Daviess County’s eighth time in a row in the Elite Eight ended in heartbreak as they fell to St. Xavier 3-0. The Panther’s own Connor Johnson was also named to the State All-Tournament Team.
St. Xavier struck first to get an early 1-0 lead five minutes into the match. A cross was sent across the box that was settled and shot into the side netting of the goal.
DCHS tried to respond quickly, but they were forced to play defensively for most of the first half as St. Xavier held the majority of possession. Switching fields and accurate passing by the Tigers often put them on the attack while the Panthers defense fought hard to keep them out. Johnson made multiple big saves to keep the Panthers from falling behind in the match. Three saves coming from shots at point-blank range highlighted Johnson’s performance.
Daviess County relied on counter attacks to try and bring themselves level, and they nearly succeeded in the 22nd minute when Carter Payne had a powerful shot headed for the top right corner. St. Xavier’s goalkeeper made an acrobatic save to keep it out.
The Panthers almost tied the score in the dying seconds of the first half. A long ball from the sideline was served up high and carried by the wind towards the top left corner of St. Xavier’s goal. The keeper made the save to keep the score 1-0 in favor of St. Xavier at halftime.
The Panthers started the second half with high offensive pressure and forced the Tigers to play around their back line. Despite getting deep into attacks, head coach Doug Sandifer said the St. Xavier defense made it very difficult for Daviess County to claw their way back into the game.
“I thought their keeper played fantastic against the three or four good chances we had,” he said. “Those are goals against 90% of our opponents. They did a fantastic job in their box of blocking shots, last second slides and getting their body in the way so we couldn’t get clean shots off. Their keeper made three or four saves that were just class saves. You got to have one or two of those goals go in to have a chance against a team like this.”
The Tigers used long through balls to find their way into the attacking third. DCHS kept them at bay for a while thanks to goalkeeper Connor Johnson who made a key save from point blank range in the 44th minute to keep the score 1-0.
Tragedy struck five minutes later as an unlucky deflection from a St. Xavier shot curled its way into the very top right of Daviess County’s goal to take the score to 2-0. Not long after, the Tigers extended their lead to 3-0 after a cross into the box found the head of an unmarked player in the box.
The game ended 3-0, and so did the Panthers’ impressive 21-5-1 season. This match marked the 9th time in 10 years that Daviess County has made it to the Elite Eight, and Sandifer said he was proud of the effort by the Panthers and that this game capped off their season.
“I’m really proud of the group, and they came a long way this season,” he said. “They won 21 games, district, region and went on the road to win a round of 16 game. It’s a tough draw to get the best team in the state, in my opinion, in the round of eight, but that was our fate, and we did the best we could.”
“What you shoot for when you come in in July is to play as long as you can in the postseason,” he said. “I think if this team is given, maybe a different team advances to another game, but it is what it is. I think we reached our cap this year, and it’s a good cap that we reached. It’s nothing to be down or disappointed about. We just got beat by a better team.”
