Photo by Nick King
Hickman’s Logan Forsythe slides under Rock Bridge’s Rhys McCracken as Forsythe’s teammate James Moesel trails in the second half last night. Rock Bridge’s 2-1 win put the Bruins (6-5) above .500 for the first time this season. Hickman fell to 4-4-1.
Hickman’s Logan Forsythe slides under Rock Bridge’s Rhys McCracken as Forsythe’s teammate James Moesel trails in the second half last night. Rock Bridge’s 2-1 win put the Bruins (6-5) above .500 for the first time this season. Hickman fell to 4-4-1.
By David Briggs
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Rock Bridge’s boys soccer team is not short on experience. The Bruins start eight seniors while another four provide depth to a squad expected to contend for the Class 3 District 9 title.
Photo by Nick King
Rock Bridge goalie Brady Wulff gives the bench a thumbs-up after blocking a Hickman penalty shot in the second half. The save came moments after Rock Bridge took the lead in the 73rd minute. Rock Bridge Coach Kyle Austin called it the season’s “signature save.”
Rock Bridge goalie Brady Wulff gives the bench a thumbs-up after blocking a Hickman penalty shot in the second half. The save came moments after Rock Bridge took the lead in the 73rd minute. Rock Bridge Coach Kyle Austin called it the season’s “signature save.”
Photo by Nick King
Rock Bridge’s Danny Baird, center, celebrates his game-winning goal with teammate Rhys Mc- Cracken in the Bruins’ 2-1 victory. The 73rd-minute goal was the first of junior Baird’s varsity career.
BOYS SOCCER AT SELLS FIELD
Last night
Rock Bridge 2, Hickman 1
Just don’t forget about the underclassmen.
Last night, it was a pair of varsity greenhorns delivering the biggest plays in Rock Bridge’s 2-1 victory over Hickman at Sells Field.
Junior Danny Baird, a lifelong midfielder turned defender this season, scored his first career goal to put the Bruins ahead in the 73rd minute before junior goalie Brady Wulff saved the game moments later. After a foul high in the box set up a Kewpies penalty kick, the first-year goalie dove left and made what Coach Kyle Austin called the season’s “signature save.”
Perfect timing, too. The clutch displays came not only in the crosstown clash but helped push the Bruins (6-5) above .500 for the first time this season.
“Just a great win,” Wulff said. “It’s a big district game, so it gets us off to a good start.”
The night ultimately pivoted on that single one-minute sequence in the final minutes.
As the 73rd minute came, neither side had wrested away any lasting advantage.
Senior Josh Litofsky keyed a strong Rock Bridge start — the Bruins had five of their 12 shots in the opening 10 minutes — with a score off a corner kick in the fourth minute. But the pace had long been tempered by the time Hickman’s Colin Janicek answered early in the second half.
The game winning play, too, began innocuously enough with a throw in on a set Rock Bridge often practiced but rarely mastered.
“Maybe one in 100 times it works perfectly,” Austin said.
Senior Travis Salvo launched the ball from near the right corner to forward Josh Hulen atop the box opposite the near post. Normally, the ball is cleared away in traffic. But this time, Hulen was able to post up and bump a pass to Baird a few yards in front of the goal.
Baird took the bouncing ball from the air, aimed straight and hoped he’d kept it low enough.
He did … barely. The ball ricocheted down and past the goal line.
Rock Bridge’s bench erupted while Baird sprinted in joy to the far 18-yard box.
“It was probably the most pumped I’ve ever been in my life,” said Baird, who was moved to Rock Bridge’s defense before his first full varsity year. “Probably the biggest goal I’ve ever scored.”
“To step up and have a goal like that against your district rival and to have that be your first goal on varsity?” Austin said. “I can’t even imagine what’s going through his head.”
Yet the celebration lasted less than a minute as a foul sent junior midfielder Matt Baker in for a penalty kick.
On the sideline, Austin waved frantically trying to get Wulff’s attention. He almost always left decisions on penalty kicks up to his goalies, and said he would feel particularly comfortable doing so with Wulff.
“He’s just a great goalkeeper,” Austin said. “He’s got great natural instincts and great reaction time.”
But Austin remembered Baker had gone to the right during Hickman’s shootout win over Rock Bridge last season. The Bruins’ second-year coach had a feeling he would do so again.
“I was yelling frantically trying to get his attention,” Austin said. “I’m waving trying to point which direction he’s going. To his credit, he didn’t tip it if he saw me.”
“I saw him,” Wulff said.
The scouting report held true. Baker lined the ball to the low right corner, where the diving Wulff lay in wait. The junior’s third tough save of the night secured Rock Bridge’s first victory over Hickman since October 2007.
Hickman, meanwhile, fell to 4-4-1. Coach Larry Thornburg said he was proud of his team’s effort.
“We play possession soccer and we’ve been working on that all year,” Thornburg said. “This was the best game we’ve had yet. Rock Bridge has a heck of a team of athletes and it’s extremely hard to possess the ball on guys that are quick and strong, so I was really happy with the way my guys possessed the ball.”
Reach David Briggs at dbriggs@columbiatribune.com.
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