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Tindi hurt as Zebras finish 8-8-1
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
BUNKER HILL — Jayden Sichone scored on a penalty kick with 26:36 left to give the Peru boys soccer team a 1-0 win over Rochester in a Class 2A, Sectional 22 quarterfinal at Maconaquah Monday.
Peru beat the Zebras for the second time this season and improved to 7-4-1. They will play Wabash, who received a bye, in the semifinals at 5 p.m. Wednesday.
Rochester finished 8-8-1.
Peru also beat Rochester 2-1 in penalty kicks on Sept. 16 at the Brent Blacketor Memorial Sports Complex in their regular season meeting.
“We played fairly even with them,” Rochester coach Eric Backus said. “The kids showed up, brought the energy and played pretty well. I was a little upset because they had a hand ball in the box, and he never called it, and he was right in front of it. But you can’t blame refs for how an outcome comes.”
Peru was awarded their penalty kick after Rochester goalkeeper Aiden Harrington punched away a Peru corner kick and it hit teammate Braden Harrington in the arm while Braden Harrington was standing inside the 18-yard box.
Sichone then crossed over with his feet and beat Aiden Harrington to his right for the goal.
“So Aiden punched it out, and when he punched it, it hit his brother’s arm,” Rochester coach Eric Backus said. “So it was just like a reaction. He just tried to pull his arm, and what he did was extend it away from. I wasn’t upset. We played well. Like I told the kids, I said we had three or four opportunities where if we were this far away with the pass, we were one-on-one with the (goalkeeper). You know what I mean? We had some really good looks. We just didn’t get the luck tonight.”
Carlos Plascencia had both Rochester shots on goal – one in each half.
Plascencia had a direct kick from the left side of the goal just in front of his own bench from 30 yards out, but Peru goalkeeper William Rodriguez handled it with just over 24 minutes left.
This came shortly after Rochester senior midfielder Rabuor Tindi left the game with a right leg injury with 24:32 left.
Peru’s Tobi Odubena received a yellow card for the tackle that felled Tindi.
“So he was playing, and his shin guard slid over, and the kid hit him with the cleats right down the shin,” Backus said. “So he can’t even hardly walk on it. So I’m hoping it’s not broken, but he’s going to have a pretty good lump there for the most part.”
Rochester had two corner kicks in the final 14 minutes, but neither led to a shot on goal.
The loss ended the prep soccer careers for Tindi, Adarius Ranstead, Wyatt Davis, Adrian Ochoa, Braydn Furnivall, Braden Harrington, Aiden Harrington, Junior Criollo, Tyler Reese and Dakota Burden.
Rochester improved from four wins two years ago to five wins last year to eight this year. Of the 34 goals the team scored for the season, seniors had 21 of them.
“I’m super proud of these seniors,” Backus said. “You couldn’t ask for a better group of seniors. I told them all I had so much fun coaching this year. I had a blast coaching these kids because they just come and put the work in and did everything we asked of them. And had my best season so far.”
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