Photo Courtesy of Hillcrest Academy Yearbook

The Hillcrest Academy Raven soccer team saw their comeback come up short Friday night at Roth Field in Wayland in the semifinal round of the Southeast Iowa Superconference Tournament, falling to Burlington Notre Dame 4-3 in PKs. Defenses controlled the first 30 minutes, but the Nikes heated up before half, netting a pair of goals in the final 10 minutes, one each from Caeden Ott and Tatum Warner to take a 2-0 lead into the break. With halftime adjustments, Hillcrest climbed back into the contest. Less than five minutes out of intermission, Seth Ours found the back of the net from 30 yards out to get the Ravens on the board and cut the lead in half. Just 15 minutes later, Hillcrest equalized when Kale Bailey connected with Mason Swartzendruber who drove a shot to the back of the net. Things stayed deadlocked into a penalty kick shoot out. After the first five players had taken aim, things were still even at three, with Micah Gerber, Isaac Beachy and Swartzendruber all beating the Notre Dame keeper, but the Nikes would score the sixth kick while the Ravens came up empty, giving Notre Dame the victory. After the contest, Raven head coach Marcus Miller spoke with KCII Sports about the important stretch at the end of the first half that saw the Nikes grab the lead, and what his team can take from the match.

Miller said, “We gave up those two goals in a two-minute period of time in the last five minutes of the first half. I don’t know if guys were just losing focus, or if they were tired, but we were letting them beat us to balls. Halftime was a chance to regroup and talk about things. Seth (Ours) had a beautiful goal from distance. Kale Bailey had a nice cross into the box and Mason Swartz (Swartzendruber) did a nice job finishing it. I was really proud of how they came back. Andrew (Kauffman) stayed in there in the PK shoot out and played it really well. We really need to work on our passing, especially our short passing game to make things go.”

Hillcrest out shot Notre Dame 19-12 in total, including 10-9 in shots on goal and had six corner kicks to the Nike’s three. The Ravens got a combined eight saves from Kyle Neuschwander and Andrew Kauffman in goal. With the loss, Hillcrest finishes the regular season at 10-3 and will open the playoffs Monday at home.