By: Joe Blystone
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
publisher@thevillagereporter.com
OTTAWA HILLS (October 28, 2023) – A wise younger man has said time and time again. “Big game players make big plays in big games.”
Evergreen senior Riley Dunbar broke out of a scoring slump with one of his biggest days yet on the biggest stage, scoring the Vikings first three goals and assisting on Konnor Sanford’s game clincher with a minute left as the Vikings ousted Maumee Valley Country Day Academy, 5-3 to win the Division III district title at Ottawa Hills.
After three consecutive sectional titles, the district title was the first in the Vikings five-year soccer existence.
“I think Riley had a tough two or three weeks when he was out (with an injury), and then coming back to two demanding sports like football and soccer,” Viking coach Dave Skoczyn explaining Dunbar’s big game.
“Now he is able to concentrate on what he is doing out here; it’s been a real blessing for him just to go play.”
“It’s unbelievable to me how he can play two physically demanding sports like he does. He has done it and hung in there.”
Both teams had chances in the first 20 minutes the best being when Evergreen rattled off a flurry of shots at goalie Ehsan Darr, one of which he saved, and Nick Rosinski’s rebound sailed over the crossbar.
Asa Karns had a try for the Hawks at the 23-minute mark but netminder Alex Mossing speared his drive.
With just under 16 to go in the first, the Vikings broke through. Gavin Raby dumped a pass upfield that Dunbar outran a defender to, headed it to himself over Darr and scored on a second header at the 15:51 mark for a 1-0 lead.
The Hawks high scoring foreign exchange student Kashi Tomic had two shots in the next six minutes to tie but he got “Mossed” as Mossing stoned him right in front, then made a leaping save on the second.
Evergreen got deep on the MVCD side late in the half, forcing a corner. Cory Kanneman dropped a dime and Dunbar made a deposit in the right side of the goal with 4:05 left to make it 2-0.
Evergreen struck again early in the second and again Dunbar was the finisher. Brady Kanneman’s free kick was headed to the net by Rosinski and Dunbar domed it in for a three-score margin with 34:53 left.
MVCD came back as Tomic nailed a sharp angle shot from the left side into the near side 80 seconds later, then scored again when Izek Royer got loose on the back side off a corner with 31:33 to go to make it 3-2.
Just 1:11 later Tyson Woodring was taken down in the box on the attack and Darr never knew what happened as the Viking senior drilled the PK past him without the goalkeeper making a move to regain a two goal Evergreen lead.
But four minutes after, in the most controversial play of the day, Mossing was yellow carded trying to jump for a ball in the box and Tomic scored the PK just out of the reach of a diving Hayden Smallman to chop the Evergreen margin to 4-3.
Mossing re-entered the match right after and on the next two shots, MVCD got “Mossed” first Jack Baker from right in front, then Akash Joshi out of a scrum from point blank range.
MVCD never really had another opportunity as the Viking middles, including Rosinski and Alex Fritsch, didn’t allow much more to penetrate their end of the field.
“We knew they were dangerous,” Skoczyn said of Tomic and Karns. “As speed goes, they are pretty fast. We just knew that not to let them cut back into areas where they were dangerous.”
“The guys in the middle did their job and again Alex Mossing came up big, he plays far beyond the freshman he is. He does whatever he can to make sure we are in games.”
Rosinski’s free kick was tracked down by Dunbar and on yet another header toward the net, Sanford flew in from the right to knock it in with 60 seconds left on the clock to ice the victory.
“We have talked about it all year, and everyone has a role,” Skoczyn said of Sanford’s game clincher. “Whatever your role is, that’s your role. We have kids that can play, and the last goal Konnor had we told him to come in from a different angle.”
“It was funny because right after the game he just came to me and said, ‘coach I need to start listening to you a little more’.”
“It takes everyone, and we told them that before we left for the game, everyone is going to have to have a role, and everyone just came to play.”
“We talked about not having a ton of goals at the beginning of the season and every game is a new game. We will do the same thing next week; our vision has already been redirected from this game to the next.”
“We need to move and make sure we are in the right places and if we do that there aren’t many teams that can play with us.”
Evergreen advances to the regional semifinals at Port Clinton Wednesday against Kidron Christian.
MVCD (13-5-1) – Goals: Kashi Tomic 2, Izek Royer
Evergreen (18-1-1) – Goals: Riley Dunbar 3, Konnor Sanford, Tyson Woodring; Assists: Riley Dunbar, Cory Kanneman
