By Denis House
For 60 minutes Tuesday night, the South Laurel Cardinals held a 2-0 lead over defending region champion Corbin.
Unfortunately, there’s 80 minutes in a high school soccer game, and the Redhounds battled back to tie this district match-up, 2-2.
“You’ve got to play 80 minutes,” South coach Harmon Hodge said. “We played well in the first half, and executed our game plan.”
South Laurel (2-1-2, 0-0-1) wanted to avoid a slow start, and they did just that, scoring in the 9th minute when Dustin Herron found Jeffrey Poston, who fired a shot at keeper Sheldon Thomas, who made the initial save, but couldn’t control the rebound, which went right back to Poston. He slotted the ball home for a 1-0 lead.
Corbin (4-3-1, 0-0-1) had a brief run from the 12th minute until the 28th minute, when James Grinter, Brian Muffly and Connor Holland all had shots stopped by keeper Tyler Huff, as South Laurel took a 1-0 lead into the half.
In the 57th minute, Poston was taken down in the penalty area, resulting in a penalty kick for the Cardinals. Poston beat Thomas to give South Laurel a 2-0 advantage.
Three minutes later, it was Corbin’s turn to be given a penalty kick, as Chad Haggard was fouled in the area. Holland stepped to the spot and beat Huff, who guessed right, but the ball sailed above his outstretched hand, cutting the lead to 2-1.
The momentum was in Corbin’s favor now, and they capitalized on that in the 77th minute as Muffly scored to tie the game 2-2.
Even though the game ended in a tie, Hodge felt like this game proved something to a lot of people who were predicting a Corbin blowout.
“I think we made a statement in the district,” Hodge said.
South Laurel traveled to North Laurel last night for another district match-up, and will host Hazard on Saturday.
“You can throw the records out when we play North,” Hodge said. “It won’t be an easy game. We’ve got to mark closer in the midfield, and pressure the ball quickly.”
