LEAPING SAVE … Evergreen freshman goalkeeper Alex Mossing comes down after making a save during the Vikings district semifinal win over Lake. (PHOTO BY JACOB KESSLER / THE VILLAGE REPORTER)
By: Joe Blystone
OTTAWA HILLS (October 25, 2023) – Wayne Static once said, “Nothing in life is free.” Ohhhh Wayne, Wayne how wrong you were!
There are free bases on the ball diamond, free plays in football and free throws in hoops that can be sooooo important.
And then there are free kicks in soccer that when executed properly can be lethal. Evergreen’s Cory Kanneman nailed a laser on one of those free kicks to give Evergreen a second half lead, and then Tyson Woodring stuck another in the back of the mesh with under two minutes left for the clincher in the Vikings 3-1 Division III district semifinal win over Lake in front of a large crowd at Ottawa Hills.
Evergreen now plays Maumee Valley Country Day Academy for the district title on Saturday.
“We have done it by committee all year,” Viking coach Dave Skoczyn said regarding Kanneman’s goal. “When (high scoring) Riley (Dunbar) was hurt how do we manage that. When we had Alex Fritsch injured same thing.
“We have had other people step up besides Tyson, Riley and Nick (Rosinski) get big goals for us in big games and this was another one of those times.”
The Vikings had chances to take a big early lead but just missed on a number of scoring tries.
A trio of those came when Dunbar was stoned by Mitchell Maguire in front of the net nine minutes into the game, then Dunbar’s header on the rebound rung off the crossbar.
Woodring’s third chance sailed just over the bar keeping the game scoreless. Maguire stopped Woodring two minutes later in a 1-v-1 and two minutes after that attempt, Dunbar’s header off a corner had Maguire beat but nicked just off the bar and off.
“I think from the start if one of those from Tyson or Riley goes in the game is entirely different,” Skoczyn explained. “We knew that, but they didn’t. We didn’t finish some chances.”
Lake’s Greyson Reed had a free kick chance at the 18 minute mark but Viking goalie Alex Mossing made a gymnastic like save when he caught the try and flipped over a Lake player in the box to preserve the tie at that point.
With 7:00 on the clock, the Vikings struck from over the top. Dunbar’s header from midfield split two Lake defenders where Gavin Raby scooped it up and dumped to Woodring on the right where the fleet striker put the biscuit in the basket going right to left to put the VIkes up 1-0.
A minute and a half later, Reed had another free kick and found Preston Snyder on the back side for the goal to tie at the 5:35 mark.
That score stayed the same until 30:40 was left in the game. A Lake foul gave Evergreen a free kick at the 40 heading in and Kanneman delivered a banger that went through a leaping Maguire’s hands to give the Vikings the lead for good.
Lake had one true chance to tie but Mossing saved Reed’s blast from the deep middle without having to move with 13 to go.
Evergreen kept up the heat on Maguire, but the sophomore made two more quality saves, one on Brodie Setmire with a diving effort and another against a Dunbar header from in close.
With 1:46 left, Woodring turned out the lights when he beat Maguire on the left side of the net with a free kick from the right just outside the penalty box.
“We told them at half when it was tied, we have to raise to another level. We challenged our guys in the middle,” Skoczyn said of the second half play.
“We told them there is no tomorrow. I think when you stress that and challenge the boys to pick up our game that we did.”
“We had more of the ball especially in midfield. We knew their midfield was going to be good and we told them they had to play better defense and they did.”
In all Evergreen drilled 20 shots on the net, Maguire made 13 saves on those. Mossing had five saves for the Vikings.
Lake (11-5-1) – Goal: Preston Snyder; Assist: Greyson Reed; Saves: Maguire 13
Evergreen (17-1-1) – Goals: Tyson Woodring 2, Cory Kanneman; Assist: Gavin Raby; Saves: Alex Mossing 5; Shots on Goal: 20
Joe can be reached at publisher@thevillagereporter.com
