”
The 3rd Regional Championship match is at 7 p.m. on October 12 at Shifley Park.
