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Howland heartbreak

Tigers lose in overtime session, 2-1 to Walsh Jesuit

Tribune Chronicle / Bob Ettinger Christian Nogay of Howland shoots during the Tigers’ 2-1 overtime loss to Walsh Jesuit Saturday in a Division I sectional game at Girard’s Arrowhead Stadium.

GIRARD — The Howland boys soccer team knows success, but it also knows heartbreak having lost to Aurora on a goal in the closing seconds two years ago in a Division I sectional bracket final.

After going through the regular season unbeaten, history repeated itself as the Tigers fell, 2-1 in overtime, to Walsh Jesuit at Arrowhead Stadium on Saturday night in a Division I sectional bracket final.

“It’s pretty rough,” Howland coach Brian Stiles said. “It hurts a lot more tonight, but in a couple of weeks when we look back on it, we’ll feel better. In the tournament, anything can happen. We could play this game 10 times and get 10 different outcomes.”

Colton Dowd slipped the game-winner past Howland goalkeeper Michael Schwartz, who dove and got a hand on the ball as it trickled past and slowly rolled all the way across the face of the goal into the back left corner of the net with 5:02 left in the first sudden-death overtime period.

“Their goalie did a great job closing that angle down and I think he even got a hand on the ball and slowed it down,” Walsh Jesuit coach Scott Zackaroff said. “Fortunately, it rolled into the net and not out to the corner.”

Tribune Chronicle / Bob Ettinger Chris Tvaroch (8) of Howland races to the ball as Walsh Jesuit goalkeeper Jesse Liptak attempts to clear it in a Division I sectional tournament game at Girard’s Arrowhead Stadium on Saturday night.

“You sit and hope,” Stiles said. “Matt Seem was on the back side and I was hoping he could get there. Sometimes, you don’t have any luck. We hit the crossbar a couple of times. They hit their chances and we didn’t finish ours.”

The sixth-seeded Warriors (9-6-2) will play at top-seeded Hudson in a district semifinal Wednesday. The unbeaten season for Howland (15-1-2) came to an end in the loss.

“Before the sudden death period, we said if we were fortunate enough to get a goal, we’d celebrate,” Zackaroff said. “Howland’s had a great two years. We’ve seen them at the seeding meeting and they present a good record every year. These guys can play. I want to congratulate Howland.

“We said before the match, win, lose or draw, we wanted to give our best effort. It wasn’t our best effort for much of the match, but we stuck to it.”

“I can’t even begin to say how proud I am of this group,” Stiles said. “They’ve done everything we’ve asked, they bought into the program from Day 1. The nine seniors have a grand total of two losses (in the regular season) over their four years. They’ll be difficult to replace, but we’ve got a lot of kids in the program who can keep the tradition up a little bit.”

Chris Tvaroch of Howland secures the ball as Sam Thompson of Walsh Jesuit tries attempts to prevent him from shooting in a Division I sectional tournament game at Girard’s Arrowhead Stadium on Saturday night. Tribune Chronicle / Bob Ettinger

The Tigers took a 1-0 lead after Christian Nogay took a pass on the sideline, dribbled, then sent the ball back into the middle of the field to David Schwartz, who sent it past the Walsh Jesuit keeper with 24:03 remaining in regulation.

Dan Varnish knotted it at 1-1 off an indirect kick from Roman Gioglio with 14:28 to play, giving momentum back to the Warriors.

“It seemed like there was a momentum swing,” Stiles said. “We had quite a bit of a hard time getting momentum back the rest of the way.”

The Tigers narrowly missed a game-winning goal when a header caromed off the cross bar with 30 seconds left in regulation. They also missed scoring a goal in the final minute of the first half as a free kick off the foot of David Schwartz hit the crossbar before being punched up off of the crossbar of the field goal post by Warriors’ goalkeeper Jesse Liptak. A third scoring opportunity was missed after Seem beat a defender who fell down before shooting back across the face of the goal catching Liptak out of position with seven minutes left in the first half.

“Soccer can be cruel,” Stiles said. “Especially in a game you’re not getting a whole lot of chances. In a single-elimination tournament, there are so many different possibilities.”

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