Saturday’s boys soccer battle of top-10 teams featuring Class 3A featuring No. 6 Columbus East and No. 10 Castle lived up to its billing.
Even though the Olympians had many chances of getting a goal in the second half, they couldn’t punch one through. Couple that with a strong defensive effort by East, and the game ended in a 0-0 draw.
“This really helps with our morale,” East senior defender Thomas Soedel said about the team’s great start to the season. “Going into the next game after winning the last game helps out a lot, too. For the front, they want more goals, and for the defense, we want another shutout.”
The biggest moment of the game happened in the 23rd minute. A controversial call occurred that negated an Olympian goal. Jorge Nieto delivered a cross to Logan Cline that went in for a goal and what they thought would be a 1-0 lead. However, a very late call offsides several seconds after the goal disallowed the score.
“(The referee) thought about it after the (Castle) coaches yelled at him, and that made him change his mind,” East coach Brad Barber said. “It seemed like it was 10 seconds after the goal, they decided to call offside, which was a big surprise to us, but I was happy because our players responded really well to that.”
The Olympians (9-0-2) had a couple good chances late in the first half to get on the board off of corner kicks, but both attempts from Branson Young were off the mark.
East had another great opportunity in the 52nd minute when Chris Quisenberry beat all of the defenders and was one-on-one with the Knights goalkeeper. His first attempt defected off the keeper and the rebound shot by Quisenberry was off-balance and started to roll in the net. However, one of the defenders was able to run back in time and kick the ball away before the entire ball crossed the line.
“In a battle of two top-10 teams, there’s no doubt we had four or five clear, great chances, and for whatever reason, hitting the post or a clear off the line,” Barber said. “Give credit to them, even though they had some shots, it was really a huge test to Zach (Roberts), so that’s another positive. We got another shutout against a top-10 team. Our back line is playing well and even our midfield. A lot of our defense starts up top and because of that, we were able to win the ball midfield and negated a lot of their scoring opportunities.”
The Olympians finished with 19 shots, with 11 on goal. Castle had 10 shots with four on goal. Roberts had four saves to post another shutout, bringing his school-record total to 26. He broke the record in a 9-0 shutout over Jennings County on Thursday.
“It’s not just me, it’s Korbin (Hatcher), it’s Thomas, it’s Ben (Romig), it’s Gabe (Rivera), it’s everyone. It’s our whole defense,” Roberts said. “Barber always hits on us about this defense, and it’s showing. With only allowing eight goals all season against all the teams that we’ve played against, it goes to show how hard we work and hard work wins.”
