Third time’s the charm? Carroll eyes redemption in Titan Classic championship game
Bishop Carroll has seen the exact same thing two years in a row: making it to the finals of the Titan Classic boys soccer tournament only to fall short against Dodge City.
They face similar circumstances now, but this time around, the Golden Eagles hope that the third time is the charm.
“We’re going to be playing Dodge City again, who we’ve lost to the past two years in the finals,” coach Mike Skaggs said.
Skaggs said just the mere circumstances his team is under is enough to motivate them heading into the championship game.
“It’s a chip on their shoulder. They remember those loses,” Skaggs said. “It gives them an opportunity to beat a team — we’ve never beat Dodge before and we’ve never won this tournament, so those are the things that motivate those guys right now.”
Carroll senior Edgar Villasenor knows the stakes are high but is looking at the game as he would any other.
“We’re going to go into it the same we go into any game,” Villasenor said. “We got a chance to win, so that’s hopefully what we’re going to do.”
The Golden Eagles are no stranger to games with high stakes. Just to make it to the championship, Bishop Carroll had to defeat a team they have only beaten once before in school history: Kapaun Mt. Carmel.
After almost 70 minutes without a goal from either Bishop Carroll or Kapaun on Thursday, Villasenor and the Golden Eagles finally saw the field open for the shot they needed to give them the lead.
“We got the ball out wide, it was a good cross, luckily the defenders didn’t get a touch on it,” Villasenor said. “Our energy levels went up after it. We knew we just needed a goal to win. We did our best to play defense so they wouldn’t score.”
Compared to Kapaun, Carroll barely had any shots on goal. The Crusaders saw multiple opportunities to score but were shut out each time by senior goal keeper Braeden Huslig.
Huslig’s clutch saves were the fuel the Golden Eagles needed to hold off the Crusaders.
“They had a lot of shots on us today,” Huslig said. “Our defense did a well at stopping them in those key scenarios, so I was just glad to be behind them and supporting them and making those big saves for them.”
Moving forward to the championship game, Huslig said there are a couple of minor things the team must work out before facing Dodge City.
“We just have to work hard tomorrow in practice and get all of the kinks out of our system and play well,” Huslig said.
The championship game will be played on Saturday at 3 p.m. on the turf field of Wichita South.