After playing the Washington Blue Lions on Tuesday, the Miami Trace Panthers played another SCOL match against a team whose colors are blue and white, the Chillicothe Cavaliers.
The Cavs were stinging after suffering a 3-2 loss at home against Wilmington Tuesday.
Miami Trace was coming off a 3-1 win over the Blue Lions.
Thursday, with a full moon rising over Fayette County, the Cavaliers held on for a 2-1 victory.
Chillicothe beat Miami Trace back on Aug. 23, 1-0.
The Cavaliers held a 2-1 lead at halftime.
The Panthers had 40 minutes to score and tie the match, while the Cavaliers had the same 40 minutes to put another goal on the board and take what would have been a very-difficult-to-overcome 3-1 lead.
The second half was a very intense, hard-fought half, with neither team being able to score.
The Panthers held a lead, however briefly, on a goal by Blake Pittser at the 32:17 mark of the first half. That goal was unassisted.
For the Cavaliers, John Graves scored at the 31:42 mark. The assist went to Hudson Ward.
At the 14:19 mark, Ward converted a penalty kill for the Cavaliers to make it a 2-1 game.
In spite of the tremendous amount of energy expended by both sides, there would be no more scoring in the contest.
“I think you can say Tim Kinzler is the best goalkeeper in the SCOL,” Miami Trace head coach Josh Thoroman said. “He showed that tonight. He had 10 saves.”
Chillicothe had 16 shots to 15 for Miami Trace.
Due to a red card, the Panthers were a man down for seven minutes, Thoroman said.
“It was an interesting game,” Miami Trace assistant coach Sean Sweeney said. “Both teams played well. Chillicothe is very organized. They didn’t get to use their station-to-station passing as normal. They had a little trouble with the grass on our field. They’re not used to it; they play on turf.
“We linked well, we moved the ball,” Sweeney said. “It was a good battle. When you start playing 10 on 10 or nine on 10, the strategy changes completely.”
Miami Trace, now 4-3-1 overall, 2-3-1 in the SCOL, has a match Saturday at 1 p.m. at Westfall.
Chillicothe is now 6-1-1 overall, 5-1-0 in the SCOL.
“It was a good game for us, it was hard-fought,” Chillicothe head coach Mike McCorkle said. “We had a lot of chances to finish around the net, but we didn’t. Credit to Miami Trace; they made it tough all night on us to finish. They played us hard. We tried to get that next goal, but we couldn’t.
“I thought Miami Trace’s goalkeeper just played tremendous all night long,” McCorkle said. “He was part of the reason, I think, that we didn’t put away some of the shots. He made some tremendous saves.
“Overall, I thought our guys hung tough,” McCorkle said. “It’s an ugly win, but a good win.”
Chillicothe plays Saturday at Hillsboro.
