Raptors' title dreams fall just short in PK shootout

Class A Boys Championship

Alan Hawes
The Post and Courier

Academic Magnet players Kai Donald (left), Lucas Hagerty, Travis Farnham, and Harris Goodwin react after Christ Church wins the state championship with a penalty kick shoot out during the class 1A boys championship soccer match in Columbia Saturday.

COLUMBIA — It was his last duty as a member of the Academic Magnet boys' soccer team. Senior Lucas Hagerty, hugged by teammate Travis Farnham, lifted the trophy into the brilliant sky Saturday afternoon as the Raptor faithful applauded the team for its valiant effort. But unfortunately for the Raptors, it was the state runner-up trophy.

Academic Magnet and Christ Church played to a 0-0 draw at the University of South Carolina's Stone Stadium. A champion couldn't be determined after 80 minutes of regulation, 20 minutes of overtime and 10 minutes of sudden death overtime. The Cavaliers prevailed for the victory, outscoring the Raptors 3-1 in penalty kicks.

Christ Church gained its eighth straight Class A state championship and pushed its record to 15-6. Academic Magnet, which lost 1-0 to the Cavaliers in the 2005 championship match, finished with a 16-3 record.

The Raptors beat Christ Church in the regular season, but then so did Southside Christian, which beat the Cavaliers twice.

The Cavaliers beat Southside in the Upper State championship and got revenge and the title against Academic Magnet on Saturday.

'To get this far, and have something like this happen, it's disappointing,' Academic Magnet coach Troy Bennage said. 'We had our opportunities during the course of the game. We could have had a couple of goals, but it wasn't our day.'

In the PK shootout, the Cavaliers' Dominik Reindl scored to make it 1-0 after one rotation.

The Raptors' Alex Rieflin was next up, and drilled the ball past keeper Christopher Woody. But the official had called time because a ball boy was directly behind the net. Rieflin missed his next chance and that seemed to zap all of the Raptors' remaining energy.

'It's very difficult to hit two in a row during penalty kicks,' Christ Church coach David Wilcox said.

Bobby James made it 2-0 after the third rotation, and the Raptors finally scored on Hagerty's goal, the Raptors' fourth shot in the shootout.

Michael Brearley made it 3-1 with his goal to give the Cavaliers the victory.

'We tend to fare well in penalty kick situations and in this particular one, we were clearly more fit than them, so we were in better shape to take the penalty kicks,' Wilcox said. 'They were slow and sore in the end. I feel we were the more-fit team and that's why we prevailed.

Woody, the keeper, was in a similar situation earlier in the season against Spartanburg when he successfully defended the first three shots of the PK shootout.

Bennage isn't a big fan of deciding state championships by penalty-kick shootouts.

'But that's the way they do it,' he said. 'We have to play by the rules. Softball goes 20 innings (if needed). Baseball goes 20 innings (if needed). Why not keep playing for a golden goal? Play until someone scores.'