Richard scores for Dragons, but Faith Christian prevails in regional semi

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

Sean Richard scored in the 65th minute, but the visiting Argos soccer team lost to host Faith Christian 2-1 in a Class 1A regional semifinal game Wednesday.

Nate Byrn and Josh Bolton scored for Faith Christian, who won their fifth straight game and improved to 15-2-1.

Faith Christian also beat Argos for the second time this season. They also won the regular season matchup 9-0 on Aug. 26.

“The agonizing part is we were in the game tonight,” Argos coach Todd VanDerWeele said in a phone interview. “Of course, you feel a lot better. There were a lot of differences. In that game, we were missing Ben Zahm, so we were trying to get 11 on the field. … There had also been the death of the volleyball player (Emily Carr) that week, so there were a lot of things going on with us.

“And Faith Christian is a very good team. But tonight, we battled. We had our chances. We had a chance to tie it at the end of regulation; it just wasn’t meant to be. We definitely put forth a great effort tonight. I was really happy with the boys the way they came to play.”

The game was scoreless at halftime. Faith Christian built a 2-0 lead in the second half.

“We started making some positional changes, and we got one back in the 65th,” VanDerWeele said. “In the last minute, we had a free kick and two corner kicks that they defended very well.”

Richard’s goal came off a set piece. Coleman Fishburn, a senior playing his first game of the season, took the initial shot that deflected off Faith Christian goalkeeper Myles Hodgson’s fingers and off the crossbar. Richard was there for the rebound on a header.

“Let me put it this way: Our documented struggles would not have been nearly the struggles that we had if Coleman would have been able to play all year,” VanDerWeele said. “He just brings a level of experience, a level of energy and a level of confidence in himself. … The kids were excited to have him out there as well.”

Argos finished 4-15. Nate Manikowski, A.J. Mills, Darrell Gibson, Caleb Poisel and Fishburn are among those graduating.